Aug 4, 2020 02:52 AM
(This post was last modified: Aug 4, 2020 03:02 AM by C C.)
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aero...20-airship
EXCERPTS: . . . But Sergey Brin doesn’t want to recreate the glory days of the past, he wants to surpass them. Patents, official records and job listings suggest that LTA Research and Exploration's new airship will be safer, smarter and much more environmentally sustainable than the wallowing and dangerous airships of yore.
The biggest question in designing an airship is how to make it float. Hydrogen is cheap, plentiful and the lightest gas in the universe, but also extremely flammable and difficult to contain. Helium, the next lightest gas, is safely inert, but expensive and increasingly scarce. Virtually all new airships since the Hindenburg disaster have opted for helium as a lifting gas. LTA’s airship, uniquely, will have both gases on board. Helium will be used to provide lift, while hydrogen will be used to power its electric engines...
[...] Traditionally, airships are kept stationary while their rigid frames, used to hold and shape the gas envelope, are being built. This requires workers to climb to great heights, adding risks and delays. LTA’s patent covers a “rollercoaster” structure [see diagrams in article] that allows a partially completed airship to be rotated around its central axis during construction, so that workers can stay safely on the ground. The patent application also describes a method for 3D printing airship components out of strong, lightweight carbon fiber.
LTA’s website says that it is working to create a family of aircraft with no operational carbon footprint to “substantially reduce the total global carbon footprint of aviation.” That would require both generating hydrogen using renewable electricity, and producing a variety of aircraft to satisfy passenger as well as cargo demand... (MORE - details)
Last year - travel for the affluent & for humanitarian missions (June 2019)
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/j19dTafud58
EXCERPTS: . . . But Sergey Brin doesn’t want to recreate the glory days of the past, he wants to surpass them. Patents, official records and job listings suggest that LTA Research and Exploration's new airship will be safer, smarter and much more environmentally sustainable than the wallowing and dangerous airships of yore.
The biggest question in designing an airship is how to make it float. Hydrogen is cheap, plentiful and the lightest gas in the universe, but also extremely flammable and difficult to contain. Helium, the next lightest gas, is safely inert, but expensive and increasingly scarce. Virtually all new airships since the Hindenburg disaster have opted for helium as a lifting gas. LTA’s airship, uniquely, will have both gases on board. Helium will be used to provide lift, while hydrogen will be used to power its electric engines...
[...] Traditionally, airships are kept stationary while their rigid frames, used to hold and shape the gas envelope, are being built. This requires workers to climb to great heights, adding risks and delays. LTA’s patent covers a “rollercoaster” structure [see diagrams in article] that allows a partially completed airship to be rotated around its central axis during construction, so that workers can stay safely on the ground. The patent application also describes a method for 3D printing airship components out of strong, lightweight carbon fiber.
LTA’s website says that it is working to create a family of aircraft with no operational carbon footprint to “substantially reduce the total global carbon footprint of aviation.” That would require both generating hydrogen using renewable electricity, and producing a variety of aircraft to satisfy passenger as well as cargo demand... (MORE - details)
Last year - travel for the affluent & for humanitarian missions (June 2019)