What is Digg?95 Comments
- mecharabbit, on 07/12/2008, -1/+23This may put the Ice Road Truckers out of business.
- Oronar, on 07/12/2008, -1/+16What modern blimp is filled with combustible gas?
- AgentMull, on 07/12/2008, -0/+14Helium = Not Flammable
- londubh, on 07/12/2008, -1/+9I've been reading about the immanent return of the blimp and/or dirigible in Popular Science and it's sister magazine Popular Mechanics since 1974. There comes a point when you just don't get excited about it anymore. PopSci and PopMech, get lost!
- doctechnical, on 07/11/2008, -3/+9"Return" of the blimp? When did it leave?
/Akron - mecharabbit, on 07/12/2008, -2/+8Oh, the humanity!
- augustwest30, on 07/12/2008, -2/+7It is so eco-friendly - it is perfect for hauling that heavy virgin timber.
- inactive, on 07/12/2008, -1/+6the hindenburg was filled with hydrogen, if that's what you were thinking of
- grumpyrain, on 07/12/2008, -1/+6You do realise that Helium is non-flammable. You would certainly need to consider whether the skin could be sufficiently resilient to an ember attack.
- brainnovate, on 07/25/2008, -5/+9Wow that thing looks pretty neat!
- 4321234, on 07/12/2008, -2/+6That would be awesome too, but in a bad way.
- schmitey, on 07/12/2008, -2/+6Somebody failed both high school world history AND chemistry!
- patm1987, on 07/12/2008, -1/+5Helium is not very combustible. In fact, a quick google search seems to hint that it can be used to fight fires: http://ci.confex.com/ci/2005/techprogram/P1255.HTM
In a worst case scenario of the blimp crashing into the forest fire, it will actually do more to fight the fire than to spread it.
Now, if it were filled with Hydrogen then there would be a problem... - zip000, on 07/12/2008, -1/+5HG Wells' "The War in the Air"
Ahh, Google.
(I've read a lot of Wells stories, but I don't think I'm familiar with that one....certainly not familiar enough to quote it whenever I happen to see a story about blimps.) - Zalyster, on 07/11/2008, -1/+4Airship ftw!
It needs to be like a flying pirate ship. THAT I would pay for. - TheGuruStud, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3No, magnesium would be much better :P
- CrushThemTorg, on 07/11/2008, -1/+4Dugg for USS Akron.
- slowmo, on 07/11/2008, -4/+7Yeah, and they should fill them with hydrogen and slap on some paint containing aluminum powder.
- Sairgem, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3My dream is for omessiaho to be shot several times in the face.
- desertDenizen, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3***** off, *****. Nobody wants you here.
- an0nym0us, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2Nah, they will just have a new job title.
- Frost9999, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2Realistically, it's very easy to make a cable that supports 40 tonnes or more. This would be thousands of times less likely to break than, for example, a 747 randomly breaking in half and falling from the sky along with its cargo.
- TheSkunkMonkey, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2I would think the massive updraft from the forest fires would make controlling one of these craft very tricky if not impossible. That and it's relatively slow speed would make it impossible to get the craft into the right place at the right time.
- sanman, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2http://www.aeroscraft.com/
http://www.worldskycat.com/skycat/data.html
http://www.millenniumairship.com/products.htm - thechr0nic, on 07/11/2008, -4/+6I have been fascinated by blimps lately. I have been trying to find a way to jump (skydive) from one.
My dream has kinda been deflated after doing just a little bit of research and finding that you can't even pay for a ride. You for the most part have to win a ride in a raffle or just get some incredible luck and be in the right place at the right time. On top of all those long odds, they likely wont want to take the liability of letting me jump :(
But I would like to believe that if they find more uses for blimps, that my odds of getting to jump from one eventually, would go up.
here is to optimism :) - giminy, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2Funny that. My dad worked on the Helistat when I was a kid. I got to see it crash and burn (I was only six or seven at the time...). Now that I'm older I definitely feel bad for the pilot.
I suspect that the new version will not be resonant on the helicopter rotor frequency. - GlitchEnzo, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2Thank You! I knew I had seen a similar airship in the past, I just couldn't remember what it was. I agree though, I hope they have learned how to fix most of the problems.
