UK-based Straightline Aviation has entered a strategic partnership to provide its LMH-1 heavy-lift hybrid airship to PRL Logistics.

Under the partnership, LMH-1 will be used to provide inexpensive and environmentally friendly solutions for shipping freight and personnel to remote parts of Alaska and northern Canada.

The first lot of the aircraft will be delivered in 2019, and accommodate up to 22t of freight and 18 passengers plus crew.

Developed and built by Lockheed Martin, LMH-1 is capable to land on any surface, including snow, ice, gravel and water.

Lockheed Martin advanced development programmes (Skunk Works) executive vice-president and general manager Rob Weiss said: "Alaska is an ideal location for the Hybrid Airship to operate.

“The airship enables access to Alaska's most isolated regions, and is designed to protect the sensitive ecological environment."

“The airship enables access to Alaska's most isolated regions, and is designed to protect the sensitive ecological environment."

Similar to the size of a football field, hybrid airships incorporates the technology of lighter than air aircraft coupled with airplanes, helicopters and hovercraft.   

Powered mostly by helium, the airships use its aerodynamic shape and its four thrust vectoring engines to lift off.

Featuring a hovercraft-like air cushion landing system that provides taxiing and holds the craft firmly on the ground, the hybrid airships offer an environment-friendly solution.

PRL Logistics CEO Ron Hyde said: "PRL's understanding of the complexities of working in Alaska's extremely remote site and our partnership with Straightline Aviation, whose airship operating experience is unparalleled, means this will be a true game changer.

“It affordably opens up many projects currently inaccessible without the development of the costly infrastructure required by traditional modes of transportation.”

The company will conduct its airship operations from its Kenai facility in Alaska, which has overland, marine, and aviation access.

The Kenai facility will also be the base operations centre for the hybrid airship.

Image: LMH-1 Hybrid Airship. Photo: courtesy of Hybrid Enterprises.