On Saturday, August 22, 2009, we were going through routine flight tests in front of Raymond’s house when an updraft carried it and it escaped into the atmosphere. After following it for an hour and a half, we lost sight of it in the Mission Hills area, and we predict that it has landed in the local hills by I-680.
Efforts to retrieve the airship have not yet succeeded, but we are in contact with local aviation authorities, residents, and the media.
On Monday, August 24, we went out to the area we believe the blimp was lost. We handed out several flyers, contacted residents, and scouted several areas we didn’t get to on Saturday. No luck finding it. We plan on another day hike on Thursday, August 27.
Although we regret the loss of our hybrid airship, we see this as an opportunity to start anew and improve upon our original prototype. We have a spare carbon-fiber frame and blimp envelopes, and are planning to add more features to the design, including possible use of SunSPOTs as a computer controlled system with gyroscope capabilities and more. We also plan to integrate reversible ESCs, stabilization improvements, and a fail-safe mechanism.
0 Responses to “Hybrid Airship at Large”