But blimps?

Five years ago, Rist's son asked him to make one, so he sat down and planned his first airship.

He knew an interior frame would help provide structural stability for the gas bag, but it also added weight.

Rist's model couldn't contain enough helium to leave his back yard in the Portage County community of Mantua.

"It just sat there, so I said, 'Why don't we put some wings on it?' ''

Rist doesn't consider his craft a blimp. He said it is more like an airplane.

The idea proved to be an epiphany for Rist, who persuaded investors to form a company to build a winged helium-filled airship capable of lifting 10 times as much cargo as the largest aircraft and ferry it across the Atlantic Ocean in little more than a day.

Recently, a 4 1/2 -foot scale model, built by graduate students Sean Orchuk and Clifford Whitfield, was tested in the Ohio State University wind tunnel at Don Scott Field. The next step is to complete a 120-foot, two-person craft this autumn.

The wind tunnel test provided data close to what computer simulations have indicated about planned 700- and 1,000-foot versions that can hum along at 120 mph at 10,000 feet.

"We have gone as far as anyone with the tests. We're starting to build the aircraft,'' Rist said.

A California aviation science firm handled the detailed design. Now Rist's company, Ohio Airships, is looking for development money from the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency.

At least seven companies are interested in competing for the agency's funds from a program aimed at the "fort-to-foxhole'' movement of troops and equipment.

Hundreds of flights are needed to airlift an Army division. Even then, the heaviest equipment must go by ship.

In the 1930s, lighter-than-air ships were the future of flight.

Then the German airship Hindenburg was destroyed in a fiery crash in 1937 in New Jersey. Aviation turned away from airships and toward huge aircraft.

Since then, the only blimps people see are those hovering above arenas and golf courses during sporting events.

There are two major differences between the new and old blimps. The new use inert helium rather than highly flammable hydrogen. And, the new ones are not lighter than air, which makes them easier to control.

That and the promise of funding make large helium cargo airships the transportation method of the future, said Lou Foltzer, president of a Nevada company designing its own craft.

Foltzer, of Hybrid Aircraft Consultants, said his airship is shaped like a wing and features a vertical-lift hover engine to help get it into the air.

"There's a market for shipments that don't have to be there tomorrow, but in the next two to three days at costs comparable to a ship,'' he said.

Ohio Airships' Rist said wings will get his craft moving down a runway.

"It will work,'' said OSU aeronautical engineer Gerald Gregorek.

The wings and helium combine to create lift. The airship's lightweight carbon-fiber structure, similar to that in sailboat masts and rudders, is key.

He expects the company's two-seater to be in the air by next year.

From there, it's a fairly straightforward job of scaling up the design.

Rist sees smaller versions for military surveillance, firefighting and law enforcement.

mlafferty@dispatch.com

Photo
DORAL CHENOWETH III | DISPATCH
Ohio State University graduate students Cliff Whitfield, left, and Sean Orchuk help test a model of the blimp in a university wind tunnel.