CargoLifter has raised more than $100 million from its initial public offering (IPO) on the Frankfurt stock exchange, putting the German airship manufacturing start-up on course to fly its prototype 260m-long CL 160 "flying crane" by 2002.
Series production of the helium-filled semi-rigid keel airship, capable of carrying a 160-tonne payload over 10,000km (5,400nm), will begin in 2004.
As well as developing and constructing the airships, CargoLifter plans to operate and market them as a unique platform for transporting heavy, outsized loads that cannot easily be moved using conventional modes of transport.
Cargolifter says the CL 160 - able to deliver its payload direct to the required location - makes "almost no use of existing infrastructure". Chairman Dr Carl von Gablenz says the firm aims "to use this airship as the basis for a new logistics system based on lighter-than-air technology."
A study by the Bremen-based Institute for Shipping, Trade and Logistics forecasts transport volume demand of 3 million tonnes a year, representing a potential requirement of 200 such ships.
CargoLifter plans to build four CL 160s annually from 2004. The German company is consulting with 22 potential "lead" customers for its lift services, including ABB, Hochtief, Linde, Mitsui and Siemens. CargoLifter flew a one-eighth-scale experimental airship for the first time in October last year.
Source: Flight International