Referenced by its developer as a 'personal blimp'. Skyacht Aircraft Inc has created a lightweight, sturdy, self-supporting (no fans required) airship envelope. The Personal Blimp hull structure has three main components: 1) the fabric envelope, 2) a set of flexible ribs embedded within the fabric, and 3) a tensioning line that runs along the central axis of the hull. The goal of this work has been to create an aircraft capable of quiet, steerable, sustained, and affordable flight: first flight on October 27, 2006. The Personal Blimp uses hot air (rather than Helium) for lift and virtually silent electric motors for propulsion and is maneuverabled in nearly perfect quiet. Note: Initial flight tests used a conventional gas-powered motor. Firm indicates that electric motors 'will be added'. Similarly, initial flight tests were made with conventional -- i.e. loud -- hot air balloon burners. Quiet burners would be added later.The Personal Blimp can fly in ways that no other aircraft can match. For instance, no other aircraft can accomplish the seemingly straightforward task of picking off the top-most leaf from a particular tree. Helicopter downblast tosses the leaves wildly; Helium airships can't hover; Previously built hot air airship and hot air balloons are essentially impossible to steer precisely at hovering airspeeds. In contrast, the Personal Blimp flies "low, slow, and smooth." This enables one to accomplish tasks as simple as the above-mentioned tree-top leaf-picking or as complex as carrying equipment with far greater sensitivity and spatial resolution. Other areas of application for the Personal Blimp's unique abilities include forest canopy research, wetlands survey/management, eco-tourism, and aerial photography and film-making. When not in use, Personal Blimp can be deflated and folded for storage - much like a hot air balloon. The combination of ready buoyancy control and rapid deflation eliminates not only costly hangars but also the large ground crews typically required for helium airships. Traditonal hot air airships consist only of fabric with no rigid structural members: "non-rigids" relying solely upon internal air pressurization to retain their shape. Lack of structural rigidity leads to both low airspeed and limited steering. In contrast to completely non-rigid envelope designs, the Personal Blimp has a rigid, but folding, skeleton (much like an umbrella) to allow the envelope to retain its shape without requiring internal air pressurization. The Personal Blimp's rigid but foldable structure also provides hardpoints at strategic locations for mounting systems such as the engine and propeller enabling Personal Blimp to use vectored thrust for steering - providing far greater maneuverability, particularly for hovering,
