The future is all about advancement, taking the old and making it better.

For Dr. Barry Prentice, professor of supply-chain management at the I.H. Asper School of Business, the future is airships.

“I’ve been researching and advocating for airships for over 20 years. I have never given up trying to keep attention to this topic because I have never given up on the future of the North. … It was very clear that (airships) could do the job,” said Prentice, a former director of 10 years at the Transport Institute.

Prentice unveiled his creation on Monday in the atrium of the Engineering & Information Technology Complex at the University of Manitoba.

Prentice’s company, Buoyant Aircraft Systems International (BASI), teamed up with ISO Polar, a non-profit airship research institute, to create an environmentally sustainable and accessible way of bringing supplies to northern latitudes.   

Minister of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Eric Robinson stated Manitoba is the third largest aerospace centre in Canada and the province will play a co-operative role with BASI and ISO Polar in developing this technology.

The airship, which will be housed at the BASI hanger at St. Andrews airfield, will perform test flights and be used to develop research for the next couple of years.

Prentice said he hopes to have a fully-functioning freight carrier soon and hopes investors will respond to the potential of this advanced technology.