Airlander Hybrid(new type of airship)

THE world’s largest aircraft has been unveiled in Britain and it’s a real game changer. The Airlander is part plane, part airship and part helicopter and it’s designed to provide an environmentally friends, easy, safe and revolutionary way to travel. The 91 metre ship can deliver several tonnes of humanitarian aid and transport heavy freight across the world, but there are plans to create ‘luxury’ hybrids with infinity pools so lucky passengers can take a dip as they float across the African plains.

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This looks cool..

I wonder how long it would take to travel over bass straight, thats my only question..

I absolutely love the idea. Our current air travel setup consumes far too much fuel, and it's just cumbersome.

amraks
I wonder how long it would take to travel over bass straight, thats my only question..

They said 100 mph

So that's roughly 1.5 hours...

thats about 160 kph..

Wonder if I can convince my state government into this concept.
As they are looking at domestic freight shipping.

I will wait till state elections are over and send who ever gets in an email.

Hopefully, they will avoid Hydrogen. I think that has been shown to be a bit tricky to implement in such devices...

From memory: The craft just finished a three week shakedown mission where it remained airborne (all three weeks) without fueling. They are already planning on making one twice as large with a much bigger payload.

If they could make it more aerodynamic and get the speed up to something around 250+ knots IMO it would be a much better platform; a truly great transportation platform I would like to see... Just a 1000 mile trip will take 10 hours at 100 mph which is faster than a truck or ship but..... If they could get the speed up then they would really be able to give some of the ocean shipping companies a run for their money..... if some of their projected payloads are correct..

Instead of boarding a 747 or something equivalent and flying across the Pacific for 16 hours in miserable coach type conditions if this thing were designed correctly and with the speed indicated above you could board one and take a couple of days or around 48 hours (depending on the winds) and arrive on the other side of the world.. Much like an ocean cruise does today as far as accommodations...

reply to post by amraks


Hmmm remind me Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in an Alternate 1930s when Zeppelin's became a normal part of human society

Ok....but if it gets shot down, explodes, or crashes over any large metropolitan area/city.....?????

reply to post by mysterioustranger


The same as if a large airliner was shot down, exploded or crashed over a large metropolitan area/neighborhood, maybe even slightly less damage.

Reminds me of the Aeroscraft from 7 years ago. Aeroscraft Personally, I'd much rather travel in a floating cruise ship than a conventional passenger jet. Even if it takes twice as long to get where I'm going, I'd sacrifice speed for comfort.

The guys sez...

"It could be loaded with surveillance equipment and stay up for days..."

Oh Great...the worlds largest drone.

Why is it that we humans ALWAYS look at a new technology and
the FIRST thing we think is....How can we use that to kill or control people?

reply to post by rival


Because the standard operating procedure for technological distribution starts with the MIC and ends with the public. The points it travels in-between are dictated solely by profit.

Once they become faster they will eliminate traditional planes with all that insane hydro carbon wastage.

reply to post by Bellor


They won't ever replace planes with this. The travel time is too long. Getting an airship up to the speed of a plane is going to be extremely difficult at best, if not outright impossible due to the stress on the frame, as well as the size.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Turn its out shell into a printed solar skin feeding an electric motor. Cover in near field sensors for on the fly power corrections and get some engineers.

Because lets be perfectly honest, crude oil is not sustainable if we engineer out its uses we can force the global markets to shift crude where it needs to be i.e in sustaining our global trade network of heavy industry.

People, barring the hyper rich who can charter ultra fast jet fighter speed Learjets will i imagine keep doing what there doing, mad tycoons. But everyone else might just have to accept the hit in travel times. Assured in the knowledge humanity might make it that couple of generations longer BECAUSE OF THE SCARY BAD NIGHTMARE CONSEQUENCE OF IT NOT SURVIVING IS TOO MUCH.

reply to post by Bellor


The only advantage over aircraft an airship has is cargo capacity. Aircraft won't be going away any time soon. We'll see advances in engine technology, and fuel technology but aircraft aren't going away.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Not sustainable, 90% of global freight carried by shipping, flight is a luxury ill afforded.

I understand the military likes to fly though.

reply to post by Bellor


Not sustainable? So what have the last 100 years been? Aircraft will be here for a very long time to come.

So air travel is unsustainable because it uses oil, but airships, ships, cars, and trucks which all use oil are?

reply to post by Zaphod58


They are forms of the greatest inefficiency and part of numerous industrialized catalog of errors that has been made time and time again in society ultimately to our detriment and they need to be phased out.

Materials are finite and whatever systems of manufacturing we have, we must now prepare for the fact that materials are no longer in abundance and must be produced as efficiently as possible. Commercial engine research should be elevated to propulsion systems for exploiting space.

reply to post by amraks


This is very cool indeed. I was looking into this awhile back when I was researching Lockheed & Martin and its inventions and what not.

Although I love this vehicle and what it can do, I still remain a little lery when it has anything to do with Lockheed.

Lockheed has teamed up with a local company here in my city and there are some strange things that happen around our airport at night; not every night but from time to time you may see or hear things that are just plain strange.

Another fine concept of the air ship/balloon technology that goes back over 100 years.

"Airplanes" as we know them, are quite old fashioned, and really havent changed since WW1.

They regularly fall out the sky, with taking off and landing the most dangerous. They are flimsy, still held together with rivets and aluminium sheet, and carry tons of Fuel, enough to collapse a building or two. (ahum..)

These assisted airships are brilliant.
VTOL, quiet, safe (to a degree...even birds make mistakes and fall out the sky or fly into windows etc).

Yes they would be slower, but much more comfortable for a passenger, not like the current cattle herd system.
Electric motor power, supplemented with biofuel mini jets for thrust.

Dont need huge Airports and that waste of space with long runways.

Could even land In water and float, I would think....or could be easily made to.

This vision goes back a long way, nearly every "Future" Earth movie, seems to have some sort of giant flying airship.

Good Show fellows.