The 1985 movie Back to the Future ends with the prophetic line “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”
Fast forward to the present to Canada’s Arctic region and that prediction is appearing to come true. The Ice Road Truckers better watch out, the future of Arctic mining and drilling may not need any roads.
British aviation pioneer Hybrid Air Vehicles Limited is proposing an alternative option for the delivery of heavy goods and equipment to remote mining sites and oil and gas drilling locations which eliminates the need for long-distance trucking.
The company has developed a “hybrid” aircraft that combines the helium lift of a conventional airship with the aerodynamic shape and more conventional thrust of a vertical take-off-and-landing craft and the precision hovering and soft-landing ability of a hovercraft. It is working to give its vehicles a heavy lift payload capacity ranging from 20 tons to 200 tons.
Hybrid Air Vehicles, which has been developing vehicles for the military in conjunction with defense contractors such as Northrop Grumman, signed its first commercial contract in August with Canada-based specialty aviation company Discovery Air Innovations to build airships capable of lifting as much as 50 tons.
What does this mean?
Well, in theory, it means that the company can transport heavy machinery to and from remote mining sites without the need for the mining company to build and maintain roads. In the ecologically sensitive Arctic it also means that mining and oil firms can commence operations more quickly and with a smaller footprint. (Remote road building in the icy wilderness is notoriously expensive and requires time-consuming environmental permitting.) In addition, once a mine or oil site is closed, no “useless” road is left behind.
The first airship is expected to be operational by 2014 and will deliver freight at one-quarter of the cost of current freight delivery options.
It is quite a technical challenge, however. Hybrid Air Vehicles’ crafts will need to prove that they are able to handle the rigors of the harsh Arctic conditions, because those winds sure can blow cold way out there.
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