France-based airship developer Flying Whales has raised a total of €200m ($246m) in funding to date from investors including aerospace manufacturer Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The company’s investors also include French state-owned investment bank BPIFrance; ONF Participations, the investment arm of France’s national forestry office, Office National des Forêts; and an unnamed representative of France’s Nouvelle Aquitaine region.
Flying Whales is working on an airship that can carry cargo of up to 60 tons of cargo, with a first flight scheduled for 2021 when the company also aims to list on the public markets. It will initially focus on the lumber industry.
The company’s ships will, at a length of 500 feet, be twice as long as a Boeing 747 airplane but will not require mooring pylons.
The crafts will use a rigid structure with individual compartments filled with helium, differentiating themselves from blimps which rely entirely on internal gas pressure.
Bloomberg placed Flying Whales’ total equity funding at $246m, after news publication Les Echos had reported earlier this month that its shareholders had recently committed to invest $110m.
AVIC invested an undisclosed sum in the company in October 2016, before BPIFrance agreed to provide approximately $30m earlier this month, and ONF Participations an undisclosed amount shortly afterwards.
Sebastien Bougon, Flying Whales’ founder and CEO, told Bloomberg: “There have been a lot of blimp projects over time and there have been many failures. We have a solid base. The wood market alone justifies our investments, and we have got low-risk prospects beyond.
“The Hindenburg has made a deep impression on people. There is work ahead of us to teach people about how blimp technologies and materials have evolved.”