1918: View from a French dirigible approaching a boat
There has been a recent flurry, coming up here and there, of interest in dirigibles as a carbon-neutral stand in’s for the usual high-octane, bone-soup, fire-eating jetplanes. While this seems to be no more than a nostalgic, steam-punk, flight of the imagination, return to earlier fantasies of a domesticated airspace (see also: 1. Problems with Hellium sourcing (its an expensive strategic resource, suffering, like all other commodities, a 50% price increase in 2007), 2. the fact that airships can only travel about 100mph and despite there very large size, 3. hold only a small fraction of the passengers that commercialaircraft do, 4. Turbulent weather saftey issues yet to be resolved), some interesting military-industrial and plutocratic appropriations and reinventions of airship technology have been circulating in the recent weeks\months. For an overview, see below.
Tactical spy derrigibles for any occasion
BAE intends to test-fly a 22-meter-long airship designed by balloonist Per Lindstrom(((That is the same Per who flew around in a balloon with Richard Branson, with whom he briefly got stranded when their balloon crashed in the Canadian tundra)))). Known as the GA22, it is scheduled to fly in September.The vehicle could become a regular feature of the skyline, providing civil and military surveillance and communications-relay capabilities.BAE started out looking for a platform that could provide communications relay for the military, Williams said, but quickly realized the airship could have a great future as a civil surveillance platform - policing events like the Olympics and shipping lanes like the English Channel. [via]
Hello Sky Hook, good-bye “Ice-Road Truckers”
The Boeing Company and SkyHook International have engaged in a joint venture to develop the JHL-40 (Jess Heavy Lifter), a new commercial heavy-lift rotorcraft designed to address the limitations and expense of transporting equipment and materials in remote regions. The neutrally buoyant feature allows SkyHook to safely carry payloads unmatched by any rotorcraft in existence today.
The helium-filled envelope is sized to support the weight of the vehicle and fuel without payload. With the empty weight of the aircraft supported by the envelope, the lift generated by four rotors is dedicated solely to lifting the payload, leaving the aircraft neutrally buoyant.
The SkyHook JHL-40 aircraft will be capable of lifting a 40-ton sling load and transporting it up to 200 miles without refueling in harsh environments such as the Canadian Arctic and Alaska (((see also the History Channel’s ethnography\demographic-pandering reality TV show, Ice Road Truckers))). [via]
Blimp or Battlespace Command Center de Luxe?
The Lockheed Martin High Altitude Airship (HAATM), an un-tethered, unmanned lighter-than-air vehicle, will operate above the jet stream in a geostationary position to deliver persistent station keeping as a surveillance platform, telecommunications relay, or a weather observer. The HAA also provides the Warfighter (((thats with a capital W))) affordable (((yep, even warfighters got to watch the old AmEx… wait, no they dont))), ever-present Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and rapid communications connectivity over the entire battle space. The technology is available now and ready for integration and flight test ((((yippy?))).
This updated concept of a proven technology takes lighter-than-air vehicles into a realm that gives users capabilities on par with satellites at a fraction of the cost (1 to 2 orders of magnitude less). The HAA will also integrate reconfigurable, multi-mission payload suites. HAA is significantly less costly to deploy and operate and other airborne platforms, and supports critical missions for defense, homeland security, and other civil applications. Its operational persistence eliminates the need for in-theater logistic support. In position, an airship would survey a 600-mile diameter area and millions of cubic miles of airspace.
High-strength fabrics to minimize hull weight, thin-film solar arrays for the regenerative power supply, and lightweight propulsion units are key technologies ready to make a high-flying airship a reality. The combination of photovoltaic and advanced energy storage systems delivers the necessary power to perform the airship functions. Propulsion units will maintain the airship’s geostationary position above the jet stream, propel it aloft and guide its takeoff and landing during ascent and descent. Lighter-than-air vehicles, operating at altitudes above controlled airspace under the control of a manned ground station, give users the flexibility to change payload equipment when the airship returns to its operational base to perform different tasks. [link] [brochure]
Prototype air-yacht for those ponderous sky cruises over the mercury filled skies of Shanghai
Set to be launched next month, the whale-like Aeros ML866 uses a combination of buoyancy (like a blimp) and lift (like a plane) to cruise comfortably through the air with over 5,000 square feet of interior room. It can take off vertically, without taking up runway time at crowded airports, which is perfect for your plutocrat on the run who cannot be bothered with the delays of mere millionaires. And although the Aeros ML866 is designed to fit a “business center” with video conferencing, perhaps it should rather perfer to have a swimming pool with adjoining hot tub, and a few of those 103-inch plasmas that Panasonic is so proud of.
hi marc,
love the post. i follow this stuff myself.
you missed three here.
1) the personal entertainment vehicle skyyacht http://www.personalblimp.com/index.html
2) the supposedly as good as a plane bobbing/swimming twin gliding blimp: http://www.fuellessflight.com/
3) staged ballooning to launch rockets from airship platforms (aka rockkoons or otherwise. ) http://www.jpaerospace.com/
hi marc,
love the post. i follow this stuff myself.
you missed three here.
1) the personal entertainment vehicle skyyacht http://www.personalblimp.com/index.html
2) the supposedly as good as a plane bobbing/swimming twin gliding blimp: http://www.fuellessflight.com/
3) staged ballooning to launch rockets from airship platforms (aka rockkoons or otherwise. ) http://www.jpaerospace.com/
oh yea you point out the following:
Problems with Helium sourcing (its an expensive strategic resource, suffering, like all other commodities, a 50% price increase in 2007),
this isn’t strictly a problem per se—just the commodity markets. texas produces vast quantities of helium and apparently much natural gas contains helium that is simply lost as the natural gas exits the earth…the technology to capture it is expensive but can maintained.
also, hydrogen is a VERY cheap substitute than can even be manurfactured on board a blimp with a ready supply of water (which can be soaked up through the atmosphere) the hydrogen problem is simply one of saftey , but realistically if you doped up the hyrdogen gas with some other gasses, separated the gas sac’s as with a cluster balloon setup and housed that inside a larger bag of C02, or figured out some equivelently ridiculous setup, hyrogen floating would be much safer.
2. the fact that airships can only travel about 100mph and despite there very large size, —–this is the big problem and must be accepted, you simply cannot go very fast as you get bigger. i like the idea of the blimp that floats up , and then deflated to maintain a slim profile as it glides down, one can glide at 200mph easily…..but this is unrealistic. the speed just can’t be overcome, it’s a lot like the same problem in boating. but………if you take into account that there are many people and objects that don’t need to get where they’re going as fast as possible, then this is the solution to them.
3. hold only a small fraction of the passengers that commercialaircraft do, : simply engineerable, a meer fact observable now, which may not be the case later.
4. Turbulent weather saftey issues yet to be resolved), planes have the same problems here. only with larger vehicles it becomes more of an issue, not much different than with planes really.
X5….you didn’t mention the possibilty for puncture/catostrophic failure. most peole worry about that, especially after watching the video of the hindenberg. the answer here is just more techonological innovation and better engineering.