5 ms·

Hope to see this materialize. I share a fascination with airships, only way to have low energy cost air travel. However I doubt airships will be relevant to shi

Hope to see this materialize. I share a fascination with airships, only way to have low energy cost air travel. However I doubt airships will be relevant to shipping period, but I severely doubt so unless someone figures out a way helium can be ditched for hydrogen due to both lift and supply concerns.

phreeza 9y ago
I don't really understand why hydrogen is not used for this, except the obvious historical connotations. Airplanes are full of highly flammable jet fuel, nobody suggests that they must run on non-flammable fuel. Of course one would need to take appropriate safety measures, probably some combination of compartmentalization of the bladder and controlled release (away from passengers) in the case of an ignition, but it seems like something that should be solvable with modern engineering.
- graphitezepp 9y ago
  The government is a bit trigger happy with bans of things that are associated with high profile disasters, at least in my opinion. Shame getting laws removed is so difficult, especially for something as niche as gasses for airships.
SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
If you can figure out how to create a an extremely rigid extremely lightweight material you could also use a vacuumed out area instead of gas bladders. The trick would be that the marerial would have to be non porous and extremely light and strong.
- phreeza 9y ago
  To make it clear, it has to be really strong, stronger than diamond for example. Graphene wouldn't do the trick either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_airship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_airship
  - fnj 9y ago
    It's not just the strength that is lacking. The thin shell would buckle long, long before the compressive strength limit was reached. We are talking orders of magnitude.
    - phreeza 9y ago
      Yea, the numbers in the linked article are based on Zoelli's formula for the critical buckling pressure of a sphere.
deleted 9y ago
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phreeza 9y ago

I don't really understand why hydrogen is not used for this, except the obvious historical connotations. Airplanes are full of highly flammable jet fuel, nobody suggests that they must run on non-flammable fuel. Of course one would need to take appropriate safety measures, probably some combination of compartmentalization of the bladder and controlled release (away from passengers) in the case of an ignition, but it seems like something that should be solvable with modern engineering.

graphitezepp 9y ago
The government is a bit trigger happy with bans of things that are associated with high profile disasters, at least in my opinion. Shame getting laws removed is so difficult, especially for something as niche as gasses for airships.

SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago

If you can figure out how to create a an extremely rigid extremely lightweight material you could also use a vacuumed out area instead of gas bladders. The trick would be that the marerial would have to be non porous and extremely light and strong.

phreeza 9y ago
To make it clear, it has to be really strong, stronger than diamond for example. Graphene wouldn't do the trick either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_airship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_airship
- fnj 9y ago
  It's not just the strength that is lacking. The thin shell would buckle long, long before the compressive strength limit was reached. We are talking orders of magnitude.
  - phreeza 9y ago
    Yea, the numbers in the linked article are based on Zoelli's formula for the critical buckling pressure of a sphere.

deleted 9y ago

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