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Could Airships be commercially viable?


AnchorSteam

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Yeah, the first thing people think of is the Hindenberg. News flash; they don't use Hydrogen anymore. Helium can't burn. In fact, it can be used to put fire out.

Now that we have that out of the way.... What do you all think?

Passenger Airships are already flying, one does little day-trips over San Francisco. Meh, okay, that does not really count, but they could compete successfully with high-speed trains over mid-long distance trips. They don't have to follow the rails and can ignore water barriers like the Great Lakes or the Gulf of Mexico. They would also be more comfortable and spacious, the only snag would be in the weight of luggage allowable. 
Weight is the big issue with Lighter Than Air ships.

Cruise airships have incredible possibilities. These big ships can also ignore land-barriers and don't need a port or an airport to land (more on that later) and can give you a view that no other ship can match.
Could you imagine swimming in a glass-bottom pool at 2,000 feet over Niagara Falls?

Cargo ships offer even greater advantages. Conventional aircraft become less efficient the larger they are. Airships become MORE efficient, and here is the kicker; Verticaltake off and landing.
Call me crazy, but a aircraft that can deliver cargo measured in hundreds of tons like a Helicopter can, that sounds very handy. 

And then there is the ground-docking side of it.
Leaving out the mooring mast and sheds/Hangars, all you need on the ground is an unpaved area of flat, open ground about triple the length of the ships coming in. Say five times if you like, but the fact is that a grassy field is the ideal surface. It does not even have to be as perfectly flat as a landing field for conventional planes, just free of obstructions and clear enough to allow the Airship to swing with the wind if need be.


The biggest problem with airships is their Sail Area. The Shenandoah was lost in Tornado Alley because there are certain times of year that you just shouldn't go certain places in an Airship.
Akron and Macon were lost because of short-cuts taken in construction. You cannot go cheap with these things, the Sky is an even less forgiving environment than the Sea.

So, is this a thing...?

Edited by AnchorSteam
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skycat is a latest development, i'm sure in some areas we'll still use them, but anything commercial, most likely not,

Edited by aztek
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They are going to use them as the platforms for aerial surveillance above cities in the near future.  Saw it on this site a couple of years ago in a thread about a new camera which can record everything in a city at extremely high resolutions and that any part of it can be zoomed in on and replayed.

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On 3/16/2017 at 8:51 AM, OverSword said:

 

They are going to use them as the platforms for aerial surveillance above cities in the near future.  Saw it on this site a couple of years ago in a thread about a new camera which can record everything in a city at extremely high resolutions and that any part of it can be zoomed in on and replayed.

Yes, the extremely long periods of time these things can spend in the air is something I can see the military taking advantage of.

Another interesting thing is that this is the one sort of moving vehicle that has the surface area for enough solar panels to power it.

 

Over 100 years ago, the German Airship line carried 35,000 passengers without hurting any of them. This may amaze a few people, but technology has come a long way since then

 

In 1929, the Graf Zeppelin flew around the world, and made just 4 stops.

Another fascinating thing is how they become more efficient the larger you build them. This is the opposite of what conventional aircraft are like. If you would like to play with a design of your own, it is easy to figure the lift; you need 17 cu. feet of Helium to lift one pound, and to figure the volume of a cylinder it is PieR squared times length. 

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If technology could ensure a much safer ship than in the past, they might be feasible.

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I believe there is a company that plans to use airships to resupply northern communities when the ice road is closed during the summer. It will be more cost effective then flying them in in airplanes simply do to the massive payload that can be brought aboard. 

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We use balloons to log some areas of the Northwest because they are cheaper than helicopters to fly and can lift more across roadless areas.  I have seen one pick up the back end of a D-8 cat and drag it about 30 feet in a heavy wind.

Harsh weather is still a problem, but  it would be a wonderful trip.  Ticket prices may be a bit dear.  They may be less expensive than air freight on jets, but their niche is small.  Areas  without other transportation could benefit.  Chances of it happening in the US are small apart from the novelty tourist flights.  We haven't got high speed rail here in the US yet.

