A company by the name of Aeros has envisioned a new concept in flying called the Aeroscraft. It’s sort of a mix of an airplane, blimp, and helicopter all in one, but looks more like a blimp:

The Aerocraft is about the size of two football fields, and can fly by a mixture of helium and 6 turbofan engines. The aft-mounted propellers are electric powered in order to reduce the amount of noise. It can travel at close to 200mph, and goes about 8,000 ft up.

How Will It Be Used?

This is the most important about why the Aeroscraft is so innovative. Since the craft is so large, it can fit quite a bit of stuff in it. For the consumer market you can imagine a luxury hotel in the air. Imagine getting picked up in Los Angeles, going on the Aeroscraft where you can freely walk around, eat dinner at a fancy restaurant, go dancing, see the view from only 8,000ft, going to bed in your luxury room, and waking up in New York City. For the industrial market the Aeroscraft can carry a ton of cargo, but more importantly it has the capability of taking off and landing anywhere. The craft takes off and lands straight up and down like a helicopter, imagine a new Wal Mart opening up, and its entire inventory being delivered in one shot. For the military market the Aeroscraft can carry a ton of vehicles like tanks for example. As you can see, there is great opportunity here, and I’m excited to see this come out.

A scaled-down prototype is supposed to be released next year, with a production version to be seen as early as 2010. Here’s a video I found on YouTube you may enjoy: