Now here’s a race I would really enjoy following. . . EDITOR

from CNN News

Man seeks to stage around-the-world blimp race

By Marina Csomor, Special to CNN

(CNN) — Don Hartsell knows his idea could be considered crazy.

“I thought this project was so large, so ambitious, that no one would take me seriously,” says the Texas resident and aircraft enthusiast. “In fact, I was concerned they would think I was insane.”

Hartsell is talking about his World Sky Race, which as conceived would be a grand global spectacle. If all goes according to plan, a fleet of airships will take off from London in 2014 and race each other around the world, watched by millions of spectators, before finishing six months later just outside of Paris.

The event is planned as a series of 18 back-to-back races that will circumnavigate the globe. Although the route isn’t finalized, the proposed path will take pilots over at least four continents and about 130 United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) World Heritage sites — among them the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty and the Palace of Versailles. . . . Read Complete Report

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from Fox News Latino

US Military Adds Blimps to Patrol Border

By Andrew O’Reilly

Published August 15, 2012

With the United States’ conflicts in the Arab world drawing to a close, the government is using some of the technology honed on battlefields overseas on the home front.

Over the next few weeks, the U.S. military will begin to test a 72-foot-long, unmanned surveillance blimp in southern Texas that could be used to spot drug traffickers and undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. via its border with Mexico. Read Complete Report

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And while on the subject (Just for Fun)

from youtube

Tom Slick: Bad Year Blimp Race

Uploaded by woof221 on Jan 19, 2007