NYBLIMP.COM FAQ

In spite of the range of sizes and shapes, they are all similar in many ways.

• All the blimps are filled with helium. The gas is non-flammable and is so stable that the US Navy even used it for fire extinguishing on their ships and is completely non-toxic.

• The envelope (blimp-speak for the gasbag) is made of a proprietary nylon/polyethylene material. It is light, transparent (mostly), tear-resistant and holds helium amazingly well. As with Mylar and other materials, a slight amount of helium leaks out each day and needs to be topped off. Unlike Mylar, it will not allow room air in, which means that itan be kept inflated indefinitely.

• The largest motors used are about the size of a kidney bean. Most use direct drive 3 inch diameter propellers, but a few are geared 4:1. The small motors on the Micro-Blimp are as small as a corn nibblet.

• Each cubic foot of helium gas lifts 1 ounce, so that 16 cubic feet of helium will lift a 1 pound weight (including the weight of the bag itself). The actual amount of lift varies slightly from day to day depending on temperature and other factors. To keep things simple, each blimp carries some ballast on board, which an be added to, or removed from to make it neutrally buoyant; meaning that it stays wherever it's put and will not move around on its own.

• All the blimps here use common AA, AAA and 9 volt alkaline batteries. Bought in bulk they are quite cheap (less than $10 for a full day of full-throttle flying) and do not require chargers and other complicated equipment. Battery technologies are improving all the time and several types of low weight, high capacity rechargeable batteries appear very promising for the near future.

• While the small size and weight of the New York Blimp Company blimps makes them very affordable, it also means that they should not be flown outdoors, even on calm days. Blimps intended for outdoor use are many times larger, use expensive gas motors and require many thousands of cubic feet of helium, making them very expensive and requiring lots of support equipment.

• Past missions for the blimp feet have included signs and banners, candy drops and live TV broadcast from an onboard camera and transmitter. More details on this can be seen at Ron Leciston's site.