Posted on 02/28/2014 11:18:27 PM PST by Olog-hai
The world’s largest aircraft, which can stay airborne for up to three weeks and will be vital in delivering several tonnes of humanitarian aid as well as transporting heavy freight across the world, has been unveiled.
The 300-ft (91-m) ship is part plane, airship and helicopter, and there are plans to eventually use it to transport hundreds of tonnes of freight across difficult terrain throughout the world as well as deliver aid to risky areas.
It is environmentally friendly, being part airship filled with inert helium, and will also be used for surveillance and communications. Developers hope to make more of the “green vehicles”, which they hope to make capable of taking off from land, water, desert, ice and fields. …
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Hell, I wrote a paper in high school proposing this very thing back in the 1960s.
That’s not even half the length of the hindenberg.
What makes it different is that it reach anywhere on earth with a day, whereas a traditional blimp might take a week. That makes all the difference in the world if you’re delivering humanitarian supplies to places that suffered an immense natural disaster.
what was ounce old is now claimed to be new. Reminds me of what W. C. Fields said about ‘suckers’.
I found this paragraph amusing.
“However he said he can’t see the ships replacing railways traditionally used to transport freight, but instead said the hybrid machines would be suitable for transporting very heavy loads in hard to reach areas like Canada and Africa.”
I didn’t think Toronto traffic got that bad.
Is that filled with Rino Republican gas or something else?
I suppose there are a few things this design could be well-suited for. The Soviets developed all sorts of wild helicopter designs to service the areas that couldn’t be reached by ground transport and didn’t have the landing facilities for fixed-wing aircraft. So, this isn’t that different in that sense.
As a game-changer...I dunno. I get that it’s high-endurance, but 100 mph top speed dampens my enthusiasm a bit. Cruise speed is likely a lot less than that (I’m betting no more than half, based on what I’ve read on other next-gen airship designs).
I’m not an aerospace engineer, certainly. But this just looks like a niche vehicle, rather than the future of air transport and travel.
Ahhh, more surveillance. Wherever the battery powered drones are impractical.
The first aircraft with cleavage. Game changer.
Trendy phrase I’d like to see permanently retired: “Game changer.”
It would be useful in delivering supplies to places like Ft. McMurray, Alberta. The could bypass Highway 63 altogether, which is the main highway from Edmonton.
Currently, when you get stuck behind a truck carrying some of the large equipment, you can find that this six hour trip becomes a 15 hour trip and there’s nothing you can do about it, if you value your life than your time.
I can tell you from personal experience that our traffic *is* that bad.
It could also be useful in opening up the “Ring of Fire” in Northern Ontario. There are no roads there at all, so this would probably be more cost-effective than building new roads to get at the minerals.
And every year or so “they” keep telling us that we are on the cusp of a major helium shortage and that we will run out of it in our lifetimes.
Now that I have reminded everyone of this, look at the picture of this thing and try to reconcile “helium shortage” with operating one or more of THOSE.
And let’s not pretend that once in a while there won’t be an accident that loses all of the helium in that thing.
“huge manatee” pic coming in 3, 2,...
500 miles an hour, NO NO NO. If it can please let me invest, it can not thus I will not invest. In reality there is a place for lighter than air heavy lift but they will be slow aircraft.
How did they ever get Rosie O’Donnell airborne? Shove propellers up her butt?
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