On just about any clear morning in my hometown of Napa Valley, you can look up and find a dozen hot air balloons floating through the sky. Small baskets filled with wine buzzed tourists at the wee hours of sunrise. I’ve often marveled at this concept and to be quite honest, it was one of the motivating factors for developing Aerial Photo Media, the views available from a hot air balloon are simply breathtaking and almost impossible to replicate.
A blimp serves a similar purpose, although in modern day I don’t believe blimps carry passengers anymore, simply cameras equipped to capture airborne footage, at often low altitudes and borderline intimate views from the air. Well the other day, a blimp got a little too intimate and crashed inside of a stadium.
Drones receive a lot of poor criticism regarding their safety or control capabilities, even privacy concern and the works. But it’s real easy to forget that we have giant balloons of flammable gas and fire floating around for hours, equipped with a ton of hardware and capable not only of invading privacy for an exponentially longer period of time; but the capabilities of damage & harm are far greater than that of a drone in the incident of a crash.
Just to be clear, I have nothing against blimps or hot air balloons, in fact they are the precursors and trailblazers for the drone industry, so I have much respect for their role in the sky. It’s important to recognize that all vehicles in the sky are expected to uphold safety and responsible practices at all times. With the emergence of the drone industry, it’s easy to forget that everything occupying the open sky is subject to potential hazard, out of them all, hot air balloons, blimps, small planes, RC helicopters, UAV, etc.; Drones are one of the safest, easiest to control, & simplest to land.
Here is the full link to the article of a blimp crashing at a Portland Trailblazer Basketball game Click here