Return of the Zeppelin: FAA green-light puts Lockheed Martin’s airship on track to hit skies by 2018

[ADM-Ntek]

this is going to be the cargolifter all over again. 

[pagani123]

this is going to be the cargolifter all over again. 

accept the cargo lifter was a small company with little r&d budget. Lockheed martin is a giant company with a lot of extra money and a whole large team "skunkworks" to work with anyways at least something cool came out of the cargo lifter (tropical islands resort)

[ICantThinkOfAnyGoodName]

 

I wonder if it would be possible to make a zeppelin "space elevator"? Not necessarily carry to the space station but like get you to the edge so you dont have to use massive rockets?

That wouldn't really work. The difficult part about getting something into orbit is not getting to space, but getting it to orbital velocity.

[Sauron]

oh yeah and it wont use hydrogen apparently which I guess is a good thing.

 

yeah, that might be wise.

 

this is what happens if you use hydrogen:

[RagnarokDel]

That wouldn't really work. The difficult part about getting something into orbit is not getting to space, but getting it to orbital velocity.

yeah but wouldnt it be much easier from let's say 40 km up like Felix Baumgartner then it would be from the ground?

[Lewellyn]

Yes please. Command and control airships!

 

Command and Control? 

 

Command and Conquer!

 

 

Kirov Reporting

[dizmo]

Interesting, but I don't think we'll see this taking off into a huge business. I think they will sell, but in very small quantities. Much like a lot of other very specialty heavy machinery.

 

The only reason we don't have this already is because everybody got scared from the hindinberg. And thought hydrogen is dangerous. Hydrogen isn't dangerous if it is the only thing in an environment like a sealed ballon.

There's a huge number of reasons, that's definitely not the only one.

 

I really like this idea simply because it could possibly open a new direction for goods to be transported. Imagine if airports only ever had to deal with passengers now, instead of cargo as well. Companies like FedEx that ship a lot through airports could use these airships instead and possible land them anywhere. Maybe even Amazon could get in on this and have their own transportation network...from warehouse to the distribution center using the airships and then from the distribution centers to the homes using drones.

I don't think so. These things would be huge. Much too large to have many of them flying around at once. They're also incredibly limited operational perimeters as they don't exactly handle poor weather well. They're also slow.

 

I always thought airships ended not because of the Hindenberg but because of their inability to handle adverse weather conditions. I belive multiple US ariships were lost at sea or in other weather related accidents.

Yup. Not exactly the smartest thing to be flying in poor weather.

 

Well they may figure it out how to make a good Zeppelin this time.

 

Last time the US made a bad ass Zeppelin it crashed after 2 years. It was a flying aircraft carrier that was pretty cool, but vulnerable to havy wind.

If you are intreseted in more fact look for "USS Malcony".

Even modern engineering can't break the law of physics. The ration of body size to the thrust from the engines is assumably still pretty low, makeing the airship still vulnerable to havy wind.

But I give them a chance and look how well they will do.

USS Macon*

There were two of these, both crashed in poor weather. The US Navy never tried to use them again, and didn't even bother recovering the wreckage of the second air carrier.

[Fred Castellum]

It'll be interesting seeing what these airships can do. Cargo transportation and civilian transportation as well, wonder how hard it is to make stealthy version of a zeppelin....

 

Command and Control? 

 

Command and Conquer!

 

Kirov Reporting

So this is how it ends?

[Belgarathian]

The only reason we don't have this already is because everybody got scared from the hindinberg. And thought hydrogen is dangerous. Hydrogen isn't dangerous if it is the only thing in an environment like a sealed ballon.

 

Well yeah, but that was the problem.... Something poked a hole in the balloon and suddenly there was oxygen and a spark.

 

But you're right, Hydrogen itself isn't an issue.... But then again, nothing can burn without a source of oxygen. 

[RagnarokDel]

accept the cargo lifter was a small company with little r&d budget. Lockheed martin is a giant company with a lot of extra money and a whole large team "skunkworks" to work with anyways at least something cool came out of the cargo lifter (tropical islands resort)

the design is already done they're talking about 2018 for the first flights... The grunt of the work has been done for a while now. Hell I wouldnt be surprised if they already had secret test flights on a few designs by now.

 

http://www.military-heat.com/91/p791-hybrid-airship-project/ maiden test flight was done in 2006

 

Doesnt look that slow to me, obviously it's slower then a plane but if it's able to reach somewhat fast speed, and carry cargo, it would be interesting.

[HalGameGuru]

-snip-

No that's what happens when you make the skin of your airship out of rocket fuel

[pagani123]

the design is already done they're talking about 2018 for the first flights... The grunt of the work has been done for a while now. Hell I wouldnt be surprised if they already had secret test flights on a few designs by now.

 

http://www.military-heat.com/91/p791-hybrid-airship-project/ maiden test flight was done in 2006

 

Doesnt look that slow to me, obviously it's slower then a plane but if it's able to reach somewhat fast speed, and carry cargo, it would be interesting.

yes i know im just saying continue development 

[pagani123]

No that's what happens when you make the skin of your airship out of rocket fuel

it wasn't made out of rocket fuel but it was made out of flammable material (cotton material with dope made out of cellulose acetate butyrate to which aluminum powder was added to reflect sunlight and keep the gas from expanding). it wasn't the main factor the hydrogen did most of the burning 

[HalGameGuru]

it wasn't made out of rocket fuel but it was made out of flammable material (cotton material with dope made out of cellulose acetate butyrate to which aluminum powder was added to reflect sunlight and keep the gas from expanding). it wasn't the main factor the hydrogen did most of the burning 

That doping was for conditioning the skin for flight and resilience to wind, rain, and physical impacts; the iron oxide the top was additionally doped with was for ameliorating the effects of sunlight. Hydrogen goes up pretty fast, and vents even faster once the integrity of the vessel is compromised, a lot of the flames were the physical pieces of the airship going up, from the cells, the scaffolding, and passenger areas. The hydrogen did burn, and vent, but it went quickly, and spread the fire.

