Airships - LTA (Lighter Than Air)

[GTX]

I believe that design is based on Lockheed's P-791 blimp. Which as I understand it, uses fans in the red part to generate positive or negative lift, which might help it deal with turbulence.

It's actually an Advanced Technologies Group SkyCat20 - here's another pic:



Regards,

Greg

[Mossie]

I thought they were for the air cushion landing system & only able to operate in ground effect?  There's been an irritatingly small amount of info on the P-791 despite having first flown over two years ago!

[tinlail]

It looks like the P-791 and the SkyCat are basically the same technology, however I was confused about the hover system which is only used to hold down the vehicle when it is on the ground, and not to generate lift.

[KJ_Lesnick]

Is it possible to design an airship (perhaps widened and flattened a bit) with jet-engines so as to allow a Mach 0.80 or Mach 0.90 speed? 

KJ Lesnick

[Ed S]

I suspect that the increased strength and rigidity needed for the gasbag to survive at such speeds would add so much weight as to negate any advantage of using a LTA airship.

Ed

[KJ_Lesnick]

Good point.  However I have heard of some extremely strong composites including nanofibers which seem like they could be of benefit

[Hobbes]

Airliners are designed for those speeds, and you can assume that they use the lightest construction that can withstand the weight and drag. The best materials available today may give a 2x increase in strength over the stuff commonly used in airliners, but that should give an initial estimate...

[jcf]

What would be the point?

The theoretical advantage of the airship is its bulk carrying ability and range/loiter capability, speed is way down the list.
The redesign necessary to turn a gasbag into a high-speed .80M aerial vehicle would end up negating its primary advantages.

Even with the best of current technology a speed of 300mph would be pushing the envelope.

I love airships, but realistically speaking they are a dead end technology outside of a few very specialized tasks.
However, that doesn't mean we can't have fun with them in Whif-world.

Jon

[Just call me Ray]

Well I suppose you could add rockets to it or so, but that apparently damages the airship.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Got the Hindenburg gift set a couple of years ago. When I first played Crimson Skies I had these thoughts about a forced perspective dio of the Hindenburg with the WizKids (or sumthin') Crimson skies miniatures. 

Something else you can do with two Hindenburgs:  Perry Rhodan-inspired battleship Aglazar



More pics (including work in progress) can be found >>HERE<<. Be sure to click "Weiter" at the bottom for the next page.

Interesting project and the fibre-optic lighting is very impressive.



For anyone that is interested in lighter than air vehicles of the rigid and non-rigid types there is a forum dedicated to this subject called Airship Modeler that is run by a fellow named Charles Adams.

[Weaver]

Heads up for anyone in the USA:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/R-100-Airship-1-500-scale-Moored-at-Mast-New-Awesome_W0QQitemZ200441305997QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2eab3b9b8d

[PR19_Kit]

Jeffry,

Very interesting, thanks for that link. 

Weaver,

That's the original Frog kit of the R-100, ex-Novo and now done by Maquette. It's not a bad kit, and includes the Montreal Tower as well. It has an 'L' shaped wire rod that enables you to mount the model onto the mast and it looks pretty good too.

[slackjack]

http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1b/Zeppelin/Zeppelin.html