Flying Whales is a French aeronautic start-up developing an airship designed to be an environmentally-friendly solution for transporting heavy loads, such as wood logs or specific gear like wind-turbine blades, without ground-based infrastructure.

[1] Founded in 2012 by Sébastien Bougon, this project was initially dedicated to wood exploitation in partnership with the French organization in charge of public forest management, the Office National des Forêts (ONF).

[2] After the Canadian federal government blocked Quebec's participation in the project due to this partial Chinese ownership of the company, Flying Whales organized a buyout of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC)'s 25% stake in September 2021.

[3] In July 2022, the company announced that it had raised 122 million euros to finalize the development of the LCA60T.

Investors in this round include the Government of France via the French public investment bank Bpifrance, as part of the France 2030 program designed to revive the French industrial sector.The others investors are the Principality of Monaco with the Société Nationale de Financement, as well as Air Liquide's ALIAD venture capital fund, the Groupe ADP and Société Générale Assurances.