 

The hydrogen did catch fire, and was the cause of the "explosive" conflagration, but it wasn't what went up to "cause" the disaster. "Rocket Fuel" is hyperbolic but anyone who has had aluminum shavings come into close concentration with anything like latex or poly, doped cotton or paper, knows how easily it goes up and how excitedly it does so.

 

Helium would have kept it from being the conflagration it was but it would not have prevented the initial fire. And the fire still would have been large and craft defeating. Gas would have vented, the airship would have collapsed, there would have been loss of life, but nowhere near as bad as it was.

 

Although I sincerely doubt any of those issues will plague the new airships. I do think whole new ones will arise, but with dedicated folks involved in solving them.

[pagani123]

That doping was for conditioning the skin for flight and resilience to wind, rain, and physical impacts; the iron oxide the top was additionally doped with was for ameliorating the effects of sunlight. Hydrogen goes up pretty fast, and vents even faster once the integrity of the vessel is compromised, a lot of the flames were the physical pieces of the airship going up, from the cells, the scaffolding, and passenger areas. The hydrogen did burn, and vent, but it went quickly, and spread the fire.

 

The hydrogen did catch fire, and was the cause of the "explosive" conflagration, but it wasn't what went up to "cause" the disaster. "Rocket Fuel" is hyperbolic but anyone who has had aluminum shavings come into close concentration with anything like latex or poly, doped cotton or paper, knows how easily it goes up and how excitedly it does so.

 

Helium would have kept it from being the conflagration it was but it would not have prevented the initial fire. And the fire still would have been large and craft defeating. Gas would have vented, the airship would have collapsed, there would have been loss of life, but nowhere near as bad as it was.

 

Although I sincerely doubt any of those issues will plague the new airships. I do think whole new ones will arise, but with dedicated folks involved in solving them.

actually the iron oxide was used for protecting it against uv radiation the aluminum was to reflect sunlight. (i just thought you were one of those guys who actually believed they soaked it in rocket fuel. but yes i agree with what you said. it wont happen now because blimps are made of compound that is comprised of polyurethane, polyester and Tedlar.

[HalGameGuru]

actually the iron oxide was used for protecting it against uv radiation the aluminum was to reflect sunlight. (i just thought you were one of those guys who actually believed they soaked it in rocket fuel. but yes i agree with what you said. it wont happen now because blimps are made of compound that is comprised of polyurethane, polyester and Tedlar.

According to what I read the aluminum doping was primarily for structural integrity of the skin for aerodynamics and to protect it in rain, wind, and against small impacts or perforations. That it also reduced the HEAT from sunlight effecting the hydrogen cells meant they needed no additional protection for that problem. They would have added other protections if it did not reduce the effect of the heat generated by the sun, but they wouldn't have used it at all if it did not condition the skin of the airship for flight operations. The Iron Oxide was for protection from UV in direct sunlight as it was only applied to the top. The aluminum was applied to the entirety of the skin.

[pagani123]

According to what I read the aluminum doping was primarily for structural integrity of the skin for aerodynamics and to protect it in rain, wind, and against small impacts or perforations. That it also reduced the HEAT from sunlight effecting the hydrogen cells meant they needed no additional protection for that problem. They would have added other protections if it did not reduce the effect of the heat generated by the sun, but they wouldn't have used it at all if it did not condition the skin of the airship for flight operations. The Iron Oxide was for protection from UV in direct sunlight as it was only applied to the top. The aluminum was applied to the entirety of the skin.

yes the doping was for structural integrity but the aluminum powder was not added for structural integrity it was added to reflect sunlight the actual compound used provided the structural integrity. the aluminum powder provided no added structural integrity 

[HalGameGuru]

yes the doping was for structural integrity but the aluminum powder was not added for structural integrity it was added to reflect sunlight the actual compound used provided the structural integrity. the aluminum powder provided no added structural integrity 

I'll have to find another source on the info I have then... Yeah there it goes, they list the dope with aluminum together and list the effect of the doping, then further down they list the aluminum itself with the heat reduction, then the iron oxide for UV. But, they never listed the doping by itself with the effects for rigidity and protection. They need to remove the aluminum from that paragraph and let the standalone aluminum entry suffice. Bad editing.

[pagani123]

I'll have to find another source on the info I have then... Yeah there it goes, they list the dope with aluminum together and list the effect of the doping, then further down they list the aluminum itself with the heat reduction, then the iron oxide for UV. But, they never listed the doping by itself with the effects for rigidity and protection. They need to remove the aluminum from that paragraph and let the standalone aluminum entry suffice. Bad editing.

no problem my major is in aerospace engineering so i have study this heavily

[SolarNova]

Saw this project a while back, glad to see its still going.

 

Nothing beats the awesome sight of hug airships. Alas the many tragic accidents like that which destroyed the Hindenburg effectively killed airships all those years ago.

 

Once these new age Airships match or beat the size of the originals, then we can so for sure that the airships have returned. For now though, these 'small' ones seem more of a gimmick.

[AHaskin14]

That looks so cool!

[ConnorDahne]

I feel like you Led me on.....