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New Type of Hot Air Blimp
An anonymous reader writes to let un know about a story up on the Experimental Aircraft Association site about a new kind of blimp. From the article: "Alberto, whose name pays homage to Brazilian aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont, is 102 feet long with a 70-foot diameter and uses hot air rather than helium for lift. Its innovative foldable frame (much like an giant umbrella) creates structural support of its hot-air envelope, and it has a fly-by-wire vectored thrust steering system. Alberto is a hybrid; a hot-air balloon with aluminum ribs that looks more like a blimp, but with a tail propeller that gives it directional control." The home site of the blimp's developers has a timeline, photos, and a video of the blimp in flight.
The Personal Blimp can fly in ways that no other aircraft can match. For instance, no other aircraft can accomplish the seemingly straightforward task of picking off the top-most leaf from a particular treeI am guessing that most people are going to prefer blasting from city to city in a matter of minutes. If I want to pick leaves from the tops of trees, and who knows why anyone would ever want to do even that, I'll get a ladder.
When not in use, the Personal Blimp can be deflated and folded for storageStored where, an aircraft hangar? The thing is enormous.
We received a patentGreat, lets celebrate that. You guys patented blimps with internal frames so you can keep anyone who doesn't pay you from doing that same thing.
What a waste of time.
you couldn't pay me to go up in one - irrational fear of heights - but it seems better than being in a balloon with no real control of your direction beyond finding some wind blowing the way you want to go.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I'm an apartment dweller so about the parking situation...
So RMS learned to fly?
If you never make mistakes, it's probably because you're not doing anything.
That blimp is going to get /.
Rush Limbaugh?
joe: Where do you keep getting this stuff!!!
This blimp isn't just a step forward for aviation, it's a major step forward in the development and construction of a viable space elevator. One of the primary problems that has plagued the space elevator proponents is the identification of a cost effective means of transporting the carbon nanotube teather from the Earth's surface to a proper orbit. This blimp and advances in carbon nanotubes could signal the beginning of cheap space transport for all mankind.
Mark this day on your calendar folks.
The fact is the booger is huge, there is no excusing this fact. Add this to the whole who the hell has that much space to store a blimp factor and the next who the hell will police the skies (as tickets get much harder to hand over when being able to pull over becomes a non option. The entire article is filled with it issues (namely size and practicality) that would make a helicopter although more expensive millions of times more practical. This is something like why drive your car to work when you can use this perfectly awesome toy wagon with new wheel design.
Did someone say cake?
FYI, there was a recent episode of Nova on PBS all about Alberto Santos-Dumont.
Seeing how helium is actually quite expensive (paid $70 for 300 cu ft. at a local welding supply if memory serves) it's interesting that this contraption uses hot air. I wonder what the economics of hot air look like; i.e. cost of fuel to maintain lift, etc.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
"Calling Sky Captain. Come in, Sky Captain."
Can't wait. This kind of reminds me of that Dr. Who epside with the alternate universe with lots of blimps & dirigibles.
That thing needs a better colour scheme, though. It's not dark and moody enough.
I wonder it they'll ever reenable the docking tower at the top of the Empire State Building?
Gimps in Blimps.
Even according to the FAQ for the blimp, there are other hot air blimps available. This thing is not available for sale, they "predict that, with the current engine in place, we'll go about 12 miles per hour" (i.e. they haven't even measured it from the ground which is easy enough to do), and they say they don't really want to fly much above treetop level though they have reached "hundreds of feet".
t .jpg if you like
In other words, someone has built themselves a clever gadget, but it's barely been used at all, and is basically a cool plaything that for those with a spare hundred or two hundred grand, plenty of spare time, and open fields. This is any more newsworthy than my personal vehicle I use for getting around town is even though that is very different from anything you'll see on the street in terms of weight, design, engine, etc. View it at http://alptown.com/temp/Oregon.2006.VelokitAtNigh
I always zeppelins to make a come-back. It looks like they are currently used only for sightseeing and surveying, though.
I don't suppose this new hot-air balloon can compete. It really does look like a cross between a blimp and balloon, though.
