New Aircraft is Part Blimp and Part Airplane 484
An anonymous reader writes "Canton Rep has an interesting article on Ohio entrepreneurs who hope to get their business 'off the ground'. Brian Martin and Robert Rist think they are close to testing a prototype of their patented Dynalifter hybrid. They announced last week that their airship -- part blimp and part airplane -- has been completed, and they hope to conduct a test flight this spring. Martin and Rist hope the Dynalifter will help bring in a new transportation era. They see it as a way to move materials at a lower cost than jets and at a higher speed than ships. From the article: 'They think it could be used in emergency situations, such as Hurricane Katrina, to transport supplies. It might have military uses, such as delivering equipment and supplies to sites that might not be easily reachable.'"
The blimp's revival? (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder how long it will take other formerly taboo technology to come around... I'm not all that afraid to have a nuclear reactor in my backyard(My neighbors would disagree)
Re:Just a Blimp? (Score:3, Interesting)
Also it would have limited hovering capabilities not quite up to that of a helecoptor or true blimp...
I can't get to the article... (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2005/10/us-cb
The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Military use? Unlikely (Score:3, Interesting)
They can fly higher and longer than helicopters.
But in general, the perfect use for airships is AWACS. They don't have to come down to refuel periodically (they'll need food more often than they'll need fuel), so that's one less major hassle for an aircraft carrier crew to deal with.
It would also work well for similar work over land, and might work well as an anti-balistic missile laser platform.
Hybrid???? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Just a Blimp? (Score:2, Interesting)
mode 1) {when you're high enough}Take the gas in the bag and compress it into internal cylinders so that you loose lift - then glide as above.
mode 2) {when you're too low} Release gas from cylinders into bag providing lift.
Or is that what you're describing above?
I also wonder if waste heat from the engines is used to warm the gas to provide extra lift?
Who remembers the "Aereon"? (Score:2, Interesting)
The new incarnation of the "Deltoid Pumpkin Seed" (Score:5, Interesting)
The idea of hybrid lighter than air lifting and an aerodynamic hull has been around for a while. In his 1963 book The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed [johnmcphee.com] essayist and journalist John McPhee covers the story the the Aereon, which was an early avitar of the dynalifter. There was a brief resurgence of interest in this aircraft design during the oil crisis in the 1970s. It now seems to be back once again now that oil has risen in price.
One of the things that those pushing this design may not be mentioning is that increasinly helium is both scarse and a strategic resource. Helium is actually "mined" from underground domes where it has been trapped (I assume formed from radioactive decay). If fleets of airships were helilum based, the price of helium would seen rise to the point where the airships were no longer cost effective. The alternative is hydrogen, but as the Hindenburg demonstrated, hydrogen has its own problems. These issues could be the reason that after over three decades this idea has not caught on.
"More blimpy"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Military use? Unlikely (Score:3, Interesting)
Some military use is likely.
I could see these used as high altitude portable communication platforms near hot spots. I could see a fleet of UAVs being controlled from one of these. And these would fit the traditional blimp role of coastal surveillance very nicely.
Wish the web site wasn't slashdotted.
I would think a heavier than air blimp would be easier to land.
I have the impression from the few pics and diagrams I've seen that the blimp has a lifting body shape and the "wings" are primarily control surfaces. I'd be interested in reading the specs.
Re:Could it be used for passengers? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's also possible to book one-way trips on most cruise ships, though that's certainly not going to be cheap.
Re:Patent Infringement Potential? (Score:3, Interesting)
John McPhee wrote about this (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Just a Blimp? (Score:5, Interesting)
The main innovation in the Ohio Airships design is in the novel rigid internal structure which uses a keel beam supported by stays (cables) from a tower in the manner of a suspension bridge. This should allow greater loads relative to the airframe mass, including positive or negative loads from the wings.
*Steam is potentially the most economical lift gas since it gives 60% of helium lift or 200% of hot air lift, is essentially free if generated as a by-product of a steam engine, and the airship envelope acts as a condenser for the engine, reducing weight. This makes both the lift gas and propulsion much more efficiently produced than helium bags or IC engines See www.flyingkettle.com for more details.
Re:Could it be used for passengers? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've never understood the irrational annoyance that people get when someone in front of them reclines their seat - who fucking cares? Just recline your seat too, then you're back where you started, and a little more comfortable to boot.
I've flown long flights (at least 12 hours on a single hop) for 24 years, and been over six feet tall for the last 9 of them, and I've never had ANY knee damage, not to mention irreversible knee damage.
Get real.
Re:Could it be used for passengers? (Score:2, Interesting)
cargolifter redux (Score:5, Interesting)
CargoLifter AG based to the South of Berlin in Germany is developing "Lighter-than-Air" systems for logistics and other applications. The Company's first product, the CL 75 AC balloon based system has been in prototype flight test since October 2001.
2002:
For reasons of insolvency the CargoLifter AG Board of Managing Directors today filed an application for the opening of insolvency proceedings on the assets of CargoLifter AG at the Cottbus District Court.
