Green Options

Call me crazy, but I think zeppelins have gotten a bad rap. Sure, the Hindenburg went up in flames rather spectacularly, and airplanes made slow-moving dirigibles all but obsolete after WWII. But I still love me some giant floating gas bags.

So this announcement that a team of French engineering and tech students have come up with solar-powered blimp that uses flexible solar cells gets me all giddy. Called Project Sol’R, the team hopes to cross the English Channel using their blimp, simply to prove that it can be done.

The Pentagon will spend $400 million to develop solar-charged, hydrogen fuel cell blimp which will reach an altitude of 65,000 feet and remain airborne for 10 years.