MisterVimes Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Hindenburg Interior Plans These are SUPER handy. The PRG "Daredevils" had a setting book with zepplin plans, but I couldn't find my copy. Repped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escafarc Posted May 1, 2012 Report Share Posted May 1, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Hindenburg Interior Plans Nice. repped of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Airship Battle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted May 6, 2012 Report Share Posted May 6, 2012 Re: Zeppelins And if you think the Zeppelin is used just for sightseeing, read this article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted May 8, 2012 Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 Re: Zeppelins And if you think the Zeppelin is used just for sightseeing' date=' read this article. News report here. I haven't actually seen the Zeppelin all year. Every time it's in my area, I always miss it. Scratch that, I spotted it, although it's pretty hazy outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted May 11, 2012 Report Share Posted May 11, 2012 Re: Zeppelins I also saw this blimp near the Ferry Building yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Here's a video for you. It shows the masting of the Zeppelin as seen from the mast truck and from the ground. And here's the Pegasos Project. I think the Zeppelin is the one that was used by the now-defunct Nippon Airship Corporation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted June 10, 2012 Report Share Posted June 10, 2012 Re: Zeppelins And here's the Pegasos Project. I think the Zeppelin is the one that was used by the now-defunct Nippon Airship Corporation. Some videos of the restored Zeppelin And the company's blog, with lots of photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted June 29, 2012 Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Airship training for Air Force test pilots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted July 20, 2012 Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Model airship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Another model built from scratch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 Re: Zeppelins LZ-77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 Re: Zeppelins I think I've asked this before, but is there a practical upper limit on how large one could make a rigid airship? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 Re: Zeppelins I don't know. The Hindenburg was almost 750 feet long, and that was the largest ever built, IIRC. I don't know how large nonrigid airships can get either. The US Navy had blimps that were longer than the Zeppelin NT is now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted August 3, 2012 Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Re: Zeppelins I'd guess that the efficiency of the propulsion and the strength to weight ratio of the structure itself would be a major deciding factor. Another might be just how big it could get before becoming inherently uncontrollable in even the lightest breeze. Ground-handling was always a tricky business, with more than a few airships being damaged or even wrecked not in flight, but while being moved between moorings and hangars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted August 3, 2012 Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Re: Zeppelins http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951027&slug=2149105 I think something with 1000 tons of cargo lift capacity, maybe shaped like a hybrid(ala the Aeroscraft) and capable of a decent airspeed, would probably be the upper limit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted August 3, 2012 Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Re: Zeppelins I think I've asked this before' date=' but is there a practical upper limit on how large one could make a rigid airship?[/quote'] Yes: the old WW1 "Height-climber" zeppelins were pushing the lower limit, in terms of weight to lifting capacity, though we can do a bit better today, given lightweight materials. I don't think anyone has pushed the upper limit, though some of the earlier metal-skinned rigid airships were coming close. The problem is the amount of reinforcing you need to make ever-larger flight reservoirs (or ever longer series of reservoirs) structurally sound. You reach a point where the extra weight is more than the gain in lifting power. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted August 3, 2012 Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Re: Zeppelins http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951027&slug=2149105 I think something with 1000 tons of cargo lift capacity, maybe shaped like a hybrid(ala the Aeroscraft) and capable of a decent airspeed, would probably be the upper limit. Note that that article is 17 years old: as far as I know, those plans were shelved a while ago. The company that was going to make the Skycat went bust without making anything larger than a scale model, and the HULA project was cancelled as impractical. You can put it in perspective - the Hindenburg had a lift capacity of over 230 tons. That sounds pretty cool - it's nearly a quarter way to the 1000 ton goal, right? Except that the unladen weight of the Hindenburg was about 140 tons, leaving a lifting capacity of about 110 - and that's using Hydrogen. Using Helium, you're down to about 100 tons. Then you have to add crew, food, fuel ... IIRC the Hindenburg had cargo capacity of 10 tons, plus 90 passengers. Just to get a thousand tons of lift, you're going to need something with roughly 10 times the volume of the Hindenburg ... and the Hindenburg's length was 2/3rds the height of the Empire State building - and that's without any safety margin at all. To meet even reasonable safety margins you are going to need another 10%. To get 1000 tons of cargo into the air, you'd need an airship that dwarfs anything ever considered. The rigid lift wing approach suggested by Skycat and Aeroscraft loses efficiency rapidly as you scale up. Although both companies made claims about 1000 ton lifting capacity, they've never (as far as I know) convinced any aeronautical engineers that they could actually build it. Here's the deal: we've all seen pictures of the HULA heavy lifter, right? [ATTACH=CONFIG]44146[/ATTACH] The aircraft in that image is roughly 4-5% of the size we're talking about. We're talking about airships so huge, it's actually hard to imagine them. Here's a picture comparing the Hindenburg to a 747. Now try to imagine an airship 10 time larger than that! I'm not saying it can't be done - and hell, I'd pee my pants with delight to see something like that actually fly. But so far nobody's come close to a workable plan for such a beast. And since we mentioned the Hindenburg, I can only end with: [ATTACH=CONFIG]44150[/ATTACH] cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Celt Posted August 6, 2012 Report Share Posted August 6, 2012 Re: Zeppelins A wide range of images of airships: Dreaming in Dirigibles: The Airship Postcard Albums of Lord Ventry Edit to add these two images, which someone running a Pulp game may find useful/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 7, 2012 Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Nice find! Repped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Some alarming news that will probably have an impact on the airship business. Helium Shortage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Yeah, helium has been a limited commodity for decades now: the Hindenburg was only filled with Hydrogen (against the wishes of its designer) because the US government would not sell helium to the Nazi-controlled syndicate that owned it. So supply has been a problem for a long, long time: the US helium reserve was set up specifically to address this problem, and now that the "market efficiency" fiends have done away with the helium reserve, we're going to be back to scarcity. This issue has been foreseen since the legislation shutting down the helium reserve made it into law: it's why there's a resurgence in interest in using hydrogen, despite the fire risks. DARPA's ISIS project for example, gets lifting power from hydrogen, and it's the last of the US military's airship projects still standing as far as I know. And other groups are looking at how to make hydrogen-based airships safer. Hydrogen's cheap and easy to make, and gives about 10% extra lift (important for high altitude projects) so it has some clear advantages, despite one big limitation. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Desmarais Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 Re: Zeppelins http://www.worldskyrace.com/ An airship race around the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 Re: Zeppelins They have been trying to do this for years. It would be nice if it ever gets off the ground, so to speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 18, 2012 Report Share Posted August 18, 2012 Re: Zeppelins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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