A new aircraft concept called the Aeroscraft completed what Mario Pantuso, Aeros business development, described as the “first float” this month. Pantuso said the initial flight-testing program has been conducted in a hangar and has proven the aircraft’s vertical takeoff and landing and hovering capabilities. The first flight outside the hangar is expected in the next two to four months.
The Aeroscraft is described by Aeros, a company headquartered in Montebello, California, near downtown Los Angeles, as a rigid variable buoyancy air vehicle. It is engineered to carry heavy, oversized loads and is kept afloat by helium — a non-flammable gas as opposed to hydrogen, which is used in some airships and hybrid airships, according to Aeros. Another advantage the Aeroscraft will have over an airship is that it is engineered to be controllable without ballast once its cargo has been unloaded.