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There is a helium shortage right now if I recall.  The volume needed for a commercial fleet of blimps would just make it worse.

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On 3/18/2017 at 6:40 PM, glorybebe said:

If technology could ensure a much safer ship than in the past, they might be feasible.

It certainly can, not just with advanced materials but with GPS and much more accurate weather forecasts. It was almost always very bad weather that did them in.

 

And there was a problem with Helium, but that market opened up recently. 

 

The Arctic again? I say "again" because Amundsen flew one from Norway to Alaska a few days after Admiral Byrd few over the North Pole in the 1920s. 

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On 19 March 2017 at 11:40 AM, glorybebe said:

If technology could ensure a much safer ship than in the past, they might be feasible.

I read these airships will act as warehouses in the sky over urban areas. Cheaper than renting space on the ground and transporting product by drone. So you wanna be sure the technology is safe.  

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On 16/03/2017 at 3:19 PM, AnchorSteam said:

Yeah, the first thing people think of is the Hindenberg.

Well that's completely irrelevant, only some of the (very) old generations these days would draw similarities to the Hindenburg.

Now that we have that out of the way...

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These new gen airships would be a godsend for supplying outlying areas, flooded and other disaster areas due to their heavy lift capability and VTOL capabilities and delivering things like wind turbine blades.   Not sure the technology is there yet and helium supply is a problem at the moment although a new source has been found in E. Africa in the Rift valley through the use of a new technique for finding it.   

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6 hours ago, Captain Risky said:

I read these airships will act as warehouses in the sky over urban areas. Cheaper than renting space on the ground and transporting product by drone. So you wanna be sure the technology is safe.  

This is something I never heard of, sounds fascinating but ... hard to picture in a windy city. Got the story on that?

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I would go up in one given the chance.  The more I think about it, the more excited I am about these.

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PICS !?!?!?!  I'd seen prototypes of  one's going across water with BACKWARDS super flexible like bat wings compressing / compression of air over water, didn't make it out to the world for some reason, too bad because of no fuel usage, well a lot less than something DRAGGING in the water(cave man) like we use today.

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7 hours ago, Captain Risky said:

I read these airships will act as warehouses in the sky over urban areas. Cheaper than renting space on the ground and transporting product by drone. So you wanna be sure the technology is safe.  

Wasn't Amazon talking about using one of these as a tester?

Edited by glorybebe
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2 hours ago, AnchorSteam said:

This is something I never heard of, sounds fascinating but ... hard to picture in a windy city. Got the story on that?

I really can't remember. If i run across the story again i will drop a link for you. 

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1 hour ago, glorybebe said:

Wasn't Amazon talking about using one of these as a tester?

Maybe. I do frequent the financial pages from time to time and thats were i probably read it. 

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2 hours ago, glorybebe said:

Wasn't Amazon talking about using one of these as a tester?

More or less, apparently in 2014 they filed a patent for massive flying warehouses equipped with fleets of drones that deliver goods to key locations.

 

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i have serious doubts they really were gonna do it, they know what comes up must come down,   they announced they are planing,  but for a totally different reason. imo

 

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2 hours ago, Parsec said:

More or less, apparently in 2014 they filed a patent for massive flying warehouses equipped with fleets of drones that deliver goods to key locations.

 

Ha!  My memory isn't as bad as I thought it! Lol

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lol, there are millions of patents issued for outrageous things, best thing about patenting, you really do not need to prove it even works. 

it is not unusual for companies  to make such optimistic announcements,  stock market basically works on predictions, hopes and fears, such announcements may very well affect stock price. or grants if it is a college\research facility , but they also can backfire, so one needs to be careful with this

Edited by aztek
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I'm tired of careful people, and people telling me I need to be careful.

That % of the people who made history were known for being so careful?

 

I guess it was ointless from the start.... this is the age of the slug, the cowardly, the self-indulgent.  Maybe its true; no more great things can be done now, this civilization must die before any new progress can be made.

Edited by AnchorSteam
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