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Hybrid airship launched.

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destrekor said:
Some regions have a higher helium component in the gas compared to others. That's why the U.S. is essentially the main supplier - Texas has the highest percentage of helium in the gas fields. Just the way the geography/ecology worked out in this case.
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Purely a guess, but I'd wager there were/are more radioactive minerals in the helium rich areas.

(The helium is created by beta-decay)
 
An article about it that isn't crap...
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_02_28_2014_p0-667871.xml

The U.K.’s Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. (HAV) has begun reassembling a large airship acquired from the U.S. Army, following cancellation of the Northrop Grumman-led Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) program.

Cardington-based HAV plans to use the 302-ft.-long HAV304 hybrid airship, which flew only once in August 2012 at Lakehurst, N.J., as a prototype and demonstrator for its planned Airlander 50 commercial heavy-lift airship. The first U.K. flight is expected by year’s end.
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-KeithP
 
Genx87 said:
That is my thought. A tractor trailer really only carries what,20 tons at most? I believe we have a 40 ton limit in the United States for tractor,trailer, and cargo.

But it all depends the cost of this vehicle, its maintenance costs, and crew costs if it comes out. I envision a company like FedEX or UPS using this to replace trucks for longer haul shipping. One ship that can carrier the equivalent of 10 trucks on longer hauls and get there faster.
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So at about 100 mph it can cross the country in 24 hours with presumably two pilots on 12 hour shifts. How long does a tractor trailer take with two drivers?
 
destrekor said:
When our skies are filled with airships before they are filled with flying cars... imma be mad. :colbert:

Airships are so cool though. Zeppelins!
They are extremely "green" though, and for so many things, these would be perfect.

Hell, they could technically replace so many semi trucks and railcars, and travel at faster speeds far more efficiently and still get the cargo delivered.

You know... I wonder if that's in our future. Airships filling the skies instead of asshole and bad-driver trucks filling our highways. :hmm:
I could get behind that.
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Uhh no -- semi trucks pretty much deliver to the end store (I don't envision one of these landing at your department store parking lot with this month's shipment of clothing). Rail cars carry magnitudes higher loads than 200 tons - it'd be A LOT of these to equal the load of 1 train.

Edit: god damn necro!
 
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Homerboy said:
Uhh no -- semi trucks pretty much deliver to the end store (I don't envision one of these landing at your department store parking lot with this month's shipment of clothing). Rail cars carry magnitudes higher loads than 200 tons - it'd be A LOT of these to equal the load of 1 train.

Edit: god damn necro!
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the benefit of using ariships for loads is to to reach remote areas where normal cargo transportation methods are difficult, impossible, and/or extremely expensive. Northern Canada mines (the only people losing out here would be those lovable ice road truckers), and undeveloped, remote villages and communities in Africa and other parts of the world.

The benefit to poor undeveloped and developed areas of the world is tremendous. And as others said in here 2 years ago--airships are a shipping solution, not a passenger solution. Besides that, unclogging the Pacific ocean of fossil-fuel burning Chinese freighter ships delivering prized Taylor Swift T-shirts to our nation's children and creepy adult males can only be beneficial. Imagine erasing the pirate problem in the Red Sea/trouble zones of the world.
 
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He should be expensive. it's rare and hard to extract.

I have worked on some very deep wells in Wyoming that cost 10s of millions to drill to get He out of the ground as the primary production. Most He is also mixed with H2S gas (highly toxic and poisonous) and this adds greatly to the cost, as you need to use a lot of stainless, inconel, and other special alloys for all of your equipment.

the gov kept prices cheap artificially, creating the problem of us wasting a rare resource on party balloons because we think its fun. Now we expect it to be cheap, and when the real price hits us, we blame industry when it is really the governments fault in the first place. When we do run out and there are no more MRI machines (used to cool the superconducting magnets) to help us with medical care, you will wonder if the party balloons were worth it. He is an extremely limited resource. As soon as the volume you are using is used and ends up in the atmosphere, it floats up and out into space. You will never get it back. Once we use the He in the earth we will have to mine other planets for it. Most of the He in the earth is here from the Big Bang, a small amount has been produced via radioactive decay, but its really very very little.
 
Originally Posted by MrPickins
Purely a guess, but I'd wager there were/are more radioactive minerals in the helium rich areas.

(The helium is created by ALPHA-decay)
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most of the gas created via this pathway is lost to the atomosphere, and space, as there is not geology to contain it. This is why the gas is found with natural gas, there is the geology to contain it in these areas. There is no other connection between the 2 resources and there are not higher amounts of Naturally occurring radioactive material where there is He.
 
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zinfamous said:
the benefit of using ariships for loads is to to reach remote areas where normal cargo transportation methods are difficult, impossible, and/or extremely expensive. Northern Canada mines (the only people losing out here would be those lovable ice road truckers), and undeveloped, remote villages and communities in Africa and other parts of the world.

The benefit to poor undeveloped and developed areas of the world is tremendous. And as others said in here 2 years ago--airships are a shipping solution, not a passenger solution. Besides that, unclogging the Pacific ocean of fossil-fuel burning Chinese freighter ships delivering prized Taylor Swift T-shirts to our nation's children and creepy adult males can only be beneficial. Imagine erasing the pirate problem in the Red Sea/trouble zones of the world.
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You know what else would fix all that junk? The Last Dragon.
 
techs said:
So at about 100 mph it can cross the country in 24 hours with presumably two pilots on 12 hour shifts. How long does a tractor trailer take with two drivers?
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drivers can drive 11 hours in a 24 hour period(legally). now a driver using paper log books can alter his time to drive even more(and yes a lot of them do this). in 2 years or so they are making everyone go to electronic logbooks.
 
techs said:
Are you talking about the impending helium shortage?

At 100 mph and 200 tons its really a question of is it cheaper than jet or truck? Also, at 100 mph is there cargo that benefits from the decreased time over trucks and can the cargo go slower than on a jet.

btw how much can a semi carry?
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in most states is 85,000 pounds (42 tons) max. anymore than that you need a permit.
 
Pretty impressive.

First thing I thought when I looked at it, though, was "that thing kinda looks like a bald snapper."
 
http://www.hybridairvehicles.com/aircraft/airlander-10

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Airlander 10 is underpinned by the company’s numerous patents vested worldwide. From the latest materials technology, to the aerodynamic effects of its shape, it is full of innovation. There is no internal structure in the Airlander – it maintains its shape due to the pressure stabilisation of the helium inside the hull, and the smart and strong Vectran material it is made of. Carbon composites are used throughout the aircraft for strength and weight savings.
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inline_7c5ed888-ce_1058169a.jpg

http://jetlinemarvel.net/2016/03/23...w-about-airlander-10-worlds-biggest-airplane/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8sGP7iB-5c (first flight take off)
 
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EliteRetard said:
Why don't they just make vacuum airships? Lighter than even helium and it doesn't use up as many resources.
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That's probably the future since helium is, supposedly, really expensive. Seriously, vacuum lighter than helium so you'd technically need even less displacement, but you'd need a frame to contain the vacuum so that makes it heavier.
 
Here is a great example of where this thing would rock.
Back in the 90's I was up in Wrangell, and the miners across the mountains in BC had some decent gold ore. They had a gravel strip and flew out the ore to Wrangell when the price was up. They used DC-3's and some old twin with a big nose door. I forget the plane model.
They had a fuel tank in the DC-3 and used it for cargo into the mine.
The old twin could get maybe 8 tons out in bins.
An airship that could move 50 tons would be a game changer.
 
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