Wpg Free Press: Is it time for airships in Manitoba?

As the Winnipeg Free Press reports:

Perhaps it’s time to float the idea of airships.

It’s long been a compelling dream to imagine huge balloons gliding silently over Manitoba’s northern bush and muskeg, carrying tonnes of freight to isolated communities and worksites, using only one-quarter the fuel of airplanes, needing only an open field to land.

The dream has been kept aloft in Manitoba by Barry Prentice, a professor of supply management at the University of Manitoba, who invested five years and his own money in an airship prototype called the Sky Whale. Tragically, a powerful storm last July destroyed his prototype and its airship hangar.

It’s to be hoped Mr. Prentice will find the wherewithal, and outside funding, to continue to pursue his passion because, frankly, no one is offering better ideas, and northern transportation is woefully inadequate.

Read the full story here.