By Dr. Timothy Merritt May 17, 2021
Disasters, Airships, and Insurance Part 4
Figure 1 The St. Paul with PIRA Logo
Disasters, Airships, and Insurance The development model that ties national and multi-national level funding to hybrid airship development will result in the opening of global airways to the heavy-cargo lifting capabilities of these vehicles and usher in a new era of massive, rapid global response to humanitarian disasters. Private entities have proved that they can often make more significant advances in technology than are made by government;1 and private and government-backed agencies can actually benefit from collaboration thanks to their inherent differences. In an early sign of the enormous potential for future collaboration, in 2016 Straightline Aviation signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a humanitarian and philanthropic medical assistance program with RAD-AID International, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing radiology and imaging technology to resource-limited communities of the world.2 “Private companies aren’t beholden to the same slow processes that often stall government 1
Houser, K. (2017) Private companies, not governments, are shaping the future of space exploration. Futurism. Retrieved online: https://futurism.com/private-companies-not-governments-are-shaping-the-future-of-spaceexploration/ 2
Mollura, D. (2016) Straightline Aviation and RAD-AID Sign Agreement to Launch Medical Hybrid Airship Program for Humanitarian Aid. Cision PR Newswire. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/straightlineaviation-and-rad-aid-sign-agreement-to-launch-medical-hybrid-airship-program-for-humanitarian-aid593151491.html