Lighter-than-air craft rise again

link

I thought this was very cool.
Bringing back airships. Which makes sense since it gives the ability to transfer equipment to places where trucks and planes can't go.
Just need a big field.

And I like that they pretty much eliminate the need for ground crew since they can control the buoyancy of the craft by just recompressing the gas. Thereby giving of taking away lift.
Very neat!

f you like the idea of cruising on a ship in laid-back luxury, but prefer the speed and convenience of air travel, there may soon be a solution. Drawing their inspiration from the airships of yesteryear, a new generation of airship-like vehicles could soon be making their way across our skies.

In a hangar outside Tustin in California, engineers are preparing one of the most radical designs for testing. The Aeroscraft, as it is known, is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak and has been made possible by advances in materials and computer control systems.

“We are resurrecting [the airship] with new composite fabric structures, that are stronger, lighter, more versatile” says Fred Edworthy, of Aeros, the company building the lighter-than-air vehicle.

reply to post by grey580


Thats awesome, I once had a customer that was a pilot for a blimp.

He got me on it, it was one of the memorable experiences in my life, really cool method of flight.

Everyone should experience it.

aint gonna happen in the sense of an new generation of "luxury air travel" - the economics of airships are jsut carp.

they do have a place for various specialist roles such as persistent surveillance/communications platforms - but even as heavy lift to out of the way places helicopters are just so much smaller, cheaper and easier to use.

Why heavy lift airships are not going to happen

Perhaps more importantly, current cargo aircraft can meet or exceed all the capabilities of any realistic airship-based cargo system. The most popular large cargo aircraft is the 747 freighter, which can carry upwards of 112 metric tons of cargo payload. The upcoming Airbus A380-800 Freighter will carry as much as 140 metric tons of cargo. The Antanov An-124 can carry a payload of 150 metric tons and the AN-225 can carry a payload of as much as 250 metric tons.

By comparison, the Hindenburg, the largest airship ever flown, had a cargo capacity of a mere 19 metric tons. A modern airship of the same size might be capable of lifting a bit more due to lighter materials. Using a combination of buoyancy and aerodynamic lift a hybrid airship might be able to lift even more still but still would have a very hard time competing with heavier than air aircraft and still remaining a manageable and realistic size

ill just leave this here... www.ptodirect.com...

reply to post by Argus01


Yipee - a patent...without comment about it as to why you think it is relevant to this thread........I thought only chemtrail nuts engaged in that sort of "drive by evidence"

Thats quite a generalization, but truth be told just because something is patented dosent mean it can/will/does exist, i dont have a dog in this airship fight, i just thought some of the people who were interested such a thing would find some of the things discussed (materials, propulsion sys, mission envelope ect) in the patent amusing, i did not mean to get any ones dander up.