![]() Much more expensive than transport by sea.The least expensive and the most flexible solution.Of particular interest to goods where time in transit is not a primary consideration.Each sector has its preferred areas of application: To this day, that market volume is broadly divided across three forms of freight transport: land, sea and air. (VDMA), the global market volume for heavy goods transport in 1995 stood at about 30 million tons. Idea, need and early company successesĪccording to a study by Germany’s Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V. Why? That is what I would like to explain to you today. Despite the fact that the innovative concept was an ingenious one, and although there was a clear case for the notion being a very relevant one, the company failed in 2002. Note the three people at the lower left for scale History CompanyĬargolifter AG was created on 1 September 1996 in Wiesbaden, Germany.Do you remember the German company Cargolifter? By no later than 1998 the company that was planning to build a gigantic airship for transporting payloads of up to 160 tons was a widespread topic of conversation. A public stock offering took place in May 2000, and the resulting shareholder structure was characterized by a high proportion of small investors, attracted by substantial press coverage of the new breakthrough technologies being promised. The hangar for production and operation of the CL160 and engineering team facilities were built on the former Soviet Air Force base at Brand-Briesen Airfield, Brandenburg, acquired to enable development and operations. The hangar (360 m or 1,180 ft long, 220 m or 720 ft wide and 106 m or 348 ft high), a technological marvel in itself, is a freestanding steel-dome "barrel-bowl" construction large enough to fit the Eiffel Tower on its side, and was featured on the Modern Marvels episode "Hangers". The hangar was also equipped with a 180 m (590 ft) cutting table to manufacture the airship's envelope. After the company bankrupted, a tropical theme park was opened there. The first CL 160 airship was never built, though a considerable amount of design and development work was undertaken. The technical complexity (something akin to designing an airliner with less vetted technology) along with limited funding (a fraction of the funding typically available for the development of new airliners), and short development timeline meant that program challenges were underestimated, making the project relatively risky.Ī small crewed prototype named 'Joey' was built in order to test project concepts on a reduced scale. Another aircraft, the "CL 75 Aircrane" transportation balloon prototype, of similar size (61 m in diameter) and height (87 m) to the CL 160, was built but destroyed in a storm in July 2002. Despite the setback, an agreement was reached with Boeing in 2002 for the joint study of a lighter-than-air stratospheric platform. The Cargolifter CL 75 AirCrane prototype, filled with 110,000 m 3 of helium, was taken out of the hangar for the first time in October 2001. It represented a new stage in full-scale experimental purposes. The loadframe of this unit was engineered by American company AdvanTek International LLC, on behalf of Cargolifter AG. The sale of one CL 75 Aircrane along with 25 options (at a unit price of US$10 million), was later planned to the Canadian company Heavy Elevator Canada Inc., a deal with which CargoLifter AG was at least 20% involved. ![]() On 7 June 2002 the company announced insolvency, and liquidation proceedings began the following month. ![]() The fate of parts of the 300 million euros in shareholder funds from over 70,000 investors is still unclear. In June 2003, the company's facilities were sold off for less than 20% of the construction costs.
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