Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird . . . it’s a plane . . . it’s a, well, what is it?

Airships are not exactly new in Australian skies. We recall several over the past couple of decades or so. But they still command a lot of attention whenever they are in view. Perhaps it’s because they are in view for such a long time, given their sedate progress through the heavens.

Holden’s new A-170 Lightship is something else again. It has the "wow" factor! It’s not just a large airship – though it is certainly that at 54.3m long, 14m wide and almost 17m tall – that’s bigger than a Boeing 767.

The first time you see it, especially from a distance and even more especially at night, you look – and look again. Just what is it? My first time was from perhaps 20km or more away and all I could make out, in the night sky, was this big, red, pulsating "thing". It was, most definitely, an Unidentified Flying Object. Was it finally those long-expected Martians?