World's Largest Airship Inflated to Create Monster 'Stratellite'

Space.com ^ | 5/20/10

[NormsRevenge]

I was thinking retractable roof, or open ended coliseum, ..nope.

the door at the end is big,, but I don’t think it will let the thing thru inflated.. I guess it can be deflated and hauled somehow..

[Army Air Corps]

Lots of Vaseline.

[Richard Kimball]

If it has a crew of eight, it functionally has no payload. Heck, a Ford F-350 can carry 2,000 lbs.

[halfright]

enuff to hold 4-500 lb. JDAMS. Silent killer. Just go upwind and turn off the motors. Never hear it coming.

[JRandomFreeper]

2000 lbs of high-bandwidth link electronics over that much surface area at 80K ft is a money making proposition. Consider the size and cost of communications satellites, and how much they earn. A couple of hundred pounds of electronics way up high is a moneymaker.

/johnny

[from occupied ga]

There are still some applications for airships, but this isn’t it.

Surveillance? Microwave relay?

[TexasCajun]

Umbella, Man-Made Global Warming solved.

[frithguild]

Smoking room inside the Hindenberg

[Army Air Corps]

Among others. Also, specialised cargo delivery to areas without an airfield (can carry more than many helicopters). Even medevac from remote areas. Personally, this particular airship looks more like a “gimmie stimulus money” project than a serious contender.

[1776 Reborn]

Heck this truck could carry that too! lol

[1776 Reborn]

Yeah, maybe so. Perhaps they could turn them in to vegetable green houses too.

[The Comedian]

Yeah, but the deer will see you coming for miles? lol

I don't know. I don't think deer have any natural air-borne predators, so they probably don't look up that often.

And either way, I'd paint my blimp sky blue, and hunt at night...

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[1776 Reborn]

Yeah, you could just throw beer bottles at them. lol

[SwedishConservative]

I’ve read articles about using airships as an alternative to satellites. They can’t cover nearly as much area as a geo-sync orbit sat, but they cost a fraction and are much more easily replaced. Pretty cool stuff.

[Old Professer]

In the linked article a reference was made to ‘filling it with algae,’ the article simply seemed to disappear and I can’t get it back — so are they using methane for a lifting gas?

Wouldn’t seem practical.

[Little Pig]

Apart from the irony (and maybe they really felt they had isolated it enough from the gas envelopes), just look at all that polished aluminum. Say what you like about the politics, and the science that used aluminum-based paint, but those were some truly impressive machines.

[Roccus]

Think “domestic surveillance”!

[Old Professer]

Here’s the reference to algae, but no explanation...

“Our airships are radically different designs that move beyond the performance limitations of traditional blimps or zeppelins by combining advanced technology with simple construction and the ability to fuel with algae, protecting our environment,”

(S)aid Michael Lawson, chairman and CEO of E-Green Technologies.

[Army Air Corps]

I think that they were referring to algae-based fuel for propulsion.

[Army Air Corps]

Well, they can be used in lieu of transmission towers. An aerostat could be used for TV and Radio broacasting over a wide area.