4 ms·

> The Empire State Building has airship docking capability. This photo shows a much less tall airship mooring mast. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/mooring-m

by sampo 4y ago

> The Empire State Building has airship docking capability. This photo shows a much less tall airship mooring mast. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/mooring-mast-1930s/ https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/mooring-mast-1930s/ It doesn't look like that kind of mooring would be up to the modern safety standards, especially when you add high winds that are common at the top of skyscrapers.

lonelyasacloud 4y ago
Tbh, it'd probably be inherently safer. The ship should be easier to control because the air at the top of a skyscraper is likely to be less turbulent. And if there is an unexpected down draught, then there is a lot more leeway before the ship and its compliment get smashed into the ground. Ground handling and docking is one of the main, and fairly frequently fatal, causes of airships accidents, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents. Fwiw mitigating is definitely possible. But it requires specialised docking equipment to be available anywhere they are to set down. Which is why I suspect they'll make rather better Bazillionaire play things than humanitarian aid delivery mechanisms. They are very cool though.
jandrese 4y ago
> Without doubt, the tallest mooring mast ever designed was the spire of the Empire State Building which was originally constructed to serve as a mooring mast, although soon after converted for use as a television and radio transmitter tower due to the discovered infeasibility of mooring an airship, for any length of time, to a very tall mast in the middle of an urban area. The picture below has an airship getting flipped on its nose by a gust of wind while moored to a tower. It seems to me that airships really need two mooring masts. One at the front and another at the back. Maybe the one at the back flips up to lock on once the one in front is secure?

by sampo 4y ago

lonelyasacloud 4y ago

Tbh, it'd probably be inherently safer. The ship should be easier to control because the air at the top of a skyscraper is likely to be less turbulent. And if there is an unexpected down draught, then there is a lot more leeway before the ship and its compliment get smashed into the ground. Ground handling and docking is one of the main, and fairly frequently fatal, causes of airships accidents, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents. Fwiw mitigating is definitely possible. But it requires specialised docking equipment to be available anywhere they are to set down. Which is why I suspect they'll make rather better Bazillionaire play things than humanitarian aid delivery mechanisms. They are very cool though.

jandrese 4y ago

> Without doubt, the tallest mooring mast ever designed was the spire of the Empire State Building which was originally constructed to serve as a mooring mast, although soon after converted for use as a television and radio transmitter tower due to the discovered infeasibility of mooring an airship, for any length of time, to a very tall mast in the middle of an urban area. The picture below has an airship getting flipped on its nose by a gust of wind while moored to a tower. It seems to me that airships really need two mooring masts. One at the front and another at the back. Maybe the one at the back flips up to lock on once the one in front is secure?