Experimental Airship Propulsion: Roy Gibbens

Roy Gibbens, a retired Lockheed engineer, devoted much of his later years to build, refine and promote the use of his design of Cycloidal propellers to motivate airships. Used in marine applications, and proposed to propel airplanes and rotorcraft for decades, Roy alone perfected units capable of revolutionizing buoyant craft motivation and control. Several years before his passing, Roy assembled videos showing their experimental progress over the years. Zrsthemovie’s producer has spliced together a lightly edited version of his VHS tapes for this youtube presentation. Sadly it appears Cycloidal propellers’ use in airships died with Mr. Gibbens, though there are currently a number of efforts to bring similar props to HTA craft.