Solar-powered airship will circle the world non-stop without fuel

Solar Airship One will make the world’s first zero-carbon, non-stop airship trip around the globe. Solar Airship One View gallery – 3 images
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By Loz Blain
2023 Sep 28

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Zero-emissions long-distance aviation is absolutely possible… Provided you’re not in a hurry. Solar Airship One will take 20 days to fly all the way around the equator, some 40,000 km (~25,000 miles), in a single zero-emissions hop.

The 151-m (495-ft)-long airship will have its entire upper surface covered in solar film – some 4,800 square meters (51,700 sq ft) of it, or about nine-tenths of an NFL football field for those of you who prefer the standard units.

By day, the solar panels will run the airship’s electric propulsion systems, while also banking up extra power for the overnight haul by electrolyzing water into hydrogen. By night, the hydrogen will run through a fuel cell, providing the juice to keep going.

It’ll be piloted by a team of three: former French astronaut and Air Force pilot Michel Tognini, paraplegic plane-crash survivor and aerobatic pilot Dorine Bourneton, and serial adventurer and “inspioneer” Bertrand Piccard, who made the first successful non-stop balloon circumnavigation in 1999, and also piloted the Solar Impulse 2 on the first round-the-world solar flight over 16 and a half months in 2015-16.

Busting out the ol’ calculator, it seems the Euro Airship team is expecting an average speed of a little over 83 km/h (52 mph) – so yes, less than a tenth the speed of the average fossil-burning airliner. But airships do have some key advantages – you can stop and start at more or less any point you like without needing a runway, for example.

Indeed, while projects like the AirYacht and the bootylicious Airlander aim to resurrect the airship as a form of luxury passenger travel, others believe that hydrogen-filled airships are the future of zero-emissions cargo movement, carrying 8-10 times the payload of a cargo plane, at a quarter of the price, and up to 10 times the speed of a cargo ship.

The energy the Solar Airship One will use is renewable, but one key component is not. Its rigid structure is filled with 15 separate envelopes containing a combined 50,000 cubic meters (1.77 million cubic feet) of helium. Fun fact: helium is the only element on Earth that’s completely non-replaceable, since when it escapes into the air, it rises right up out of the atmosphere and ejects itself into space.

The Euro Airship team is gearing up to undertake its zero-carbon circumnavigation in 2026, staying close to the equator and at an altitude around 6,000 m (19,700 ft).

SOLAR AIRSHIP ONE – TEASER FILM

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Source: Orange/Euro Airship View gallery – 3 images
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Tags

Aircraft Airships Helium Electric Aircraft
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Loz Blain

Loz has been one of our most versatile contributors since 2007, and has since proven himself as a photographer, videographer, presenter, producer and podcast engineer, as well as a senior features writer. Joining the team as a motorcycle specialist, he’s covered just about everything for New Atlas, concentrating lately on eVTOLs, hydrogen, energy, aviation, audiovisual, weird stuff and things that go fast.
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6 comments

paul314 – 2023 Sep 28 – 06:10 AM

I’d love to see this style of travel coming back. About 3 days across the Atlantic or across the US, but with the potential of getting things done along the way and arriving rested rather than exhausted. The first few generations of new airships will likely mostly be for the rich or for freight (imagine being able to let containers down on store or factory roofs, or make short-range drone deliveries). Maybe the freight version will be like the tramp steamers of old, carrying just a few passengers who care more about the journey than the bean-counting efficiency of arrival.

Larry Broser – 2023 Sep 28 – 06:29 PM

How will the airship change its altitude?

Eggbones – 2023 Sep 28 – 07:30 PM

Creative thinking is how humanity progresses. It doesn’t matter whether this is the final answer – it’s still a valuable step.

Randy4USA – 2023 Sep 29 – 10:10 AM

I’m 68, and the return of the airship and flying cars for everyone, have both been just around the corner, since I was a child.

Douglas Rogers – 2023 Sep 29 – 10:52 AM

Heliulm is the waste product of nuclear fusion!

Pupp1 – 2023 Sep 29 – 03:59 PM

Regarding using hydrogen as a battery. The process of electrolysis is not known for being efficient. That is why it is not used to store intermittent energy at grid scale (plus the limited longevity of fuel cells). Though, there may eventually be technology advancements that make it beyond just hitting the headlines.
But, perhaps it is not just an act of showmanship to use it for this blimp. Even if the water has weight, the hydrogen phase carries no weight penalty. Though, it is probably not the ideal process. The most water will be present in the early morning, when the airship is the coldest, so it can’t benefit from the buoyancy cause by the sun heating it. Still, it may be a better choice than Lithium-Ion batteries.
Concerning the future of airships; history has shown that they are not viable for most applications. They are too vulnerable to wind, and get destroyed with annoying regularity.
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