In 2012, London is hosting the Olympics. And it’s going to be a pain for those of us that live here, albeit with the chance of seeing something interesting.

In 2011, however, there may just be something a little more fun.

A Texan businessman bidding to organise a year-long round the world race for airships says he is on track to start the inaugural event next year. Among those lending their names to the project is aerospace bigwig Norm Augustine, who headed President Obama’s panel examining the US manned space programme last year.
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Hartsell hopes to accumulate a prize purse of €10m from commercial sponsors. He has already signed up Eurosport as broadcast partner, and other supporting organisations include Nokia, National Geographic and Greenwich borough council in London – the race is supposed to start and finish on the zero meridian line at the Observatory there.
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Naturally, we here on the Reg airship desk will be cheering for Hartsell and hoping to see a fleet of racing airships soaring away across the start line in Greenwich next year.

Now, that would be fun. There’d be little to no disruption (what with all the action happening in the sky, but below the glide path to the major airports) and it’d be visible from my office window.

Make it happen please. That is all.