- GlitchEnzo, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2I think its mainly meant to be used in areas that don't have decent roads. Also having Helium naturally lifting the loads greatly helps fuel consumption.
- RugbyAnderson, on 07/11/2008, -3/+5Do you think it'd be possible to use blimps like this to fight out of control forest fires.
I don't know how comparable this would be to the firefighting helicopters today, more weight less weight? - burjzyntski, on 07/12/2008, -1/+3dugg for using 'deflated' to refer to a failed dream regarding blimps and you falling to earth.
- desertDenizen, on 07/12/2008, -1/+2A German company (don't remember the name) attempted to resurrect large, heavy-lift airships a few years ago, not sure what became of them. The idea was huge though, when you consider that almost every large construction project is constrained to use components that are either manufactured on-site or can fit on a flatbed truck or train. Imagine not having that size constraint for pre-fab buildings, power generation equipment, industrial equipment, components of civil engineering projects (bridges, freeway overpasses) etc. The scale of projects and cost reductions (cheaper to manufacture in a factory) could change the world around us in ways that are hard to fathom because everything we see is constrained by a road width standard established 2000 years ago in ancient Rome (limiting today, for instance, the allowable diameter of the space shuttle's booster rockets, which have to fit on trains). Heavy-lift airships could thus usher in a sci-fi like future, potentially very exciting stuff.
- NeoSeo, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1they rerun this story every 10 years. Seen it atleast three times in the last 30 years. It has been on the cover of several mags. It is s stock tech like story they dig out like clock work.
Atleast we have that it was dugg this time so that when they rerun it in 2018 we can point back to this thread and remind them just how lame it is... - schmitey, on 07/12/2008, -2/+3Boeing as a partner or not...I'll believe it when I see it. Been reading about this in popular science for years. Its practical and long overdue, just don't believe it'll ever get to full scale.
- adamk0310, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1SkyHook. Sounds suspiciously like they stole that name from Maserati.
- JJcollection, on 07/14/2008, -0/+1reminds me of the "cargolifter" project in germany... a few years ago they wanted to built exactly the same kind of airship... they even built a huge hangar (as far as i know the biggest in the world) and then... bankrupt...
- caseycoold, on 07/14/2008, -0/+1gasostatic, btw:
http://istc.ru/ISTC/sc.nsf/html/pra.htm?open&id=40 ... - DragonForce4, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1theres a reply button you know
- desertDenizen, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1Thanks.
No. - stevejobs, on 07/12/2008, -2/+3Helium supplies are running low. Supply of the noble gas — second only to hydrogen in the universe but rare on Earth in terms of quantity — has depleted while production from two large international sites is temporarily down.
- DragonForce4, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1There's a reply button you know
- GlitchEnzo, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1I have an awesome book all about the Macon and the Akron. They are the two coolest airships ever built.
- Atomic1fire, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1Or 120 starving people
- RSS14, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1Quick, to the Hindenpeter!
- ToadLeg, on 07/12/2008, -1/+2FAIL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrostatic_equilibri ... - Atomic1fire, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1Helium as already stated is not very flammable
In fact the real worse case scenario is that a few people sound like mickey mouse and everyone else dies of oxygen deprivation. - yuanzhoulu, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1i first read it as "the return of the bitmap"
- geomon, on 07/12/2008, -1/+2Hope this particular endeavor doesn't end up like that particular endeavor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helistat
Of course one can believe that the engineers involved read the Lessons Learned. - Atomic1fire, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1And it helps that coatings on the Hindenburg had contained parts of rocket fuel
The incendiary paint theory
The incendiary paint theory asserts that the major component in the fire was the skin because of the doping compound used on it.
Proponents point out that the coatings on the fabric contained both iron oxide and aluminum-impregnated cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB). These components are potentially reactive, even after fully setting. In fact, iron oxide and aluminum are sometimes used as components of solid rocket fuel or thermite. The propellant for the Space Shuttle solid rocket booster includes "aluminum (fuel, 16%), (and) iron oxide (a catalyst, 0.4%)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster#T ... - GlitchEnzo, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1You speak the truth. Helium prices have been going sky-high (pun intended) in the last several years. I wonder if there is a way to safely use Hydrogen envelopes again. Hydrogen is only flammable when mixed with Oxygen, there should be some way to make it rather safe.
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