Flying Whales provides solution for difficult cargo transport

Stella Yu Zhou, market manager at Flying Whales, tells Tank Storage Magazine’s Cyann Fielding about the company’s exciting new project.

Flying Whales may sound like some sort of imaginary book character, but the story behind the company’s name is quite ingenious. Flying Whales refers to airships that the company created to tackle the issue of remote area accessibility. Flying Whales describes their mission ‘to unlock remote areas, with a very low environmental footprint.’ ‘At the end of the day, there is always an impact on the environment. We want to reduce this as much as possible,’ says Zhou. Flying Whales aims to reduce environmental damage in the cargo sector.

Established in 2012, Flying Whales is a response to the French government’s discussion around logging industries and the difficulty of reaching areas in the mountains. In many areas where logging takes place, additional trees are cut down to make tracks. Flying Whales’ goal was to create a method that does not require trees to be felled.

‘Between 2012 and 2013 we commenced research and feasibility studies to see if this need was physical,’ says Zhou. Following this research, the programme was released in 2017 and has incorporated different players from the private sector who are interested in the programme.

Flying Whales has also gained the support of the Quebec government, which will be providing financial support to help with the final productions. The French government is also backing the programme, alongside a bunch of industrial actors, like Air Liquide. Air Liquide is also providing the helium to be used in the ‘whale’ airship.

Flying Whales is also splitting into two entities: Flying Whales Industries and Flying Whales Services. ‘We will either provide recurring or exceptional service through Flying Whales Services, or we sell the aircraft and train the people to operate the aircraft through the ‘Industries’ branch of the business. Developing in a consortium of around forty partners and suppliers, who will all help us to develop and provide different parts of the machine,’ continues Zhou.

The first user of the first airship will be the Office National des Forets (the National Forests Office), which is also a shareholder of Flying Whales. The ONF is a Government of France agency, that manages the state forests, biological reserves, and city forests in France.

The innovative airship will be 200m-long, twice the size of an Airbus 380, with a diameter of 50m. In the first application, Flying Whales anticipates it will go above the forest and load logs directly from the ground, whilst floating. It could also help in times of port congestion as the airship load and unload containers directly onto vessels.

The Flying Whales airship method is a more efficient way to transport large items. For example, an airship can transport three wind turbine blades in one rotation. The existing, conventional, transportation method sees blades brought in pieces, one by one, via blade lifters. This requires more resources, fuel, manpower, manual hours, and so on than Flying Whales’ solution.

Another area that Flying Whales is working on is bringing aid to remote areas in times of natural disaster. For example, it can be difficult to get humanitarian aid to small island nations due to a lack of landing space. However, a Flying Whales airship can carry fresh produce, medical equipment, medications, and supplies and deliver them from a hovering state – so there’s no need for landing space. ‘We are working with different NGOs to develop a solution together,’ says Zhou.

Whilst the ship is yet to receive its commercial name, it is currently referred to as the LCA60T: ‘Large Capacity Airship 60 Tonnes.’ Zhou says: ‘As the name suggests, the airship will be able to hold up to 60 tonnes of cargo. This is the only constraint, as we are not constrained by the size of the cargo. The cargo bay would be 96m long, 8m wide, and 7m high. Most cargo fits easily into the bay for the cargo hold. For things that are longer than 96m, such as a wind turbine blade, they can go under the ship and be carried to the destination this way.’

‘The airship never needs ground space to land as it is always floating in the air. This will be at 50m-100m above the ground, and cargo will be attached and loaded directly into the cargo bay,’ explains Zhou.

Despite its blimp-like appearance, the structure of the airship is rigid. This allows for cargo to be securely transported to its destination. It will also be filled with helium – an inert gas with very little risk of explosion.

Typically, difficult, and dangerous products to transport are not an issue for Flying Whales. Electrical pylons, usually of high voltage, have previously been carried by helicopters. Each pylon weighs between 10 and 20 tonnes. However, helicopters can only carry around 5-10 tonnes of cargo, meaning loads must be broken apart for ease of transport. Flying Whales’ solution eradicates this and therefore results in cost and time savings, additional security and safety for manual workers, and a better solution for restricting environmental impacts.

Post-2022, Flying Whales will work towards producing their first airship, running ground and flight tests, and aim to gain certification and launch operations in 2026.