It's the great blimp your product in the sky

The 10m blimp could be an advertiser's dream. Photo / Supplied

When you really have something to say, why not shout it across the sky?

A 10m remote-controlled airship is lying low in a Whenuapai warehouse while it waits for a new owner - with a starting price of $9999 on Trade Me.

Auckland pyrotechnician Len Julian and wife Morgan imported the airship's basic materials and tweaked the blimp over the past two years.

The couple wanted to use the craft for everything from fireworks displays to "a grand advertising scheme" but lost motivation in the last few months.

The airship was most spectacular at night, when an internal illumination system added colour.

Len joked the blimp's two 50cc engines made a pleasant noise: "It's got a reasonable little drone, in a major key".

The Julians said the size of the blimp presented "some restrictions" on where it could be sensibly flown, but it still was not classified as an aircraft.

Aviation historian Rev Dr Richard Waugh said remote- controlled blimps were sometimes used in the United States and Europe, but an airship sale of this kind was a rarity in New Zealand.

He said our turbulent weather made many operators wary of flying blimps here.

"We're not helped by the wind or by the mountainous terrain."

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Bill Sommer said that could be one reason why no commercial airships were registered with the CAA.

Waugh said New Zealanders had a long affinity with blimps.

"Someone tried to patent a heavier-than-air airship around 1920. There has been a long history of Kiwis being innovative," he said.

When it was not airborne, the Julians kept the airship in a Whenuapai warehouse alongside a strange collection of toys and inventions.