Case Study: FLYING WHALES achieves sustainable heavy-cargo airship development with Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXPERIENCE platform

FLYING WHALES: Hybrid Airship

FLYING WHALES, a Franco-Canadian company, faced the challenge of designing and producing a massive 200-meter-long hybrid helium-electric airship for heavy cargo transport to remote areas, a project of immense scale and complexity requiring coordination with a global consortium. To overcome this, they turned to Dassault Systèmes and its 3DEXPERIENCE platform to manage the entire development and production process.

Using Dassault Systèmes' solutions, including CATIA for design, SIMULIA for simulation, and DELMIA for production planning, FLYING WHALES created a complete virtual twin of both the airship and its purpose-built factory. This provided digital continuity, enabling seamless collaboration across international teams, optimizing assembly processes for safety, and reducing the factory's steel usage by 50%. The platform was central to achieving data integrity for certification and is expected to reduce the airship's emissions by up to 90% compared to traditional aircraft.

FLYING WHALES