meet air cube, a hybrid airship and sky yacht that can take off after sailing on water

concept hybrid airship Air Cube can fly as a ‘sky yacht’

Design4Future, the spin-off of Leoni Design Workshop (LDWO), introduces their concept hybrid airship called Air Cube. It’s a hybrid sky yacht, which means there’s a floating apartment at the bottom of the airship, and it flies with the big balloon when it takes off after sailing on water. It may be a familiar house on water because that’s the Cube Houseboat, aka a red glass house that’s built on top of an aluminum catamaran.

These are all products of Jacopo Leoni and his team at Design4Future, who picture a private cabin complete with a dining area, spacious lounge, and modern amenities that can sail and fly anytime. It’s still a concept hybrid airship with lots of technical details that need to be defined, but the design team looks forward to making their sky yacht a reality. It might take them years to manifest it, but in the meantime, they are locked onto designing ‘a traditional airship with the agility and speed of a modern aircraft.’

all iamges courtesy of Design4Future, a spin-off of Leoni Design Workshop (LDWO)

Cube Houseboat at the bottom of the sky yacht

It’s not yet clear whether or not the top surface of the Air Cube is covered in solar panels so that green energy can also power the hybrid airship. What’s sure is that inside the Cube Houseboat at the bottom, the amenities are similar to the ones found in hotels. The bedroom takes up a huge space, and above the sleeping bed, there’s a skylight, so the owners are afforded stargazing at night and natural light during the day. Out in the communal spaces, the living and dining room share the same area but are placed on two sides right by the entrance.

There’s a small kitchen room after these two, and at the front of the houseboat is the captain’s wheelhouse, which doubles as an observatory deck for the owners, so they can gaze at the landscape. It’s in this room that the captain turns into a pilot too as soon as the Air Cube takes off and becomes an airship. It’s likely that it hovers and glides like a hot-air balloon rather than flies or speeds through like a proper airplane. Looking at the airship’s exterior design, it can resemble a giant clam shell carrying an apartment under it. Below the houseboat is where the design team plans to add the propulsions and engines of the hybrid airship. For now, Air Cube is a concept project.

the design of the hybrid airship resembles a giant cloud on the side