French cargo airship secures $124M in funding

France-based cargo airship startup Flying Whales has completed a third round of financing, securing $124 million from investors including the French state and the Principality of Monaco as it seeks to contribute to “a new industrial era of low-carbon cargo transport.” The project focuses on the development of a 60-tonne-payload aircraft of 140 to 150 meters long that is codenamed “Large Capacity Airship 60T” (LCA60T). Dedicated to the heavy-lift and outsize cargo market, its distinguishing feature is that it does not need to land to pick up or deliver loads. [caption id="attachment_56725977" align="alignright" width="560"] The LCA60T will use a winch to load and unload. (Photo/Flying Whales)[/caption] Originally designed to meet the needs of logging renewable wood resources in hard-to-reach areas, the LCA60T’s “unique hovering loading and unloading characteristics will provide solutions to numerous logistical and landlocked problems around the world, with a very low environmental footprint,” according to Flying Whales. French and Canadian backing Flying Whales is already backed by an industrial consortium of some forty French and Canadian aeronautics-related companies, including Thales and Safran, and the Canadian state of Quebec, a 25% shareholder, is reinvesting in the most recent financing round. “This last round in Flying Whales’ three-stage equity financing plan is the culmination of the extraordinary work done by our employees, our aeronautics consortium, and all the other partners who are supporting this ambitious industrial project with multiple components,” said company Chief Executive Sebastien Bougon. Whale-sized hold The LCA60T will be equipped with a large hold measuring 75 meters long, 8 meters high and 8 meters wide. The airship will use a winch to lift loads from the ground into its hold, and vice versa when discharging cargo. It will load and unload from a stationary position and be able to accommodate cargo that is too voluminous for the hold by suspending such outsize shipments on long lines. The company’s first manufacturing plant is set to open in southwest France in 2024, with further plans to locate production facilities in Quebec in 2025. Plants in South Korea, Indonesia and Australia are also said to be under consideration. The startup has forged a long-term partnership with the engineering unit of the Paris airports authority, Aeroports de Paris (ADP), to set up operating bases for the cargo airship in France and around the world. The startup in 2023 plans to spin off its Flying Whales Services business — both an airline and an airport services company — with the deployment of 150 bases serving as take-off points for the airships.

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