Emphasis on the "old"... HTA aircraft of the day were even worse, but didn't get the same attention. Furthermore, modern Helium ships bear little resemblance to the past. Even classical airships, such as the Blue Devil Command and Control airship, are so durable the amount of munitions required to sink it would cost several times the ship itself! Hybrid airships are even MORE durable!
as it says in the actual video its a very early prottype. obviously to test how it handles with a conventional engine before a later prototype moves over to complete solar power. its amazing seeing airships finally making a come back. its about time this tried and tested technology was put to use
@nikki191 I agree! except for the "tried and tested" part; while it is actually tried and tested, the reason it hasn't been popular is because they had poor results xD old airships were super-high-maintainance with failures being too-often catastrophic... and the ease with which airships can be destroyed (in the military scope)
@Mastakazam its great to disagree :D i saw a report on tests to see how they perform when is comes to weapons about 10 or 15 years ago. your typical blimp took a suprising amount of penetrations and even mortar rounds penetrating the envelope still allowed the blimp to remain airworthy for hours. they did have trouble originally in combat mainly due to the hydrogen used as a lifting gas but thats not an issue now
@Mastakazam if you check the reasons why alot went down, in alot of cases it was human error or huge storms that frankly would of taken out any aircraft at the time. the best example of how to design and use an airship properly would have to be the graf zeppelin.. flew around the world a decade in service, it was a true ocean liner of the skies and was eventually dismantled during world war 2 for the materials
You noticed that too? I wouldn't say it's misleading, because this is just the prototype aircraft. It has affordable gas engines, and that one-engine gondola does too. Anyway, the Characal, the smallest version of the Solar Ship, is about twice as large and has way more lift. You can see it's envelope at the end of the vid. That one will definitely be fitted with solar panels.
That's interesting, but the link to this is a "bait and switch". Text articles describing a solar panel top surface, electric motor propelled blimp/cargo hauler lead to this combustion engined "fun" vehicle.
@Mastakazam
Emphasis on the "old"... HTA aircraft of the day were even worse, but didn't get the same attention. Furthermore, modern Helium ships bear little resemblance to the past. Even classical airships, such as the Blue Devil Command and Control airship, are so durable the amount of munitions required to sink it would cost several times the ship itself! Hybrid airships are even MORE durable!
Jjames763 3 months ago
I didn't see one solar panel on this thing...so what makes it solar???
pjasonq 4 months ago
@pjasonq its an early prototype they were testing, the solar pannels will go on later
nikki191 3 months ago
as it says in the actual video its a very early prottype. obviously to test how it handles with a conventional engine before a later prototype moves over to complete solar power. its amazing seeing airships finally making a come back. its about time this tried and tested technology was put to use
nikki191 4 months ago
@nikki191 I agree! except for the "tried and tested" part; while it is actually tried and tested, the reason it hasn't been popular is because they had poor results xD old airships were super-high-maintainance with failures being too-often catastrophic... and the ease with which airships can be destroyed (in the military scope)
Mastakazam 3 months ago
@Mastakazam its great to disagree :D i saw a report on tests to see how they perform when is comes to weapons about 10 or 15 years ago. your typical blimp took a suprising amount of penetrations and even mortar rounds penetrating the envelope still allowed the blimp to remain airworthy for hours. they did have trouble originally in combat mainly due to the hydrogen used as a lifting gas but thats not an issue now
nikki191 3 months ago
@Mastakazam if you check the reasons why alot went down, in alot of cases it was human error or huge storms that frankly would of taken out any aircraft at the time. the best example of how to design and use an airship properly would have to be the graf zeppelin.. flew around the world a decade in service, it was a true ocean liner of the skies and was eventually dismantled during world war 2 for the materials
nikki191 3 months ago
The future of air transport
Milieunet 4 months ago
@58ed
You noticed that too? I wouldn't say it's misleading, because this is just the prototype aircraft. It has affordable gas engines, and that one-engine gondola does too. Anyway, the Characal, the smallest version of the Solar Ship, is about twice as large and has way more lift. You can see it's envelope at the end of the vid. That one will definitely be fitted with solar panels.
Jjames763 4 months ago
That's interesting, but the link to this is a "bait and switch". Text articles describing a solar panel top surface, electric motor propelled blimp/cargo hauler lead to this combustion engined "fun" vehicle.
58ed 4 months ago