By Julie Fishman
Staff Writer

December 31, 2002

Airship Management Services, which is working to develop and manufacture a 30-passenger luxury airship, received Federal Aviation Administration approval for a new engine that could propel the Greenwich company's plans one step closer to completion.

The company operates and leases some of the world's largest airships. It announced last week that the FAA approved the use of a Textron Lycoming engine for its existing Skyship 600 airship fleet.

Best known for operating the FujiFilm blimp, Airship Management Services has been trying to gain FAA approval to use a new engine for the past three years, said company President George Spyrou.

The American-made 300 horsepower Lycoming engine is the most commonly used in light aircraft engine. It will replace the German-made Porsche 255 horsepower car engine, which has powered the Skyship 600 series since its introduction in 1985, Spyrou said.

The new propulsion system enhances the aircraft's capability for hovering, facilitates faster takeoffs and boosts overall in-flight maneuverability. But most importantly, Spyrou said, the use of the larger engine is essential for development of the SkyCruiser, a luxury cruising blimp the company is designing for aerial touring.

The 30-passenger SkyCruiser will be about 220 feet long with the passenger-carrying gondola about 55 feet long. The SkyCruiser will ascend to about 1,500 feet and travel at about 35 miles per hour, he said.

"There wasn't anything wrong with the previous engine, but it's more than a decade old, so it's not as easy to work on," said Eric Brothers, editor of Buoyant Flight, the newsletter of The Lighter-Than-Air-Society in Akron, Ohio, home of the Goodyear Blimp.

Because Lycoming is a common engine, there are more parts available and it is easier to maintain, he said.

Airship Management has a fleet of four Skyship 600 airships and has retrofitted one of them with the new engine, Spyrou said.

"It's a simple engine the FAA is very comfortable with," he said.

The big issue for the FAA was that the new engine had to be mounted on the outside of the blimp's gondola, rather than inside, to give it hover capability, Spyrou said.

"That's a major change to the air frame," Brothers said.

Now that Airship Management has FAA approval to use the retrofitted airship, it will not be considered experimental, and the company can operate the airship whenever they want, he said.

FAA approval also paves the way for Airship Management to expand its fleet with the newly designed SkyCruiser, Brothers said.

"It's a stepping stone towards the propulsion system for the bigger ship," Spyrou said. "It's one of the pieces of the puzzle we need to get the FAA and ourselves comfortable with the bigger ship."

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