RC Blimps and Aerial Imagery

[blimpship]

Great post on the aerial photography, this is a subject that I've been interested in since getting into airships myself. In the grand scheme of things, this is a very cheap method of getting involved with airship operations, and no pilots license required!

You can get started 'on the ground' with a mast based system before progressing on to aerial systems. The masts I've seen can be just as expensive to purchase as an RC blimp but of course there is no ongoing cost of helium, transportation etc.

Many people think that you have to buy a full-sized Zeppelin NT to do aerial videos / TV filming but this is no longer the case. Sky TV (here in the UK) are now using a tethered blimp, in the SkyBet colours, to provide aerial shots at sporting events like football.

I've seen several sites, easily found on google, selling complete systems for still imaging or video filming based either on a fully remote controlled model or a tethered system.

One other market often associated with this is the housing market. Estate agents are often targeted with 'birds eye view' images of individual houses, housing developments and even time lapse photography of construction.

When you add the factor of advertising, there is an opportunity to make additional income through sponsoring the airship. Tethered or remote controlled blimps are still large enough to provide overhead advertising space, take the SkyBet blimp - this unit is able to provide aerial imagery for the TV network whilst providing advertising space for the betting website at the same time. Providing there was no conflict of interests, there would be no reason why a sponsored blimp could not perform additional photography work. The sponsor would be pleased to see there blimp being used, you would be getting additional income from aerial imagery and the sponsor would be covering a percentage of the yearly operating costs.

Many government agencies are turning to RC blimps and other UAV platforms to perform thermal imaging tasks. Merseyside police are currently testing a 4 rotor UAV designed to be rapidly deployed for missing persons seraches, the TV show I saw this on (BBC, Missing) had one of the operators on the show. He claimed that the operating costs for the UAV, for a period of one year, where the same as just ONE HOUR of helicopter usage! Response times where better than the helicopter and the operator was on the scene to assist with the co-ordination of the operation. I've also seen a project (possibly in Canada?) where a GPS guided unmanned airship used thermal imaging cameras to monitor large areas of woodlands in search of fires.

The advances in technology mean that such systems are becoming readily available and at a reasonable cost. Therefore we should expect to see more unmanned airships being used for a variety of roles, and with falling costs, we might even be able to afford to offer these services ourselves - one day!