Airships Again!

[MIflyer]

And in Ohio!

"Airships could offer a much cleaner and quieter alternative for some aspects of the aviation market. In a former airship factory, a new generation are taking shape."

"Sergey Brin turned internet search into one of the world's most valuable businesses more than two decades ago. Now he intends to improve a technology which had its heyday long before he was born."


"Brin and his team of engineers' plan is to do this by reinventing a much older, if improved technology. A new generation of airships – the lighter-than-air craft that don't need conventional airports – will be built in a corner of Ohio which played a unique part in the history of aviation. What's more, if built they will be housed in one of America's most iconic structures, the Goodyear Airdock in Akron."


"Airships could help speed up the delivery of aid in disaster zones, carry air cargo much more cheaply than air freighters, and cut aviation emissions. However, similar projects in the past have struggled to overcome the complex engineering challenges involved, and have either run out of money, or left potential customers disillusioned."


"Flying an airship is unlike flying any other aircraft because it's lighter than air and floats, instead of sinks, when you put the power at idle," says Andrea Deyling, a pilot and director of airship operations of Brin's airship company, LTA Research. "There's also a sense of wonder people have when they see a lighter-than-air vehicle flying overhead. LTA Research is building a unique airship and I can't wait to get into the actual aircraft and fly it."

"In the first half of the 20th Century, Akron in Ohio, was known as the "rubber capital of the world" because it was home to great American tyre manufacturers such as one time arch-rivals Goodyear and Firestone, and it soon became a centre of airship development thanks to the connections between the two industries."

The giant hangar poised for an aviation revolution

Airships could offer a much cleaner and quieter alternative for some aspects of the aviation market. In a former airship factory, a new generation are taking shape.

www.bbc.com

 

[MIflyer]

Whoops! I don't know where that second photo came from! Certainly not off MY computer!

 

[Wurger]

It didn't upload here itself.

 

[Snautzer01]

She may up or download near me anytime.

 

[GrauGeist]

Trying to compete with Dominik's (V2) thread, are we?

If so, well played!

(The airship part is cool, too)

 

[MIflyer]

A relatively new development is that if I download some photos online they are saved as WEBPG. So to be able to use them I have to open them in MS Paint and save them as JPG, PNG, etc. No other image manipulation program seesm to be open the WEBPG format. Then MS Paint saves them in Pictures rather than downloads, and when you go to Pictures you have to dig them out of that pile, and often end up with things you had not looked for.

 

[Warspite]

While I understand the need for heavy lift aircraft I can't understand why they keep pushing the airship. Don't get me wrong, I love airships I really do but they have not been the most reliable platform. USS Los Angeles got stood on her nose in 1927.

USS Shenandoah, Akron and Macon all succumbed to heavy weather just to name a few and you may have noticed that the weather around the planet has gotten worse since then. Any airship now would still be at the mercy of the weather and I can't see many clients being happy when their deliveries are delayed due to strong weather. Another consideration would be that they are not the speediest mode of transport.

 

[MIflyer]

Well, weather prediction and real time data has gotten incredibly better since the heyday of the airship. They are going to have to be faster than the old ones, though, in order to avoid weather problems, but they will be warned of it in advance.

 

[GrauGeist]

Technology in the way of building materials, propulsion and navigation are lightyears beyond the days of the old airships, too.

 

[SaparotRob]

There is also their heavy lift capability. They can hover for hours without using fuel like an Mi-26. Transport of construction (or any) equipment to remote areas might be a useful niche. New construction techniques, materials and propulsion would improve their ability to handle rough weather. I don't see them returning as luxury liners of the sky again.

 

[ThomasP]

Some of the new airship (experimental/prototype) designs are being specifically designed for heavy lift/delivery of equipment and/or cargo to remote locations, with an alternate purpose of heavy cargo load deliveries over routes.

I do not know how current this is, but one of the main problems they were still working on a few years ago was the securing (ie tie-down/clamp-down) and protection of the airship when not in flight/use.

 

[MIflyer]

Piasecki tried tying four Mojave helicopters together along with a balloon envelope to develop a heavy lift machine back in the 80's. It crashed. We should be able to do a lot better than that.

 

[GrauGeist]

I do not know how current this is, but one of the main problems they were still working on a few years ago was the securing (ie tie-down/clamp-down) and protection of the airship when not in flight/use.

I recall one modern airship project was using the surviving blimp hangar at Tustin (Southern California) several years back.

