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It's true the aerostatic lift would help here, but the Airlander 10 is not actually a lighter-than-air aircraft. It's a hybrid and requires aerodynamic lift fro
by zefhous 10y ago
It's true the aerostatic lift would help here, but the Airlander 10 is not actually a lighter-than-air aircraft. It's a hybrid and requires aerodynamic lift from forward movement in addition to lift from its engine-driven propellers.
The hybrid approach is puzzling to me because there are a multitude of advantages to be gained by being fully lighter-than-air.
- TrainedMonkey 10y agoIs 'not actually lighter-than-air' always true, or only when it is carrying 10 tons of cargo?
- zefhous 10y agoMy understanding is that when talking about aircraft, "lighter-than-air" means that it's designed to require no additional lift to keep it aloft regardless of cargo. Anything requiring non-aerostatic lift would be considered a hybrid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerostat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerostat
- tim333 10y agoI can think of a couple of advantages of hybrids. You could unload cargo without the thing trying to shoot up in the air and a problem with airships in general is them being blown around by the wind which may be less bad with a smaller hybrids. Also if you emergency land the thing may stay there whereas a fully lighter than air one would tend to drift off.