French industrial designer Jean-Marie Massaud believes that slow cruising in an airship could be the next step in air travel and he is partnering with Onera, France’s space agency, to create the world’s first luxury airship.

“Manned Cloud” will have a top speed of 170 kilometers per hour, but will generally travel at 130 kilometers per hour, a more comfortable speed for sight-seeing. The vessel, which will be 210 meters long, 82 meters wide and 52 meters high, will only require re-fuelling after 5,000 kilometers and will be able to remain airborne for roughly three days.

Massaud Studio is promoting the futuristic vessel as an ecologically friendly way to travel. Landscapes will be enjoyed from above rather than being disfigured or damaged by tourist infrastructure.
A restaurant, bookstore, fitness studio and bar will provide entertainment, should watching the world go by through the enormous panorama windows, or tanning on the sun deck on the top of the vessel, become boring.

Intrigued by Massaud’s spaceship-like design and the possibility of a new aeronautics market, Onera has been testing the aerodynamics and flight-control capabilities of a scale model for the past year.

This spring, the agency recommended a slightly less grand version of the airship, capable of carrying 15 passengers and traveling at 80 mph. Massaud hopes the new design will attract the attention of private investors, from whom he aims to secure as much as $15 billion to begin building the Manned Cloud, with a sail date of 2020.

Source : popsci / Spiegel