It's a blimp with wings.  Two friends who have worked with planes but "don’t have an aeronautical background" have designed a blimp powered by plane engines, which they call the Dynalifter.  They hope their concept will be used to cheaply transport goods and supplies, especially in situations like the recent Katrina disaster.  Their 120-foot-long prototype is about ready to fly, although only a scale model of the planned 990-foot-long Dynalifter Heavy Freighter.  The smaller prototype will be pumped with 16,500 cubic feet of helium, then propelled by two ultralight engines.

Concerning the planned test flight for the prototype this spring, designer Brian Martin says,  “We’ve done everything on paper and everything on a computer and everything in a wind tunnel that you can do.  Edison tried his light bulb a thousand times. I don’t want to do this a thousand times.”

Brian Martin and Robert Rist have raised and spent a half a million dollars on the Dynalifter project.