Massive solar airship

53 feet long home made solar airship flying in the park. Easy to make - just tape as many bin bags together as you can be bothered to do. The bags have to be thin though - I used Wilkinsons cheapest wheelie bin bags - 99p for 8.
Top tip if you make one - take some sellotape out with you for on the spot repairs.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• solar
• airship
• ufo

[Philip1stplayer]

can you explain how you filled it with air ?

[richjaylu]

@Philip1stplayer

You sort of have to open the end and then push air in like bellows, squeezing it along to the closed end. When it's full I close the open end with a knot and tie the control string on to it.

[murdergame1]

how high have u go it

[richjaylu]

I'm a bit worried to let it go too high in case we lose control and it drifts into trees. I can imagine it would go very, very high if you let go without a tether.

[QuiltedPine]

Wow, that is long! So, what's it filled with, helium? or air? Do you plan to make it remote controllable?

Very nice.

[richjaylu]

Thanks for your comment. It's filled with air. You sort of have to open and close it a bit bellows style to get the air in. The air warms up because the black plastic absorbs heat from the sun. As it warms it becomes less dense than the air around it and so gains bouyancy. The amount of bouyancy depends on the difference between the temperature of the air inside and outside the tube. On a cold day with bright sun it can be quite dramatic and go shooting up into the sky very quickly.

[Wodenhelm]

Make one big enough to ride. Add an engine too.

[guyverlor]

WoW  its amazing great idea thank for knowleg guy

[richjaylu]

It's a load of cheap bin bags sellotaped together. It doesn't take long to do each one. Soon after this was filmed I made it much bigger - probably nearer 100 feet but it was too big to safely fly in the park so I chopped it back down to a more manageable 77ft.

[nuttycomputer4u]

Wow, that is long, well done richjaylu !!

Let me know how you stuck the tube together, was it 2 airships or did you use some other plastic material..

Check out my Airship attempts..