I just read over at Make blog about the Skyacht – they’re building personal, hot air blimps!

Apparently, their aim is to create a personal blimp powered by an electric engine that will allow almost silent flight. Personally, the idea of being in a blimp of my own is very exciting – despite the fact that they’re still currently working off a deisel engine right now.

They cite the example that no other vehicle at the moment would let you pick the topmost leaf from a tree – helicopters would thrash the branches around, and helium airships can’t hover (I didn’t know that) but their hot air, propeller driven airship could do so. There’s a lot more details on the site, but as shallow as it sounds – I just hope they make some more ‘vintage’ or ‘retro’ or yes, downright Steampunk looking variants of them. The one on the site looks far too much like a modern hot air balloon.