HOUSTON -- The World Sky Race will stop in Houston in a few years, KPRC Local 2 reported Friday.

Don Hartsell, the commissioner and managing director of the World Air League, is planning a race of blimps and skyships around the world. There will be 16 races connected to make the 25,000-mile, 150-day competition.

"Three years ago, I looked at what it was I wanted to do in life and I came to the conclusion that this had bubbled to the top," said Hartsell. "I would say that this has become an event that is going to be celebrated in world capitals in a scale unlike anything that we've seen before."

Hartsell said the 160- to 250-foot-long, lighter-than-air skyships will float past some of the great spots around the world -- places like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the pyramids of Egypt and the Taj Mahal in India.

The race is expected to land near the Saturn 5 at the Johnson Space Center.

"There'll be those in this race to win. Others will be in there to place, and others will be there to show," Hartsell said.

He expects the race to start in 2011 and last about five months.  He said $10 million is the target for prize money.

The race is expected to land in Houston in early 2012.  It would be the first unassisted trans-Atlantic skyship crossing since 1937 and would set an aviation record.