AtlasBoard

Founded in 1992 by Albert Grunder and a group of renegade aircraft engineers began developing Airships as a way for Smue to trade and export to other countries despite being land locked. In 1995 the first cargo airship prototype flew, the SAS Genesis which had a cargo capacity of 80 tons and had a length of 460 feet with a beam of 44 feet. The airship design required no infrastructure since the ship could 'cage' it's bouyant gas. No moorings were needed. Although initially the company ran into debt, however their next and first practical design was 890 feet long with a beam of 180 feet and a cargo capacity of 460 tons became the first successful design. By this time Grunder Airship Foundry was merely days from closing the doors.

The day before they closed in 1997, Duli Transport submitted an order for 3 of the Panamax Class cargo airships for a price of 9,870,000 Florins. Within a few years of operation Duli Transport had grew it's fleet to 9 Panamax Class airships with them operating nearly year around minus down time for maintenance. Since then Grunder Airship Foundry has become the largest aviation manufacturer in Smue employing roughly 490,000 and has become a model for what the government is trying to accomplish in terms of innovation.