Cruise ship of the sky?

Worldwide Aeros, a company that currently makes "lighter-than-air products for commercial, civil, advertising, military and scientific applications," plans to build a 400 ton vessel of a size greater than one acre that will be suitable for both commercial and military purposes. The craft is expected to be completed by 2010.



The size of this thing staggers my imagination. Sort of makes one wonder if they've done some prototype work already. Just for comparison sake, one acre equals 43,560 square feet, or 4840 square yards, or 4046.86 square meters.




[edit on 2006/3/6 by GradyPhilpott]

Allready been posted
Aeroscraft

I cant wait to see there 2010 prototype, hopefully is all goes well, Airships will once again become popular.

Oh, well. It is nice picture, though, don't you think? I'm currently using it a my wallpaper.

That is a pretty site, definitly a step closer to the Sci-fi visions of the future.

Well the military is heavilly experimenting with blimps so it seems the future is bright for these behemoths.

But there are incredible technical and physical problems which such large airships, a few years ago the german "Cargolifter"company aimed to produce a 260 ton airship with 160t carrying capacity, the CL160, but tey went bankrupt in the process. The larger these things get, the worse they are affected by winds; and we are talking of development costs higher than for a new, off-the-scratch airliner here because of the need for completely new technologies.

Cargolifter already produced the worldwide largest unsupported dome for this project. It is 360 meters long, 210 meters wide and 107 meters high. At 5.5 million m³ (194 million ft³) it is the also largest building on Earth (by volume). The whole Eiffel Tower, laid on the ground, would fit in. Imagine how big aeros would have to build their hangar...

Here´s a picture of the 260t CL160 airship dwarfed by the building,


...and a link to the building in full glory:
Picture. Today it houses an artificial tropical resort called Tropical Islands which only uses a good 1/3 of the available space and is still considered to be the worldwide largest indoor lagoon (just to give an impression to size).

I just cant see a building to be any much bigger than this. So how would aeros build their even larger airship?

[edit on 7/3/2006 by Lonestar24]

Originally posted by Lonestar24
The larger these things get, the worse they are affected by winds

It used to be that you needed a lot of people on the ground for when you land, and you needed pretty good weather...But this Airship incorporates some new ideas...It will have 6 turbo jet engines pointing vertically, for landings and take-offs, this will greatly help in keeping the large craft undercontrol.

Lonestar24
Cargolifter already produced the worldwide largest unsupported dome for this project. It is 360 meters long, 210 meters wide and 107 meters high.

that (in feet) is around 1180 ft long, 690 ft wide, & 350 ft high.
Aeroscraft is going to be 647 ft long, 244 ft wide, & 165 ft high. Which means 2 could fit in it side by side. You wouldn't need something bigger then that mammoth.
But I dont think this comany will spend that much time and effort (like CL did) for the building...its job is basically a cruise ship in the sky...and like normal ocean type cruise ships they dont go on a trip and park it...they are constantly doing one load of people after another, it will only take up hangar space for overhuals. It would be much cheaper to build a normal style of building, with the ol' squarish look, and make the entire front or back (or both) of the building able to open up for it to enter/exit, and instead of a big sliding door, it would be much cheaper to use a strong cloth for the large openings.

[edit on 7-3-2006 by Murcielago]

The aerodynamics of these ships are getting better. Once we get light enough hard composits, we should be able to create vacuum filled, aerodynamic aerostats. In fact, once we get to that level, size really becomes a moot issue.

My theory is that the TR3-B is actually a Hard Composit, Vacuum filled aerostat.

composites are plenty light and strong.

and whats vacuum filled??? I think of vacuum as is nothing, no gas (like helium) or anything, So how would that be better (for lift) then helium?

Originally posted by Murcielago
and whats vacuum filled??? I think of vacuum as is nothing, no gas (like helium) or anything, So how would that be better (for lift) then helium?

Hydrogen and helium still have an atomic mass. Vacuum has no mass. No mass within a hard composit shell = more lift.

www.gizmag.com...

Here is an concept aircraft that is a hybrid model, that uses both a vacuum and a lifting gas as backup.

Even better than Helium , according to Hunt, is the idea to use a vacuum-lift system in the hybrid aircraft. During normal operation of the aircraft, lift is provided by the vacuum contained within rigid cells. As a precautionary measure, the new hybrid aircraft will use a Dual-Aerostatic-Lift system that will include the use of vacuum-lift and the use of a lifting gas. The lifting gas is expanded into collapsible gas bags, in the event of rupture of the vacuum-lift cell wall.

composites are plenty light and strong.

Not enough for this concept. Unless the TR3B is what I think it is.

[edit on 7-3-2006 by sardion2000]

[edit on 7-3-2006 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by sardion2000
www.gizmag.com...

Is this thing flying or is it still on the drawing board?

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott

Originally posted by sardion2000
www.gizmag.com...

Is this thing flying or is it still on the drawing board?

I believe it's still in development hell. Reason being, and this is just a wild guess, is that the composites we have now are not up to the task. They are strong enough but not light enough yet. Maybe in another five to ten years, possibly using some sort of nanocomposite.

Shouldn't the same prinicples appy in a small light weight version, just for the demonstration of the principle?

[edit on 2006/3/7 by GradyPhilpott]

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Shouldn't the same prinicples appy in a small light weight version, just for the demonstration of the principle?

[edit on 2006/3/7 by GradyPhilpott]

Yeah it should, infact I've read of a concept in a scifi novel called The Diamond Age, where most of the vehicles recieved lift from this a method. From small insect sized drones to huge cargo vehicles. Still the limits of current composite technology remain. We need to reduce the mass of these composites to the same mass of the textiles used in conventional aerostats, without compromising the strength of the composite, because you don't want this thing collapsing in on itself as soon as you remove the atmosphere from inside the cell.

[edit on 7-3-2006 by sardion2000]