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CHINA is feared to be building an army of airships under the guise of tourism, experts have warned.
The giant lightweight air vessels, often referred to as blimps, were hugely popular in the first half of the 1900s before vanishing in recent decades.
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But China is set to welcome the huge flying ships back to the skies, with plans in place to use the blimps as early as 2025.
One Chinese tourist airship company has already started working on sending its passengers “walking in the clouds”.
But an expert says it would be naïve to trust these airships are being constructed simply for tourist voyages.
Academic Professor Ashok Swain told The Sun: “We’d never take what China says at its face value.
“If you look at Chinese military expenditure, they do not include many other areas that are for military purposes.
“It’s a very Chinese ingenuity that has been there for a long time.
“On this one, we do not see any reason why China is not, or will not, or planning not to use it for military purposes.”
Separately, satellite images have shown hangars in northwest China housing massive airships.
Swain says it’s all part of Xi’s plan to take over the world, with the big blimps likely to be used for surveillance but also help give the Chinese army global reach.
Swain said: “I think it is more for surveillance.
“But China is also, their delivery capability, they’re expanding it.
“They do know that they have to, if they want to be a global power, they need to have the ability to send their military beyond their immediate neighbourhood.
“Though we say that China’s economy is not doing very well anymore and China won’t continue, these are not stopping Xi from making the military organised, mobile and giving the military global reach.
“If they want to be a real superpower, they have to be able to militarily reach anywhere in the world.”
Last year, a big blimp was captured on satellite imagery at a base in the country’s northwest, CNN reported.
The images were first taken in November 2022, showing a 100ft-long airship at a desert military complex.
Why does China want to invade Taiwan?
TAIWAN insists it is an independent nation after splitting from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.
But China claims Taiwan remains a part of its territory with which it must eventually be reunified – and has not ruled out the use of force to take the island and place it under Beijing’s control.
The island, which is roughly 100 miles from the coast of south-east China, sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.
Taiwan sits in the so-called “first island chain”, which includes a list of US-friendly territories that are crucial to Washington’s foreign policy in the region.
This also puts it in an ideal situation to slow a Chinese attack on the West.
And with tensions between the two nations high, Taiwan is likely to aid China’s enemy if it means keeping its independence.
Taiwan’s economy is another factor in China’s desperation to reclaim the land.
If China takes the island, it could be freer to project power in the western Pacific and rival the US, thanks to much of the world’s electronics being made in Taiwan.
This would allow Beijing to have control over an industry that drives the global economy.
China insists that its intentions are peaceful, but President Xi Jinping has also used threats towards the small island nation.
Aerospace experts said the pictures illustrated a significant leap forward in China’s airship programme.
Swain said the bigger airships could “carry a huge number of troops from one place to another”.
He added: “The reach will be much faster, more than moving through the sea or the aircraft carriers.”
University of Buckingham’s Professor Anthony Glees added: “I think the world situation is extremely grave right now and we should be very suspicious of anything the Chinese are doing at the moment.
“I’m concerned that airships could bring in Chinese special forces as they can land anywhere.”
And it won’t just be about claiming Taiwan.
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Swain says the Western world continues to underestimate Xi’s true desires by focusing too much on Taiwan – instead, the dictator is eyeing up a new world order, and the airships look poised to support that goal.
Swain said: “The Chinese plan big.
“I think this is a mobile plan China has to be the global military power.”
Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) managed to perform a successful first test flight back in March of their so-called tourist airship.
The AS700 airship dubbed “Xiangyun” was seen flying 1,600ft over the central province of Hubei for two hours.
Jamey Jacob, director of Oklahoma Aerospace Institute, told The Sun that although the aircraft are supposedly entertainment for visitors, tourism isn’t a known Chinese speciality.
He said: “While you can kind of propose that a tourism aspect might be one avenue, that’s really not what they’re good at.
“They could fall into some of the other things that China is looking at, which is the aggressive stature they have towards Taiwan.
“So there is potential that these developments can also be used for other applications down the road which aren’t necessarily being advertised.”
Airships were first seen in battle during the First World War, when the Germans flew the Zeppelin over Europe for both bombing and scouting.
Why did airships go out of fashion?
AIRSHIPS were seen as the future of commercial aviation in the 1930s with them being used in the tourism industry, the military and for private travel.
But the public’s perception of the quirky transport system was forever changed on May 6, 1937, when the tragic Hindenburg disaster took place.
The Hindenburg was an 804ft airship which was involved in a horror accident in New Jersey, US, that led to the deaths of 36 people.
The vessel was filled with hydrogen and as it came into moor witnesses claim they saw gas leaking from the airship.
Moments later, a spark was reported as flames erupted along the aircraft as it all quickly became engulfed in a horror blaze.
Thirty five of the 97 onboard died in the fire with another person losing their lives on the ground.
Many of the survivors were left with severe burns.
The catastrophe was filmed with a terrifying image showing the moment the back end of the airship exploded.
In the years after the disaster the use of airships for casual travel were largely avoided.
But when the world went to war in 1939, blimps became a popular method used in WW2.
The US Navy used them alongside convoys being sent to England and the Soviet Union.
Their job was to protect the huge armadas from German forces looking to unleash havoc in U-boats.
One of the most popular airships in wartime was the Zeppelin.
However by the end of the fighting, many Zeppelins were left completely destroyed by Allied bombing with them never being rebuilt.
Manufacturers quickly realised airships were less efficient in terms of price, speed and durability compared to planes.
Leaving production of any new vessels rarely seen.
In recent decades, blimps have been more commonly used for advertising purposes.
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