The Test flight

Before we engage several student teams from across the world and ask them to invest valuable time and funds in the race, it is prudent to arrange a test flight. The test flight will use an airship of similar size and design as the students airships and also provide experience so that that a regulatory framework can be put in place. The test flight, if successful, will of course also be setting records.

Aero Drum Ltd (www.rc-zeppelin.com), founded 1999, is specialized in LTA design and production. The focus is on RC Blimps and Aerostats. They produce RC Blimps from 2 to 12 m (or custom) and Aerostats for target payload. The list of clients and partners in the last 20 years is extensive. Just to name few: Airbus, Onera-Aerospace, Aerospace USA, European Union, Skylifter, National Geographic, Facebook, The Ocean Cleanup and a long list of Universities like Cornell, Murdoch, Guelph, HSR, Kean, Edinburgh, Ohio, Trento…. We have exported Blimps and Aerostats to more than 80 countries on all continents.

Our goal is to design Blimps and Aerostats without compromises using best possible techniques, materials and electronics. Out of all our achievements we are especially proud of our research work on new Blimp designs combined with newest electronics components (www.uniblimp.com).

The logical result of all our work and devotion is the design, for WSAR, of the Solar Blimp that is set to cross the Atlantic this year.