Holden Takes To The Skies With 'The Holden Airship' - The Ride Is Over!

[JoeT]

‘Holden-burg’ To Hit The Air

Toby Hagon
2 August 2006
www.drive.com.au

The world’s biggest TV screen and a giant blimp are part of a multi-million dollar advertising campaign for Holden’s new VE Commodore.

The world’s biggest TV screen could breeze past – literally - as you’re lazing on the beach, sitting in your lounge room or watching teams tough it out on the footy field.

A what’s claimed to be a world first multi-million dollar marketing campaign, Holden will launch a 55-metre long, 20-metre tall blimp into the skies of capital cities all around Australia, starting in Sydney.

Currently being pieced together at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport, the multi-million “Big Red” blimp has already been nicknamed the “Holden-burg” by one member of the media, a reference to the Hindenburg disaster that saw a blimp explode spectacularly.

Of course, like all new blimps the so-nicknamed Holden-burg will be filled with helium – some five million litres of it.

More impressive than the blimp itself (which marks the return of the slow-moving marketing message to Australian skies) is the colour TV screen on each side of it.

The screen measures a massive 914 inches, or more than 23 metres. That’s some 20 times bigger than the large screen TVs being sold today.

According to Holden, the pixels are so big (a few inches apart) that the screen on the blimp can’t be properly viewed close up.

“But it can be seen from about one kilometre away,” says Holden executive director of sales and marketing Alan Batey.

Holden’s not saying exactly where the blimp will be seen over the next 12 months it has been hired, except to say it will be seen at many of the “nation’s premiere events”.

Once it was inflated – which happened earlier this week – it was removed from the biggest hangar at Tullamarine.

The blimp is part of what Holden says is “the biggest marketing spend ever” from Holden, indicating the significance of the VE Commodore it will promote, which cost more than $1 billion to develop.

The VE Commodore goes on sale in mid-August from $34,490 with the effort of restoring interest in the waning large car market and keeping the Commodore at the top of the local sales charts.

Holden chairman and managing director Denny Mooney refused to speculate how many Commodores would be sold, except to claim the Commodore “will still be Australia’s best-selling car”.

“This (VE Commodore) launch is so important to the viability and future of Holden,” says Batey. “It will be at the heart of our resurgence.”

After its tenure with Holden in Australian skies, the Big Red blimp is expected to make its way to Asia where it will continue to take on marketing duties.

It’s eventually expected to end up in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.



Holden Takes To The Skies With The Holden Airship

GM Media
2 August 2006
www.media.gm.com

Holden is taking its message to the skies on a massive airship boasting a television screen able to be viewed from up to a kilometre away.

The Holden Airship stretches across 54.3 metres and stands 16.8 metres tall, making it longer and taller than the current generation of Boeing 737 airplanes.

The Airship today set off on its maiden voyage to Sydney from Melbourne Airport in Tullamarine, where it was filled with approximately five million litres of helium.

The Airship will be used exclusively by Holden for marketing purposes and will become a regular feature above Australia’s greatest sporting and cultural events.

The airship screen is 21.3 metres wide and 9.1 metres tall, lit by 369,600 light emitting diodes (LEDs) and is designed specifically for viewing from ground level. Diagonally, the screen measures 914 inches.

The Holden Airship can accommodate up to six crew, who are housed in an 8 metre by 6.2 metre gondola. The ship can fly up to speeds of 84 kilometres per hour.

GM Holden Marketing Manager, Large Cars and SUV’s, Philip Brook, said today that being able to debut the Holden Airship at the launch of VE Commodore proved perfect timing.

“The launch of the all new VE Commodore, our first billion dollar car, is a huge event and we needed to make an equally huge impression for its launch,” Brook said.

“Being the first to secure the Airship worldwide has been a marketing dream. We’ve broken the rules with the new Commodore in terms of styling, performance, safety and value. Similarly, with the Airship, we’re breaking the marketing rules to promote the new Commodore.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to have a groundbreaking concept in marketing today but the Holden Airship, with its television screen, gives us exclusive access to an exciting new medium.

Mr Gary Walsh, of the Lightship Group, developers of the Airship, is confident the technology used on the ship’s screen will impress the Australian public.

“Until now Airships and blimps have only been able to screen animation or basic graphic displays. The Holden Airship is the first to use the technology that allows television footage to be broadcast on the Airship screen. We anticipate the response from Australians, who will be the first audience worldwide, will be very favourable”.


Holden Airship Specifications

Model - A-170 Lightship

General

The Lightship A-170 is a conventional twin-engine airship.

The general layout of the airship consists of:

1. Gondola with seating for 5 passengers and 1 pilot.

2. Envelope containing the helium.

3. Four fins, with rudder and elevator control surfaces, attached to the envelope.

4. Nose dish, attached to the front of the envelope, used to moor the airship when on the ground.

5. Two aircraft power plants, attached to the gondola.

Designed originally for advertising, and thus kept simple for reliability, the American Blimp airships have almost 200,000 flight hours. A large portion of these hours has been flown with various types of broadcast cameras and data downlinks covering events for media or security. The airship has also been adapted as a communications and sensor platform for a multitude of other missions.

