Posted on 10/09/2007 7:46:20 PM PDT by Reaganesque
October 8, 2007 It’s as big as a superyacht, and not quite as fast as a supercar but it does have a range of over 3000 miles and can do it over land, sea or snow, lingering anywhere you like the view. A new category of aircraft that fits somewhere in between a blimp, airship or dirigible, the Aeroscraft ML866 project was recently presented at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) show in Atlanta, Georgia. The key factor of the ML866 design is that it offers superyacht size and comfort in a platform that can operate independently from airports, meaning that a new class of luxury conveyance is about to become available which appears to trump them all.
Based on concepts developed for the (now apparently shelved) US Army Heavy Lift “Project Walrus”, the Aeroscraft ML866 has some remarkable capabilities not available in other aircraft - it is incredibly spacious offering a cabin area of 5,382 square ft (500 square metres), boasts low operating costs, has all-weather capabilities, vertical takeoff and landing and extended range along with its ability to hover for long periods, meaning it can be utilized for a range of different applications from a private air yacht to a business office (even offering conferencing facilities catering for 100 people) in the sky or for commuting, freight solutions and sightseeing.
The Aeroscraft ML866 is a buoyancy assisted air vehicle with a rigid structure and gas cells. It uses Aeros’ proprietary Full Authority Direct Organic Lift Control (FADOLC) - a dynamic buoyancy management system that provides the low speed control capability. While 70% of the aerodynamic lift comes from helium, the remaining 30% is derived from its innovative “wing” shape. As well as being able to hover the aircraft will be capable of speeds up to 138 mph (0-222 kmh) and will operate at altitudes of up to 12,000 ft (3,657 m). and the massive 210 ft (64 m) long by 118 ft (36 m) wide by 56 ft (17 m) high structure will deliver a roomy 5000+ square feet of cabin space.
Aeros displayed a 1/48th scale model at this year’s NBAA show and hopes to begin airframe static testing of the rigid composite structure within months, with flight testing at the San Bernadino International Airport to follow as early as 2010. An additional series of commercially focussed Aeroscraft is also on the drawing board and will be scaled to payloads of up to 60 tons.
No exact pricing details are available as yet but reports suggest the tag will be under $40 million.
What I’m wondering is, how scalable is this design?
5,000 ft^2 of cabin space is the size of a pretty large suburban house. Could they build a smaller version with something like 1,000 ft^2 of cabin space, more like an airborne houseboat than an airborne megayacht? Or, for that matter, one with 20,000 ft^2, an airborne cruise liner (which was the original Zeppelin ideal).
There's a strong appeal there -- get the rocket into the upper atmosphere, lowering the escape velocity, with zero fuel expenditure, and then fire. from there, it's a short hop to thinking about using gaseous H2 for both buoyancy and fuel. When I was a kid, I noodled around with the idea, and even sketched out some designs, but it's probably for the best that I never took it to the model rocketry, might-blow-your-dumb-self-up stage.
It might be more plausible now than in the past, because now we have composite materials that remove a lot of the weight. But we also, through the Shuttle program, have gotten better with solid-fuel rockets -- in bang-for-the-buck terms, it would probably make more sense to lift a solid-fueled rocket with He than to try to fuel it with H2. And that's leaving aside the non-trivial task of getting a sufficiently precise launch vector from a platform that's literally floating in the wind.
It does seem a bit retro to go back to blimps for lift, yes? But that doesn’t mean we can’t have FUN with a pipe dream like this. Ok, you’ve got a 3 g acceleration limit for human bodies. So let’s say we have a HUGE hydrogen filled pumpkin balloon with ribs/bumps(NASA has already designed pumpkin balloons for floating around in mars/venus atmospheres). The center is pinched down to a sabot-ring which in turn holds the space rocket.
Now let’s say the pumpkin balloon gets you to 35,000 ft. The sabot-ring contains LOX and has several smaller bottom rockets as well. Thus the H2 from the balloon and LOX lifts the whole thing to 50,000 ft to 60,000 ft; at which point the balloon is drained and the space rocket fires(sabot release). Perhaps solid rocket boosters alone may get you to LEO(no liquid propellant).
As to a precise launching point, the STS cost reduction may well justify CLOSE ENOUGH. It’s very easy to change orbits once in space, heck, even tiny little ion rockets will do it, if you’re patient enough...
Ah well, it’s a zany idea, but then...where would we be if people in the past hadn’t asked : what if....
My understanding of the project is that it was originally designed for military heavy lift capability so, that’s why its so huge. I don’t see why this couldn’t be scaled down a bit. Check out their website, they may already have something on the drawing boards.
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