I was reading an article on the soaring cost of fuel that was hitting all air carriers, then read another on the old tech of AirShips (ie Blimps), and was wondering if there was any way to blend the two technologies together? If the airlines can find a simple way to Heliumize all the internal dead space (ie cargo hold, etc), it would actually make the aircraft lighter, wouldn't it? Frankly, they should re-explore the idea of airships simply because you can carry so much more. Its a bit slower, but probably a lot less in terms of operations cost per pound moved over distance. Personally, I envision flying hotels that would get you overseas after an overnight stay; you check in just like you do in the airlines, but then you're given a sleeping berth (first class can have suites), and you arrive after a day. The sleeping berths don't need to be anything fancy, just sort of like those Japanese container hotels. The entire structure would be attached to several blimp like things that use turbofans for thrust. Heck, it would be just like things we see in Japanese anime. LOL... Ralph
Its probably not viable economically or commercially right now, otherwise im sure it would be done a 60kg person would require 336m^3 of helium to displace the weight, thats a huge volume, so filling cargo bays would make a small difference, it may be more worthwhile to transport more cargo or just proceed with making the existing aircraft lighter through composite materials or alloys air ships are too slow for many people to accept, and you would need a huge airship to carry cargo, think about some of the airships you may have seen and the comparatively tiny passenger cabins the best way to move vast amounts of cargo is still by sea maybe in the future, who knows
Wow, Thanks for detailed explanation; eye opening to say the least. I was recalling the story of the guy that flew in his lawn chair with helium balloons and thought, gee how much more would it take to transport a whole family with luggage? While Helium alone may not do it, there must be some way of hybridizing the technology with conventional methods of lift that would make it commercially viable. I'm just hopeful that someone will find that combination. Ralph
That's like saying that Oxygen is slow as heck. Its really a matter of how fast you can move the container. If a helium filled object was made more aerodynamic and a jet engine was attached, I'm sure it can move. Ralph
helium airplanes sounds like a great alternative esp w/ our advances in tech, but it doesn't seem practical yet besides for heavy leaving consider their huge size for the helium. Maybe w/ more more research and in the next 20 yrs....it's possible : /
yeah totally agree with it.... =)..... so i think it is not feasible now but who noes what might happen in future...=)
That's Hydrogen you're thinking about (Helium is not flammable). The famous Hindenburg explosion, captured on film, was a hydrogen filled Zeppelin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54rqDh2mWA More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster Ralph
LOL... Certainly, make sure you never, ever, stare into the business end of a laser. There ya go Ralph
