Boeing looks at anti-grav

[az]

KvH, There is a german firm developing the "Zeppelin NT", as the name suggests, a "next-generation" Zeppelin. It will mostly be used as a cargo lifter, though. The firms name is CargoLifter, IIRC

AZ

[Technoid]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
I still wish these things were still around.. it would be awesome to go see one taking off.

Hm....
Air ships was and still is a good idea
With helium and not hydrogen

[KvHagedorn]

I've seen the ZeppelinNT.. just another blimp I'm afraid.

The artist's concept of the cargolifter wasn't very elegant at all.. a huge ugly blimp with corporate logos emblazoned across it.. blech.

I'd like to see something like the classic ships that cruised around like ocean liners. A true traditional rigid Zeppelin design (and yes, helium would be preferable, though better design and sound, careful operation is more important.)

[MadScot]

Or even ground effect aircraft for trans-ocean cargo would be good. It's just hard to get companies to change enough to make new techs financially viable. The world is still waiting for good SST...

MadScot

[az]

SST?

AZ

[Novdid]

Originally posted by Technoid
With helium and not hydrogen

The reason they used hydrogen in german air ships was that after WW1 Germany was not permitted to import helium...(or something like that...my memory is failing me)

[Wombat]

There was nothing wrong with the hydrogen. It was the aluminum paint.

[William]

Thank goodness, Wombat has saved me from posting that. The most interesting thing I found when looking at the Hydrogen/Helium debate was a quote from Nevil Shute (Norway)'s "Slide Rule" about how they had considered it too dangerous to fly to India with petrol burning engines, but didn't see a problem with Hydrogen (R.100 -R.101 was Diesel).

[KvHagedorn]

Hugo Eckener (the Zeppelin chief after WWI) also believed gasoline to be the more dangerous problem. I don't think the aluminum content in the skin doping was really to blame either, though the dope certainly didn't deter the fabric skin from burning once ignited from within. The solid rocket fuel which contains aluminum is quite different from this doping compound. Yes, airborne pure aluminum powder when exposed to a source of ignition is very flammable, but so is grain in a silo, by the same principle. Does this prevent you from putting a piece of bread in your toaster for fear it will explode? No.

The few instances of a hydrogen filled rigid airship burning in air have been attributed to the valving of gas during a thunderstorm and subsequent ignition by lightning. Zeppelins were actually struck by lighting all the time without incident, so the dope was certainly safe. What felled the Hindenburg was probably sabotage. There were specific bomb threats made against the ship, as a matter of record. This doesn't mean the ignition of valved gas by lightning was impossible, but no lightning was seen hitting the ship.

By the way, the far greater dangers to airships such as the R101 and the Akron/Macon were the compromises made in construction, tied to inexperience and poor judgement of crews facing bad weather. The R101 was a pure mess, a product of bureaucracy gone mad. That's where the doping on the skin caused the crash.. not by flammability, but by fragility.. the skin of the ship was rotted and brittle, and couldn't take the aerodynamic stress. The Akron and Macon were structurally weakened against the will of the Zeppelin engineer who designed them, and this eventually proved their undoing, though the Akron was really destroyed by the foolishness of her commander and inexperience of her crew in very bad weather.

What I find most amusing is the power of the actual film footage to form public opinion, rather than fact. That there were far worse and more fatal airship accidents than the Hindenburg disaster is of no consequence, since they were not filmed. That image of the burning ship is etched in all our minds, but we forget that the true cause of accidents is human imperfection.. the design of Titanic and foolhardiness of her captain.. the impatient bravado of the pilot at Tenerife who rammed his 747 into another and burned 500 people to death.. The fact is, the Zeppelin company had a near flawless record because of the extreme care and professionalism of Dr. Eckener and those around him, and because of the design and operations experience the company had.

[agallag]

Originally posted by az
SST?

Super Sonic Transport