In an interview with defensehere.com at 54th International Paris Air Show, Romain Schalck, Head of Communication at Flaying Whales, discussed the company's airship LCA 60T.
Flying Whales is a French aeronautic start-up founded in 2012. It develops an environmentally-friendly airship, the LCA60T, designed to transport heavy loads, such as wood logs or specific gear like wind-turbine blades.
The company receives financial support from several institutional players including, the French government with 29.5 million euros, the Canadian province of Quebec via Investment Quebec for 30 million dollars, and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) which sells its own corporate equity (24.9%) to the others French shareholders of Flying Whales and the French banking group Oddo BHF in September 2021. In July 2022, the company announced that it had raised 122 million euros to finalize the development of the LCA 60T.
In the interview, Romain Schalck, Head of Communication at Flaying Whales said to Defensehere regarding the LCA 60T that "This airship will have the ability to load and unload on stationary flight up to 60 tons of payload, which is a huge amount of payload for a foreign aircraft."
Regarding the mission of LCA 60T, Schalck stressed that "We will have the capacity to access hard to reach areas. For example, take some wood out of the fries that are difficult to access or bring wind blades into steep areas without needing to transport them by trucks on small roads."
According to Schalck, Flaying Whales developing LCA 60T with 140 people. He said that the company based in France, however it also has teams in Quebec (Canada).
"2025 is the maiden flight of the first airship"
"The first flight for the first airship is planned at the end of 2025. We have not a lot of competitors. This project is quite unique. We have one competitors in the US, but I guess this aircraft will have a huge payload." discussed Schalck. "I think it is the project that is supposed to have the biggest payload for an airship in the world. So, we are bringing a complete change on the market to transport heavy, heavy and bulky stuff."
"We also are working in close relationship with the EASA, which is the Aeronautics Authority in Europe, to have this airship certified as soon as possible. So, we're working deeply to be fast on the certification for this solution." Schalck highlighted.
Regarding the maiden flight of the LCA 60T, he said that "2025 is the maiden flight of the first airship. Then we'll have to carry a ground test, flight tests for this aircraft before getting the type certificate for this certification. 2027 will be the entry into commercial operations."
"The goal is to transport in limited or inexistent areas"
"We are more or less a kind of a regional aircraft solutions, so we will not have missions to go on thousands kilometers with a payload from point A to point B. The goal is to work on areas where the transport solutions are limited or inexistent. So, the operational concept will be each airship will be based in a hangar, everywhere in the world will have different hangars. Each airship will work around these hangars on around 400 and 500 kilometers and at the end of each day, it will come back to its base." he revealed. "So, our pilots will work between eight and ten hours a day. So, it gives you the range. Because, these airship will fly at 100 kilometers per hour. So, if we fly 10 hours, it makes thousand kilometer."
"LCA 60T can help armed forces for logistics"
He stressed that LCA 60T would not be in the war area or conflict zone however he said that "the least we could do is sometimes help some armed forces to bring stuff on the not under conflict zone but for logistics. But we are not keen on working for a war areas."