Overall Specifications

Type: A-170 (Lightship)

Length: 54.3 metres

Height: 16.8 metres

Width: 14.0 metres

Maximum volume: 4,822,285 litres

Maximum lift: 5,584 kg

Fuel Quantity: 673 litres

Gondola Specifications

Length: 8.0 metres (cabin 5.5 metres)

Height: 3.3 metres (cabin 2.0 metres)

Width: 6.2 metres (cabin 1.5 metres)

Camera: Mounting to accommodate gyrostabilized camera.

Capabilities: Television and video photography.

Lightsign

914 inch Screen (measured diagonally)

Length: 21.3 metres

Height: 9.1 metres

LEDs 369,600

Performance

Lifting gas: Approx 5 million litres of helium

Passenger capacity: 5 plus pilot

Cruise Speed 74 km/h

Maximum Speed 84 km/h

Power: Twin Lycoming IO-360-B1G6 with constant-speed variable-pitch reversible propellers

Fuel Consumption: 91 litres per hour at Cruise Speed

Range: 400 km

Endurance: 7.5 hours at Cruise Speed.

Max rate of climb: 425 metres per minute

Max rate of descent: 485 metres per minute

Electrical system: Two 200 amp alternators

Flight Configuration: Day/night, VFR/IFR

Crew: 19 overall ground and flight crew including crew chief, port noseline, starboard noseline, gondola crew and camera operator.

Gondola Layout

The gondola structure is of welded steel tubing. Skin covering is a combination of aluminium and fabric. Seats and flight controls are an integral part of the frame. The gondola is connected to the envelope by 16 external cables. The gondola is divided into five main compartments:

1. Flight Deck

2. Personnel/Passenger Compartment (cabin)

3. Electrical Bay

4. Equipment compartment

5. Ballast compartment

The Flight Deck houses the avionics panel, flight controls, pilot station, seating for one passenger and can be configured to accommodate various equipment required for special missions. The instruments and layout are typical for a twin engine IFR approved aircraft with added instruments for the airship pressure management aspects of the vehicle. Access to the ballonet and the ballonet view-window are located on the Flight Deck.

The Personnel compartment is accessible through a main entry door located aft of the Flight Deck on the port side of the gondola. A bench seat that provides seating for three is located against the aft bulkhead. The aft bulkhead separates the Personnel compartment from the Electrical Bay and Equipment compartment. An EMERGENCY exit is located directly aft of the co-pilot/pax seat on the starboard side of the gondola.

The Electrical Bay contains the equipment to monitor, regulate and distribute the electrical power. The Equipment compartment contains the air plenum chamber and the fuel tank, which feeds two tractor mounted power plants. The power plants are mounted on outriggers at the aft end of the gondola.

The Ballast compartment is located beneath the rear bench seat located in the personnel compartment. The Ballast compartment is accessible from four outer crew access doors located on the port and starboard side of the gondola and forward of the outriggers. The rear bench seat can be raised for access from within the personnel compartment. In addition to ballast, this compartment also houses the ship's batteries and electrical power distribution system.

[ChevroletRevived]

Wow, that is pretty cool! I think airships are really neat, and a great advertising medium. Good job, Holden, on the VE Commodore and the marketing push. They have to get noticed, and it looks like they will.

[jwrebholz]

Yeah.

[Sporer65]

So I guess the US has the Goodyear Blimp and now Australia will have the Holden-burg.

[Martino_z]

Heres a pic

http://images.google.com.au/url?q=ht..._lakehurst.jpg

or theres

http://www.lightships.com/

For the blimp info

[Greg Burr]

[quote=Martino_z]Heres a pic

Can't be it. They would never get insurance on that

[mbukukanyau]

Originally Posted by jwrebholz

Yeah.

just had to see how you put those grinning faces there

[Generation IV]

An interesting idea from Holden if I ever heard one, and I might say a pretty good one. You guys aren't real supportive of Holden, come on don't you trust them??? I do!

[Aych Es Vee]

Holden should sell Holden-Burgs as part of their vehicle line-up, HAHA

[JoeT]

Originally Posted by jwrebholz

Are you blind! The pictures are up the top man!

[Martino_z]

Hey mate I posted the hindenburg prior to the pictures being posted. I reackon it looks fantastic. That is gonna be really effective advertising becuae it wont be long before people are looking up and saying "oh theres the holden blimp". Cant wait for Clipsal 500.

[AusCalais]

Originally Posted by Martino_z

Hey mate I posted the hindenburg prior to the pictures being posted. I reackon it looks fantastic. That is gonna be really effective advertising becuae it wont be long before people are looking up and saying "oh theres the holden blimp". Cant wait for Clipsal 500.

Let's hope it's not: Oh, the humanity.

[JoeT]

Originally Posted by AusCalais

Oh, the humanity.

I have a work mate who said that exact phrase once after being hit by a unhappy passenger.
He hates being ribbed about it. It'll stick with him for ever, a bit like the Hindenburg reporter.
"Oh, the pain, the pain of it all!'

[mikmak]

I thought a balloon would have been more appropriate. Marketing and hot air seem to go together.

[tamatt27]

That's freaking awesome! Way to go Holden. Every day I am more impressed with that company.