Source: Space News – spacenews.com
By Jeff Foust
World View Enterprises, the Arizona company developing high-altitude balloons for research and eventually tourism, plans to conduct a test flight of a weather radar on one of its balloons later this year.
Source: Air & Space Magazine – airspacemag.com
By Mark Betancourt
The computer scientist who pulled off a world-record skydive is still wondering: Could it be done from orbit?
Source: Albuquerque Journal – abqjournal.com
By Rick Nathanson
Between the years 1550 and 1900, more than 500 people were lost or killed trying to get to the North Pole, mostly by sailing ships or pulled on sledges by dogs or Siberian ponies.
But in 1897, three fearless and forward-thinking adventurers from Sweden, attempting to become the first to successfully cross that Arctic holy grail, set off on an expedition via the never-before-tried conveyance of a gas balloon.
Source: Inverse – inverse.com
By Jack Crosbie
Way back in April, Amazon quietly received a patent for “aerial fulfillment centers” — massive blimp warehouses that would float 45,000 feet in the sky and deliver products with precision-guided UAVs. In other words, in the future, you could order something online and have it literally fall out of the sky minutes later.
Source: Hybrid Air Vehicles – hybridairvehicles.com
Hybrid Air Vehicles is pleased to announce the structural damage sustained by Airlander’s heavy landing this summer has now been repaired, and over the Christmas period the new cockpit will be painted prior to the windscreens being fitted. The early part of 2017 will consist of a series of rigorous tests before Airlander continues its Flight Test Program.
Source: Hybrid Air Vehicles – hybridairvehicles.com