www.MyAirship.com

The Reference on Airships

SkyRider Airships

Based in Boulder, Colorado, USA, and headed by Frank Rider, SkyRider built several types of small blimps during the eighties. The last design was the BA-3. The BA-3 is a single seater blimp powered by two Rotax 277 engines. The three-blade propellers and their line of thrust can be rotated electrically from 90 degrees up to 45 degrees down. The airship also has two ballonets, one fore and one aft, which gives the pilot an additional way of controlling pitch. In sum, the BA-3 incorporates all the technical advances usually found only in much larger blimps. The prototype (N25FR) flew for the first time in May 1988. It appears from FAA records that the ship was still registered in late 1996, in Nashville, Tenessee.

Frank Rider is now president of the Boulder Blimp Company which manufactures all kinds of cold air inflatables and tethered advertising helium blimps.