 

[nuuumannn]

The problem with airships remains the same as it was back in the day. They aren't cheap. While technology has advanced leaps and bounds, infrastructure and maintenance remain costly aspects of the airship puzzle. Producing helium is spenny, very spenny and there are only a few places that do it in the volumes required for regular operation. Building more facilities to do so will also be spenny, but long term could lower the cost of production, although that depends purely on demand. Then there's transporting and storing it. After almost every flight an airship needs more lifting gas, especially when lifting loads. This means it needs to be transported to every destination the airship goes to, which means vehicles with the ability to store helium safely and properly in quantity.

The next issue is infrastructure for operating them. Firstly, airships need big hangars. They shouldn't be stored outside, only during the calmest of weather and if there is too much temperature variation between day/night/day outdoors the thing'll vent lifting gas naturally. Big hangars cost money to build and maintain and airship hangars require temperature regulation to prevent loss of lifting gas. Establishing infrastructure in support of operating the airship is the next thing, lifting gas transport and storage etc, big wide open spaces without obstruction for ground and air handling. Airship operating fields don't need moving air currents or directional and speed changes in wind, unlike fixed wing air operations. Strong headwinds are not welcome and certainly not cross winds, so choosing locations is far more judicious compared to conventional aircraft operation expectations.

This brings us to our next issue, airships can't operate at conventional main hub airports because of wind conditions, but also existing air movements and lack of space for manoeuvring close to the ground, not to mention disparities in performance expected of air traffic - airships are too slow and cumbersome to mix it with conventional aircraft at busy airports. Storing them at these airports requires building those big ass hangars and helium storage facilities - the airport companies are gonna charge through the nose for the privilege of taking up floor space. The best place for the regular operation of these clumsy means of transport is away from existing air routes and corridors and stuff on the ground.

The last problem is one that over time can be overcome, but in the beginning will require considerable guesswork and trial and error, and that's regular day-to-day operation. Unlike aeroplanes, there is no current body of expertise in the sustained operation of airships, and I don't mean just flying them. Every aspect of this idea needs to be reinvented to produce a working business strategy. Every aspect of doing so needs to be implemented from scratch. This won't be like starting your own aerial logging or top dressing company, this is all new. No one operates these commercially, to do so means breaking ground and reinventing the wheel.

The reality is that although all this needs to be achieved to regularly operate airships, none of it is impossible to overcome, but as George Harrison once sang, "it's gonna take money, a whole lotta spending money, to do it right..." So, to begin with you need huge investment, then your airship business better be profitable to be sustainable, because otherwise there's no future for your airships.

 

[GrauGeist]

By the way, the Good Year blimp's mooring station in Redondo Beach (near Long Beach and LAX), is in the middle of a Golf Course - how's that for wide open spaces?

 

[ThomasP]

One of the solutions that is being worked on, relative to the venting/replenishment of Helium and dealing with temperature induced expansion/deflation, is recompression of the helium. The idea is that instead of venting helium (voluntarily or involuntarily) onboard compressors will suck the Helium in and store it back in the onboard tanks.

 

[MIflyer]

Well, airships as they were built in the 1920's and 1930's will not be viable. The shape should be more like a delta and much flatter, wider than higher. The lift off the body was incidental on the old ones; in the new ones they will count on it. This shape will also make the airship more streamlined and less vulnerable to winds.

As for intermixing with fixed wing aircraft, note that problem also exists for the various electric powered UAV's proposed (and in production now) for cargo transportation and even local air taxi service. You do not want them mixing with airliners and even GA aircraft, and besides that, they do not need runways and it is much more feasible to locate them in populated areas, which will help with intermodal transfers. Noise problems should all but nonexistent, and failures are designed to be "graceful."

 

[Dimlee]

I still hope we hear about Igor Pasternak again. He was out of public sight for years.

One of his patents:

Flight system for a constant volume, variable buoyancy air vehicle

Complete Patent Searching Database and Patent Data Analytics Services.

www.freepatentsonline.com

 

[ThomasP]

Hey Dimlee,

Thanks for posting that. I could not remember who it was that was developing that system.

 

[Dimlee]

Hey Dimlee,

Thanks for posting that. I could not remember who it was that was developing that system.

You are welcome.
Variable buoyancy is interesting. A "flying submarine" with helium instead of air and air instead of water. It's a pity there are no news ,7 years after the patente.
That low pressure system... Did the inventor overestimate its efficiency?