By the time the first blimp was retired in 1931, it had made 4,700 flights carrying over 5,300 people. Since then, many Goodyear blimps have come and gone as technology progressed.

Hydrogen-filled cargo airships could do for the Northern economy what the railways did for Western Canada 125 years ago. In the 21st century, myths and misrepresentations should not go unchallenged.

Airships are often associated with the Hindenberg crash of the 1930s, and their development was overtaken by that of the airplane, reducing their use in recent years mostly to props in ad campaigns.

Funding for an airship renaissance is already happening. Last year, the government of Quebec invested $55-million in the French airship company Flying Whales, which has set up a Quebec subsidiary.

The airship may be one solution.” Hybrid Air Vehicles and Discovery Air Innovations are working together to design the airship for the North and get it through the certification process.

It is a much larger airship. It's a semi-rigid dirigible," Goodyear's Priscilla Tasker said of the new fleet of non-blimps replacing the company's three aging U.S. airships.

Cargo carrying airships- blimps, dirigibles, or hybrids, have several advantages over helicopters and fixed wing planes. This includes cargo capacity, cost, and small landing areas.

Feb 16, 2017 | 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Add to Calendar 16-02-2017 19:00 16-02-2017 21:00 America/Toronto Back to the Future, Airships: Then and Now Part of the Alberta Aviation Museum lecture series ...

Airships require specialized hangars, massive clearings for mooring, and proximity to their bases. LTA’s hangar in California, for example, spans seven acres and is so tall that fog can form inside.