Summary
The answer to why airships make sense now lies in why they did not make sense earlier. The technological challenges of airships are deceptively complicated. An airship has to be lighter than air (LTA) and strong enough to carry enormous loads and stresses. As buoyancy vehicles, transport airships are immense. The rule of thumb is that a cubic metre of helium must be contained for every kilogram of lift. Despite its enormous profile to the wind and elements, an airship must be able to land with precision and safely discharge and load cargo or ballast.
Clearly, no large aerospace manufacturer is going to gamble the company on a leap of faith. If the development of modern transport airships were easy, they would be flying today. The proof of concept was amply demonstrated by the giant Zeppelins of the interwar period in the 1930s.Changes in technology and demand are aligning to change the constraints of the past. The key material developments are composite fabrics and carbon-fibre construction. The envelopes of the giant Zeppelins lasted only four years when exposed to ultraviolet radiation and offered no structural support. Modern airships are using composite envelopes that provide all the structural strength and can resist the sun radiation for more than 15 years.See the full content of this document
Extract
Transportation Future Tipping Toward Airships
Second part of a three-part series
Tipping points in transportation are rarer than for most technology because of the scale of investment required and the competition from incumbent alternatives. Since the Industrial ...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
