US Patent Issued on May 5 for "Airship with self-ballasting airframe" (Florida, Virginia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,617,519, issued on May 5.

"Airship with self-ballasting airframe" was invented by David James Prum (Fernandina Beach, Fla.) and Gregory Joseph Opas (Fairfax, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention features an apparatus for airborne transport of cargo. Such an apparatus includes a controller and an airship having a hull, an airframe that supports the hull, and at least one ballast chamber. The controller is configured to actively ballast the airship by causing the ballast chamber to contain a variable mass of air. The controller thus controls the mass or weight of air in each ballast chamber. In some embodiments, the ballast chamb...