I'm not saying it can't, or shouldn't be done, it makes sense on some levels, i.e. not having to ship your tons of goods via truck->rail->boat->rail->truck, but I remember reading about the operation mentioned above a few years back. It was no garage business, they had a wealthy shipping magnate with a lot of vertical expertise, a slew of aerospace engineers, and a ton of capital.
The problem, IIRC, was that the infrastructure to handle these things (big hangars) are gone, and real estate is too valuable to go around scooping it up near transportation hubs, where they could be integrated into existing systems. I think they went broke, not because the airships were too costly to build, but there weren't any other facilities to land/unload/service the things, and they had to build those too. The problem is easy to spot when you look at their plans [aerospace-technology.com].
Re:The new incarnation of the "Deltoid Pumpkin See (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Could it be used for passengers? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The blimp's revival? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not only are blimps impervious to BB guns, but bullets as well. It takes a long time to deflate out a small hole. In addition, militaries use lots of non-combat vehicles, so lack of suitability for combat does not disqualify military interest.
A blimp could be useful in an emergency situation because it flies and can potentially have more cargo and range than a helicopter. Blimps can have overland speeds in excess of those of trucks, so a 10 day wait time is an exaggeration. Actual emergency response time would probably be dominated by the warehousing of relief supplies, as it is today.
Dynalift, meet t/space... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd be interested to see the numbers for cargo tonnage carrying capacity and max altitude of a full size (~1000 ft) freighter craft.
Combine this airship with t/space's air-launched lanyard rocketry, and there is an awesome potential for large tonnage air launched private spacecraft.
http://www.transformspace.com/index.cfm?fuseactio
Re:cargolifter redux (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I've seen, the payload area on most blimps is probably 1% of the size of the membrane. So, for every box that you wanted to carry, you'd need 100 'boxes' of helium.
Of course those are bogus numbers, but the point is, you have to have to have a shelter for something 100 times bigger than what you want to carry. If you have to build a shelter like that in a remote place, then it's probably going to get a road in the process.
It would be interesting if you could have a retractable shelter or deflatable airship to make it a little more hardy and self-sufficient.
Fuel savings? (Score:3, Interesting)
Looking at a couple other aircraft:
Boeing 747
Weight Empty: 361,600 lbs
Maximum Take-Off Weight: 825,600 lbs
Empty Weight ~= 43% of maximum take-off weight
C-5 Galaxy cargo plane
Weight Empty: 374,000
Maximum Take-Off weight: 840,000 lbs
Empty Weight ~= 44% of maximum take-off weight
How much fuel would an airship hybrid really save, since it still has to pull the entire weight of the payload, which accounts for more than 50% of the weight of other fully-loaded modern aircraft? And would the fuel savings really justify the other hassles of dealing with an airship hybrid?
Re:Have they solved the ballast issue yet? (Score:3, Interesting)
To add one more problem to the list: Aircraft using buoyancy don't scale down well. It's hard to get started in the buoyant craft business on a small scale. When I was a kid, I so desperately wanted to build a scale zeppelin that I could fly. I was crushed to discover that it took roughly 1 cubic meter of helium to lift 1 kg (at 1 g).
Hindenburg was better than current planes (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hindenburg was flashy, not bad. (Score:4, Interesting)
Air and Space magazine did an article on airships a long time ago. They had an ancedote about a goodyear blimp being shot with a rifle while it was flying. They said that atmospheric air would actually flow into the blimp because it is less dense. While I'm sure it depends on the geometry of the specific situation, I would not want atmospheric air to enter my hydrogen lifted airship/blimp. The bullet holes were small enough that it didn't affect the flight of the blimp.
That said, The US still had a strangle hold on helium at the time. The only way that helium is produced on earth is through radioactive decay. It is recovered from natural gas that is under Texas. I'm sure it occurs elsewhere in the same way, but the US has a lot of it.
Re:Hindenburg (Score:3, Interesting)
As a passenger transport taking a dirigible would be awesome, since you could dock it in a city center instead of having to land in the great back of beyond Long Island and deal with either cabs or the silly AirTrain, or (shudder) Newark. You don't have to fly as high as a 747 so you might actually get to see what you're flying over. Sure it takes longer, and if you're a business traveller you'd probably always opt for the 747. But (and I don't know what the economics of what a ticket would work out to be) maybe the fact that you're using gas instead of thrust to produce lift might translate into cheaper tickets, which would work pretty well in places where people can't afford regular airfare.
You might also arguably create an air cruise line that takes you around to various ports of call. that would be pretty cool too.
Then there are law-enforcement/utility uses too, like hovering in the sky to watch traffic or something. Bet that's much cheaper to do than run a chopper.
Then there are the industrial uses of cargo transport. Yes, a supertanker can carry more, but they can only go seaport to seaport. Then you have to unload/transfer to rolling stock or semis. What about places that are landlocked and/or have poor roads? Central Asia leaps to mind. Dirigibles might make yurts cheaper and more available than ever before.
There's probably many more applications for blimps, but those are just a few off the top of my head.