Uplifting: Manned Cloud's deisgners say it will offer eco-friendly holidays
Posted on 02/01/2008 5:11:43 PM PST by Stoat
With its fins and whale-like shape, it resembles Thunderbird 2.
But, unlike the huge International Rescue rocket in the puppet series, this gigantic airship won't be roaring off in a blast of flame and smoke to any international emergencies.
Instead, its designers say it will gently lift 40 passengers into the sky for a serene cruise of the world.
Scroll down for more...
Uplifting: Manned Cloud's deisgners say it will offer eco-friendly holidays
The airship is a floating hotel called the Manned Cloud, and - according to its designers - it will be capable of circling the globe in a few days.
The 20 bedrooms will provide the ultimate room with a view as the airship cruises at a height of 18,000ft.
It has a restaurant, a library, a lounge and a gym on the first deck.
On the second level there will be 20 passenger rooms, terraces with panoramic windows, a spa and a bar room. The airship is powered by a giant rear propeller and also has two further engines pointing downwards for vertical take-off.
However, if you're thinking of checking in, you will have to wait until its expected launch date of 2020.
Scroll down for more...
The ship could circle the globe in about ten days
Massaud, the French company behind the venture, is billing it as an ecologically friendly way to travel, leaving little impact on the environment - and eliminating the need for hotels.
Designer Jean-Marie Massaud's team has been working in conjunction with the French National Office of Airship Research on the project since 2005.
A spokesman for Massaud, AurÈlie Ullrich, said: !The idea at the heart of this project is that passengers can see fantastic places like Thailand and theCaribbean without the need to build ugly hotels everywhere.
"It could land for a few days or for a week if there is a big event going on.
"We don't want to be carrying around gallons and gallons of heavy petrol or diesel and we are looking into fuelling it with some form of helium gas."
Mr Massaud said: "The Manned Cloud permits you to explore the world without leaving a trace. Passengers can experience spectacular and exotic places without being intrusive or exploitative."
The cost of a night on the airship is yet to be decided, but it is likely to be out of the reach of most pockets.
However, it could provide the perfect hideaway for camera-shy celebrities.
Glimpse of the Blimp
• The Manned Cloud is almost 700ft long, 270ft wide and 170ft deep.
• It has a staff of 15 to look after the 40 passengers.
• Its makers say it will produce a top speed of 105mph and a cruising speed of 80mph. This means it could circle the globe in about ten days.
• It will be able to travel for 3,100 miles --or across the U.S. - before needing to be refuelled by a form of helium gas.
• Airships were the first aircraft to make controlled, powered flights, with French engineer Henri Giffard travelling 18 miles from Paris to Trappes in 1852.
She looks a little wooden to me.
Admittedly she has her physiological flaws, but in my view she makes up for them with spectacular hats, a dual-rearaxel Rolls with a machinegun behind the radiator and an ex-con chauffeur :-)
 |
WHOOPS! Actually, that’s a dual FRONT-axle Rolls...even better :-)
Sounds good to me, as long as they buy tickets and prove it to be a viable venture, which will spur more R&D and investment :-)
There’s just something majestic about a craft that is larger than most aircraft hangars moving almost silently overhead.
What about the removal of waste from the ship during flight?
They had a lot of Blimps in WWII which were used for exactly this. They were demobbed after the war, naturally.
Agreed on all counts...I would be delighted if this airship and more like her were to become a reality.
Re your mention of hangars, if you ever get to Tillamook, Oregon, they have the Tillamook Air Museum there which is housed in the largest wooden structure in the world...a WW2 dirigible hangar!
Helium? In case this Einstein hasn't checked, helium is NOT a fuel. It is inert and absolutely refuses to react with anything.
They have quite an impressive payload capacity, so they may possibly be able to accommodate even the waste-disposal needs of Michael Moore in holding tanks :-)
The technology of launch and recovery of UAVs from an airship is pretty straightforward. The trick is in finding the tactics that would make this better than ground launching.
That is, the UAV would have to do something other than what the airship could do, such as being a weapons platform to deliver air to ground weapons, and it would have to be out of the typical range of a ground launched UAV, which is pretty large.
An alternative would be that the airship is used not to send UAVs down, but up. Very high altitude UAVs are a thing unto themselves, and are like slow moving SR-71 Blackbirds. They might act as ECM, preventing enemy satellites from communicating with the ground, or to target satellite receivers.
Airships might also launch balloons or small rockets for atmospheric research, or become stationary platforms if someone eventually fabricates carbon nanotube cables, such as would be used for the space elevator.
Long before such an ambitious thing was done, much shorter cables of only a few miles in length would allow for very stable operations at high altitude. A tethered airship at altitude, no longer to a great extent at the mercy of the wind, and able to stay on station without using fuel.
LMAO!!!!
No, actually the Hindenburg disaster was caused by using essentially solid rocket fuel (aluminum powder in lacquer) as paint for the fabric. Best evidence is that the fabric was ignited by a lightening discharge. Eventually the hydrogen "did" burn, but it wasn't the cause. This is evidenced by the huge clouds of black smoke coming off (hydrogen burns with an invisible flame).
It reacts pretty funny with vocal chords.
1) Fire fighting. Unlike planes and helicopters, airships can carry much more water to a wildfire. Plus, they can not only drop it all at once, but they can “rain” for an extended time on a fire and the surrounding area, which strongly inhibits such fires. It can also land directly on a body of water to quickly recharge its tanks.
2) Communications. High altitude airships can act much like communications satellites, and transfer wide bandwidths of information. Even a single airship high over Kansas could handle much of the satellite traffic of the United States.
3) Combat surveillance. Airships could make high detail video record all outdoor movement in a combat area. Thus, any enemy attack could be traced back to its source, and where it retired to after the attack. Not just people, but vehicles could be monitored. It would be far higher than all but advance surface to air weapons.
4) Anti ballistic and cruise missile defenses. At high altitude, able to see both high flying and below the radar attacks from far away.
Well not quite... lots of talk but not much action.
Isn’t the largest actual flying airship the Zeppelin tourist one doing trips up and down Lake Constance (Boden Zee)?
We always hear bellyaching about peak oil, how we are running out, the need to conserve blah blah blah...
But helium is a resource that is far far less abundant, lost when used, already very expensive. There are inexhaustible alternatives for almost all our uses of oil, and second quality sources, but not helium. We just can’t keep wasting it forever on sky yachts. There are too many necessary things that are impossible without it.
LMAO!
As well as the ecological disaster ( I will spare readers my hypothetical descriptions of the specifics pertaining to a Michael Moore crater coupled with massive holding tanks full of his effluvia......this is a family site, after all and I have no desire to scar anyone psychologically )
((((snicker))))
Get hi-hi-high,
way up in the sky.
Gonna get, yes sirree,
if ya come and rock with me.
Have you heard? What’s the word?
It’s Thunderbird.
-ZZ Top
-ZZ Top
OH! Is THAT what Grizzled Bear was referring to earlier in this thread? A ZZ Top song? Lawd, I missed that entirely.
<<<< standing in corner
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.