ooooh, shiiny

[solarbird]

Here, this is very cool. Hopefully it'll work once they actually build the prototype. I haven't been able to get any information on energy consumption from a site I consider sound; I found one source that said it was less than half the energy need of airlines of comparable capacity airliners, but it also called it a lighter-than-air vessel, which it apparently isn't. (It's buoyant, but only 2/3 of the carrying weight is lifted by the gas envelopes.) I like very much that its propulsion is electric.

Comments

[chirik.livejournal.com]

Passengers: 250

Wow. That's not very many. But it is a floating luxury hotel.

I guess it'd need to be - it's 6000 mile range would take it over a day at top speed. You don't have much else to do.

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

/swoon x 4327894623894763242546925432695609432

[tinlail.livejournal.com]

Very cool, alas it probably will never fly.
I believe that a large light weight structure is very vulenable to winds and storms. The fact that only one drigiable of the US Navy didn't crash because of weather is a big clue.

However if I was trying to run one of those. I think it would make much more sense to fly people and supplies up to it, than to land and pick people up.

[solarbird]

This isn't a dirigible, though. This is an airfoil, kind of a flying wing. It should be much less vulnerable to wind shifts.

They have the VTOL capability in part because of the cargo version of the same craft; the idea is to have the flexibility of trucks at three to five times the speed over any distance of note.

[tinlail.livejournal.com]

Although it is a little towards the center of the strength/weight scale from a drigible it is still at the far end compared to planes. Having VTOL capability is good, you have to land sometime, but using it as a regular operating mode, leads you to dangers of hitting something hard, and having to go to the shop.

[solarbird]

Although it is a little towards the center of the strength/weight scale from a drigible it is still at the far end compared to planes.
Yes. But unlike a dirigible, it doesn't have a flat-wall facing. The wind resistance from sides should be much lower, which will help significantly.

[tinlail.livejournal.com]

Flat wall?

[solarbird]

Well, not absolutely flat, but the lateral sides of zeppelins are pretty tall, and probably more importantly, a zeppelin body has no lift potential in any direction. This has some in most directions. Very different.

[tinlail.livejournal.com]

I see what you are getting at, not sure if the difference is enough to matter. Zeppelins do generate lift, it is used to trim the craft.

[quen-elf.livejournal.com]

They used to run commercial airship routes, so the weather thing can't have been an insurmountable problem. (Since they used hydrogen, the blowing-up thing was however a problem, see old newsreel footage :)

Thing that irked me about the article was that they claimed hydrogen fuel cells as a 'renewable power source'... ah well. I wonder how much of the power requirements you could get if you covered the top surface with some of the lightweight solar panels... probably not near enough, but still. :)

Overall, nice, but frankly just a toy for the rich with little environmental benefit. You can bet it isn't going to be cheaper to travel on that. There have been several attempts to use airship technology for freight, however (they did mention that too), which might make more sense as airfreight is a bit less time-sensitive than passenger travel. And I guess 'luxury liners', if they actually work, could open a market into which other more efficient options might arise. (Particularly when aviation fuel prices increase another significant jump or two.)

Of course, you can also now actually fly in a genuine Zeppelin. (A new one.) Unfortunately, it only takes 16 passengers on short tourist trips :) Still, good brand name.

[dpawtows.livejournal.com]

Lockheed just started flight testing of their own hybrid aiiship protytype. It looks kinda like three blimps joined together. Their cute idea was to use air-cushions for landing gear. It can reverse the flow on the cushions to suck itself down onto a flat surface and *stick* there.

The folks who really want this tech the most, of course, are the military.

Coolness

[(Anonymous)]

A cross between a blimp and a lifting body...it's gonna need a *lot* of fuel cells-not just for the motors, but for powering all the ship's lighting,appliances and so on.I suppose you could cover part of the surface in thin-film solar cells as an assist. I would use alcohol fuel cells instead of hydrogen..but it is a cool idea if it can be made to work. Scott