www.MyAirship.com

The Reference on Airships

GEFA-FLUG GmbH

The Gesellschaft zur Entwicklung und Förderung Aerostatischer Flugsysteme GmbH (Company for the Development and Promotion of Aerostatic Aerial Systems) was founded in 1975 by Karl-Ludwig "Mucky" Busemeyer to promote aerostatic systems in Aachen, Germany. Early developments were remotely controlled airships and hot air balloons used for aerial photogrammetry of archeological sites. GEFA-FLUG was one of the pioneers in the field of remotely controlled aerostation. After constructing a remotely operated thermal airship with a hybrid combustion/electric propulsion system the company started designing, building and operating manned hot air balloons and airships.

GEFA-FLUG cooperated with Thunder & Colt and developed the AS 80 GD and AS 105 GD thermal airships with a grant from the German government. The GD-series airships have a higher fineness ratio than the standard T&C models and thinner fins for better speed performance. The GD hot airships offer an advanced catenary load curtain system as well as a partial vertical partition of the envelope that allows to heat the front and bow of the ships independently for pitch control. As of September 1997, six GD-series hot airships had been built and serial numbers 7 and 8 were under construction.

AS 80 GD thermal airship at the 1996 Worlds in Italy

Today, GEFA-FLUG has 20 employees and is a certified repair station for Cameron, Thunder & Colt, Schröder Fireballoons, Raven and Lindstrand hot air balloons and airships. Its fleet includes half a dozen commercial hot air balloons and four hot air airships, among them two AS 80 GD used for advertisement and environemental research.

For more information, please visit the GEFA-FLUG web site or contact GEFA-FLUG directly.