I have lost count of the number
of serious initiatives underway in airship engineering. This design however appears to be much more
practical than any so far. The double
chamber configuration allows effective load spreading and space frame
engineering to maximize the craft’s size.
Even more impressive, simple lengthening can hugely upsize
capacity. I see this design easily
getting up to the 200 ton capacity level and possibly to 500 tons if that
proves desirable.
Way more important, from my
postings four years ago that focused on the need to adapt to a long haul point
to point market configuration, I am seeing the industry converge on that
market. This design screams point to
point container transport.
The premium market will obviously
be the diamond mines in the arctic who need to avoid their winter
highways. The real market will be the
weekly run from California to New York
The capital cost will drop
rapidly and we will see a ship with four truck loads or containers doing the
trip without stopping at a speed at least equal to the present road haulage
speed. Without vibration, cargo damage
will be slight.
This design could clearly do that
run and the bulk of cross country haulage will inevitably become point to point
between the supplier and the local receiver.
The airship finally takes off - Hybrid Air Vehicles has first civil
customer
By Vincent
Rice
23:01 September 6, 2011
The famous and well documented Hindenburg disaster of 1937, when the
hydrogen-filled airship burst into flames whilst attempting to tether to its
moorings in New Jersey U.S.
Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British Company founded in 2007 by the late
Roger Munk and a direct descendant of those previously unsuccessful efforts,
has recently achieved two massive commercial wins that seem to indicate that
the airship has a very rosy future indeed. The clue is in the company name,
however. These are not the cigar-shaped gas-filled 'balloons' of yesteryear but
hi-tech semi-rigid lifting bodies that rely on vectored thrust from onboard
engines and the aero-lift from the body shape for up to 40 percent of their
lifting capacity with helium providing the rest. In addition, the use of
pontoons on the underside of the hull that feature hovercraft-like skirts and
driven fans means that that the aircraft can land on earth, concrete or water
without ground crew.
This versatility plus an ability to stay airborne for 21 days and a
potential lifting capacity of up to 200 tonnes finally enabled HAV to win a
US$517million contract (€370million) in conjunction with Northrop Grumman to
supply a Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) to
the U.S. Army for deployment in Afghanistan starting in 2012. Whilst the LEMV
is a relatively small vehicle designed for surveillance, HAV has now announced
a civil customer for their heavy-lift variant.
Discovery Air Innovations of Canada has agreed to purchase a number of
vehicles capable of lifting 50 tonnes and making way at 100 knots (185 km/h/115
mph) with the intention of providing cargo services to remote regions of the
'frozen North' at greatly reduced cost. Construction of the first vehicles will
start in 2012 with commercial service beginning in Canada
Hybrid Air Vehicles see a large number potential uses for their craft
in mapping and geographic monitoring, in humanitarian aid provision, offshore
drilling support and, of course, luxury tourism. With these two major contracts
in their pocket it looks as if the era of the airship has finally come, again.
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