Passenger Zeppelin

[Argus86]

I've been thinking lately about the absence of passenger Zeppelins. Obviously this is due to both the advent of planes as well as the public stigma placed on blimps due to the Hindenburg. My question is, if someone were to build a few passenger Zeppelins, to serve as an eclectic and cheaper travel experience, would anyone ride them? Could you possibly convince them that it was safe?

As a side note this isn't a venture I'm actually considering, although i do admit, it would be pretty cool to ride on a zeppelin...

[akula]

zeppelins....huh

I know for a fact that zeppelins will develop into a billion dollar industry over the next 20-50 years

increasing world trade requires the development of zeppelins for "carrying large (as well as heavy) things such as generators, turbines or components of oil refineries. These often have to be broken into pieces after construction and testing so as to be transported by road, rail and ship to their final destination, but an airship, acting as a “flying crane”, could transport such items directly and in one piece."

Zeppelins will be instrumental in modernising India and China because these coutries do not have the transport infrastructure which allows for the landing of freight aircraft like Antonov AN-225. Likewise, zeppelins will be used for military and tourism purposes.

21 Century Airships seems like a very interesting company

[akula]

in terms of warfare, blimps have to be the most cost effective way for taking control of territory

a fleet of 1000 unmanned aircraft, stationed in high altitude over a country like iraq, would lessen the need for bombing sorties and ground surveilance teams

having a network of 1000 high resolution surveilance cameras and movement detection devices (not to mention an entire stockpile of missiles), would yield complete supremacy over territory, negating the need for aircraft carriers, fighter jets and spy planes

such a network of blips would be the ultimate checkmate in terms of warfare because large troop numbers don't have to deployed due to superior surveilance of enemy territory

using blips is like rigging a city with surveilance cameras at the expense of deploying large numbers of cops on the beat. it works.

if blips were in use now, American troups could possibly be withdrawn from the country, because a blanket troop presence wouldn't be needed to police security

[akula]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5025388/

The cost factor is one reason why the Air Force is interested in the first part of JP Aerospace's plan: The roughly $500,000 cost of building the 175-foot-long (53-meter-long) Ascender airship is far less than the price tag for any piloted airplane or robotic drone, said Maj. Robert Blackington of the U.S. Air Force Space Battlelab project, at Colorado's Schriever Air Force Base.

Image: Ascender
JP Aerospace
An artist's conception shows the Ascender airship lifting off.
"You could probably roll about 40 of these off the line for the price of one Global Hawk," Blackington told MSNBC.com.

But the Pentagon's primary motivation is strategic rather than strictly financial. The altitudes best-suited for the helium-filled Ascender are virgin territory for the military. It could take a payload higher than any spy plane, above the weather and well beyond the reach of virtually any attack from the ground or the air.

"We've exploited [altitudes of] about 60,000 feet and below, and also low Earth orbit and above," Blackington explained. "We in the Battlelab are looking at a ‘near space’ regime. ... The technology allows us to sit in a regime that we can use now."

What would it be used for?

"We're looking at satellite-like capabilities," he said. The Ascender could loiter over, say, a suspected weapons research site and watch for trucks moving in and out — or provide a high-altitude relay for battlefield communications.

"A commander can talk with his troops on the other side of a hill or a mountain range," Blackington said.

Image: High Altitude Airship
Lockheed Martin
The High Altitude Airship, shown in this artist's conception, would measure 500 feet long.
He said the Ascender would complement a much larger military airship being developed as a separate project. Last year, the Missile Defense Agency awarded Lockheed Martin a $40 million contract to work on the High Altitude Airship, a 500-foot-long (152-meter-long) blimp, that could loiter at altitudes above 65,000 feet for as long as a year. Blackington said the HAA — which would be 25 times larger than, say, the Goodyear blimp — would be much more capable than the Ascender, but also much more expensive and somewhat more vulnerable to attack.

It will be at least a couple of years before such airships float over battlefields. The objective for next month's Ascender test is merely to demonstrate that the unmanned airship can safely reach the 100,000-foot level, respond to commands beamed up from the ground to navigate between two points, loiter in position for five minutes, then come down safely.

[akula]

http://www.livescience.com/scienceof...12_walrus.html

http://www.darpa.mil/body/news/2005/walrus.pdf

DARPA's Walrus program to develop and evaluate a very large airlift vehicle has moved forward; DARPA announced the contractors for the first phase of the program. Despite detailed early descriptions of "war-balloons" in late nineteenth century science fiction, this isn't your father's (not to mention great-grandfather's) dirigible airship. According to DARPA's press release, "the Walrus aircraft will be a heavier-than-air vehicle and will generate lift through a combination of aerodynamics, thrust vectoring and gas buoyancy generation and management."

The two contractors receiving Walrus phase I awards are:

* Lockheed Martin Corp., Advanced Development Programs, Palmdale, Calif., which will receive $2,989,779
* Aeros Aeronautical Systems Corp., Tarzana, Calif., which will receive $3,267,000

According to DARPA

A key goal of the Walrus program is to establish clear and credible solutions that provide confidence that earlier airship-era limitations will be overcome. In particular, an early focus of the program will be the investigation of advanced breakthrough technologies that will support the development of innovative lift and buoyancy concepts that do not rely on off-board ballast.

The Walrus operational vehicle (OV) is envisioned to have the primary operational task of deploying composite loads of personnel and equipment (for example, the components of an Army Unit of Action) ready to fight within six hours after disembarking the aircraft. Walrus will operate without significant infrastructure and from unimproved landing sites, including rough ground having nominal five-foot-high obstacles. It is intended to carry a payload of more than 500 tons 12,000 nautical miles in less than seven days at a competitive cost. Additionally, Walrus will be capable of performing theater lift and supporting sea-basing and persistence missions to meet a range of multi-Service needs.

The idea of using enormous dirigibles for heavy lifting in warfare is not a new idea. In his forgotten 1893 classic The Angel of the Revolution, George Griffith wrote about a coming World War fought with air-ships and war-balloons:

...The war-balloons were to be kept for purposes of transportation of heavy articles to Aeria, while the fleet of air-ships was to remain the sole effective fighting force in the world.

[Argus86]

Holy crap, thats a lot of stuff about blimps. I think it would be cool to have sort of, Air cruises in Blimps. Going from place to place in luxury and style. There could possibly be casinos and restaurants on it, like cruise ships now. I bet it could be pretty lucrative. Not to mention totally bad ass to be in a zeppelin...