Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Two words: Orbital airships.
Posted by Mac at 7:53 PM

4 comments:

W.M. Bear said...

Sounds brilliant to me. Definitely one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" ideas. The only hitch I can think of offhand is the problem of friction at high velocities even in the upper atmosphere. Until the airship orbiter actually REACHES orbital velocity it can't REMAIN in space and so will still be skimming through the top of the atmosphere at very high speeds. Maybe they've thought of an answer for this problem but I didn't see it in the concept doc.

4:45 PM
Ken said...

Once again I must compose a post on Jarte, a most excellent, free, and recommended Wordpad replacement. http://www.jarte.com/ while I await for the ISP to do SOMETHING! You guys really must live in internet heaven.

That is technically known as whining.

Anyway. We've got the Boeing Pelican, which can move an entire company of M1 Abrams tanks at one go. Capacity 1,400 tons. Flies 50 ft. or so off the ocean, using what's known as ground effect for efficiency, and yet can reach 20,000 ft. or more. Speed given as "10 times the speed" of a container ship, which would be at least 200 mph, range 10,000 miles plus. You can read about it at http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2002/september/index.html

The Walrus, a giant powered zeppelin, which can carry 50-500 tons, 12,000 miles, seven days, at a competive cost. http://www.darpa.mil/DARPAtech2004/pdf/scripts/OlingerScript.pdf

http://www.fuellessflight.com/ gives an intriguing concept. A pair of giant zeppelins, joined shoulder and hip, using almost no energy. Not quite getting something for nothing, but kinda close.

And now the Airship to Orbit. Looks good to me, might work, who knows? They're serious about it, though. Unfortunately the pdf was corrupted, and the video link returned a 404 error, so I can't comment. But what I can see impresses me.

One thing is certain: we are definitely entering a new age of air transport. Those who say innovation has died are inattentive.

9:29 AM
Ken said...

Better links ref the Walrus. Still can't get much off the JP Aerospace site. Still sounds great, if it works.

http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/050912_walrus.html Purty pitchers.

http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_Walrus,,00.html Reasonable critiques.

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=13453 General description, etc..

9:36 AM
W.M. Bear said...

ken -- Try updating your Acrobat Reader (a pain, I know, but I got the same error at home while on the other hand at work, with a later version of Reader, I was able to open it).

9:50 PM