A massive cargo-carrying airship has taken shape inside one of the 17-story wooden blimp hangars at the former military base in Tustin.<\/p>\n
According to aircraft maker Worldwide Aeros Corp., construction is complete on a 36,000-pound blimp-like aircraft designed for the military to carry tons of cargo to remote areas around the world.<\/p>\n
The Montebello company hopes to have a first flight in the coming months and to demonstrate cargo-carrying capability shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n
“This is truly the beginning of a vertical global transportation solution for perhaps the next 100 years,\u201d Chief Executive Igor Pasternak said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Worldwide Aeros, a company of about 100 employees, built the prototype under a contract of about $35 million from the Pentagon<\/a> and NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Aeroscraft is a zeppelin with a 230-foot rigid skeleton made of aluminum and carbon fiber. It’s a new type of hybrid aircraft that combines airplane and airship technologies and doesn’t need a long runway to take off or land because it has piston engines that allow it to move vertically and a new high-tech buoyancy control system.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the company wants to be able to carry up to 66 tons.<\/p>\n “This will land in Africa, Afghanistan,” Pasternak told The Times in September<\/a>, “a Wal-Mart parking lot — wherever.”<\/p>\n