User:Piolenc/WSR

A proposed series of around-the-world races of dirigible airships, which in the WSR promotional literature are termed "skyships" (which is actually a trademark of ...)

The races are being widely promoted, especially to Middle Eastern governments,  by the newly-formed World Air League, which should not be confounded with the old and respected Air League.

According to the promoter of the race, the contestants will overfly various UN-designated World Heritage Sites; this provision has apparently earned an endorsement from UNESCO; UN and UNESCO web sites already state that this event will take place.

The source of funds for these races is not stated, and no list of contestants or entrants has been published.

The WSR website includes a specification of the type of airship to be used; this does not match the specification of any existing craft. 

The races are scheduled for either 2009 or 2010, according to different sources.

Doesn't he say there will be 16 separate races?

Reactions to this project are sharply divided between lighter-than-air (LTA) flight experts, on the one hand, and the general public, Internet media and government agencies, on the other. Outside the LTA community, the project is generally given credence and respectful coverage, while the attitude of airship experts ranges from doubt to accusations of fraud.

Among the objections articulated by the LTA community, in particular by The Airship Association, a respected and long-established LTA organization based in the UK, is the fact that no airship has existed for 70 years

that can cross the Pacific Ocean. Strong objections are raised even to the more plausible portions of the project - recruitment and training of ground crews, construction of the necessary support infrastructure at overflight locations and staging sites - because of the very short preparation time allotted and the absence of identified funding sources for what promises to be an extremely expensive project, if it is ever undertaken.

The Airship Association's objections have been taken down from their own site under legal pressure from the WSR promoters, but were cached at mirror sites prior to their removal.