![]() There were many reasons for this failure. ![]() Office furniture, tools, computers and even the construction hangar – now known as the “Tropical Islands” leisure park – were sold off. In 2003, the company began to auction off its equipment. Although several attempts were made to save the company, this did not prove successful. Later that same year, the company declared itself insolvent and went into liquidation. From an original share price of €15.50, by May, each share was only worth €1.02. However, in 2001, the first downturn happened: It proved impossible to bring the Airbus Group on board, causing development delays to the airship.īy 2002, share prices tumbled to basement levels. More than 70,000 shareholders signed up for this stock. In 2000, the company was floated on the stock exchange, and everything appeared to be going to plan. Also in 1998, on a former Soviet military airbase in the Brand region of Brandenburg, construction work began on the construction hangar, which remains to this day the largest free-standing structure of its kind in the world. And just one year after that, early in 1998, the number of private and institutional shareholders had risen to 1350. Just one year later, that figure had risen to more than 600 shareholders. ![]() When the company was founded in 1996, it already had 90 shareholders on board as founding members. 1Ī wide array of shareholders also identified this great potential. The VDMA forecast that the company would be tapping into a market potential of three million tons, or ten percent of the entire world market. In terms of range, the airship would achieve much greater distances than a helicopter. The Cargolifter was also intended to be flexible in terms of the volume of freight, which could simply be picked up on the factory premises and transported straight to its intended destination. It was because of this that the VDMA saw great potential in the Cargolifter airship, that was to be capable of transporting payloads of up to 160 tons. Often, machines need to be designed with transport requirements in mind, to ensure that they can be loaded onto a road transporter or into a containerĪs you can see, none of these options are perfect, and depending on the dispatch and delivery location, the transport of freight can often involve interdisciplinary teamwork.Often unavoidable, depending on location.Average road speed for transport operations of this kind: 8 km/h.Ultra-heavy transport operations require elaborate planning and are often very costly.Payloads weighing more than 20 tons are transported by aircraft.Helicopters can provide direct transport into places where aircraft cannot operate (the biggest transport helicopter can carry a max.Much more expensive than transport by sea. ![]() The least expensive and the most flexible solution.Of particular interest to goods where time in transit is not a primary consideration. ![]() Each sector has its preferred areas of application: To this day, that market volume is broadly divided across three forms of freight transport: land, sea and air. (VDMA), the global market volume for heavy goods transport in 1995 stood at about 30 million tons. Idea, need and early company successesĪccording to a study by Germany’s Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V. Why? That is what I would like to explain to you today. Despite the fact that the innovative concept was an ingenious one, and although there was a clear case for the notion being a very relevant one, the company failed in 2002. Do you remember the German company Cargolifter? By no later than 1998 the company that was planning to build a gigantic airship for transporting payloads of up to 160 tons was a widespread topic of conversation. ![]()
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