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
I'm an apartment dweller so about the parking situation...
If you live in a penthouse, then this blimp would clearly be useful
This would make the perfect album cover! Someone resurrect John Bonham and get the band back together.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
There are solar heated hot air balloons...
e.g.
http://perso.orange.fr/ballonsolaire/en-index.htm
Deleted
Man! That's a lot of blimps!
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
This will be the ultimate way to get around Washington DC. Plenty of free fuel....
Whatever happened to commuter blimps? IIRC, There was a proposal 20 years ago to have commuter blimps travel between San Jose and San Francisco (50 miles) that would take an hour each way. I guess the air went out of the proposal since it wasn't any faster or cost effective than taking the train or car.
Airship nomenclature defined these:
Type A - Rigid
Type B - Limp (hence the nickname "blimp")
This has a rigid frame inside so it cannot be a blimp.
Richard Branson is attempting to circumvent the world for the e^(pi*i)th time.... Only this time, running off of a hybrid fuel of hot air and smug
Seems a lot of people out there can't see a use for airships and frankly I'm surprised, Slashdotters have tremendous imaginations! Coming from Alberta, Canada I know there is a huge market for transportation of goods, especially moving big things to hard-to-get-to places. Right now there are startup blimp companies offering their services to haul huge vessels up to the tar sands. Advantages: you don't tear up highways with hundreds of wheels. You don't have to get travel permits for roads. You don't have to raise very power line and remove and then subsequently replace light standards. You don't have to install bridges, build one use roads etc. the list goes on. In the logging industry they use heavy lift helicopters to log impossible to access mountain sides. A ligher than air ship with fantastic manuverability would be perfect. Farther north, many communities can currently only be accessed via ice road in the winter (a time window that is shrinking thanks to GW). Point is, there are markets. Will it take over the entire transportation market; No way. S.
. . . Michael Moore, is that you?
Good reply!
There's nothing more annoying than a smug post containing a wrong answer - especially when it involves propagating an urban legend.
You would think in the post-Wikipedia world a person would at least try to check their facts before they make an ass of themselves.
naive outside question (excuse my ignorance) - you say "the non-optimal shape of the blimp compared to a balloon" - to my eyes it looks like blimps are more aerodynamic so I would have thought more efficient at moving through the air. Could you expand on what you mean by non optimal? cheers!
end of comment.
Wow, that is a cool idea... that should be the main story instead of the blimp!
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Oh, the humanity!
these look like they could make pretty kick ass communications relays / air based controllers for uav/uas applications. seems like they can carry a pretty decent payload, but there's still the question of fuel efficiency.
Hook up some sort of powered fan to any hot-air balloon, and you would have the same thing.
Wouldn't you?
If it has a rigid frame, its a dirigible. A blimp is non-rigid. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirigible
Squirrel!
They should really fill these things with hot hydrogen. You get the best of both worlds
Darn.....
I was expecting an article on Ted Kennedy.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Oh the humanity!
How ya like dat?
Instead of filling the blimp with hot air . . .
Just make the frame out of carbon nano-tubes, with um spectra fiber cloth for the baloon, then pump the air out of that baby and up you go!
Yeah! Thats the ticket! They probably tried this in Soviet Russia years ago, but failed because they didn't have carbon nano-tubes, so now all this profit are belong to me!
Clickety Click
I quite appreciate the summary of the thought process that led to this design.
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
Instead of umbrella framing, I think it'd be cool to figure out a way to make this work with a (semi)rigid envelope. Perhaps try it with either carbon fiber or some fancy-shmancy nano-tube matrix composite. Then you could go a lot faster while under propulsion (maybe break Zeppelin's lighter-than-air speed records while you're at it), as you'd no longer have to worry about the lifting envelope deforming and then being torn to shreds. Also if you made a working rigid buoyant envelope in a lifting body shape there would be some additional advantages. You could cruise forward with the engines off via buoyant gliding. By simply shifting center of gravity forward and back while alternating the buoyancy, and it would be posible to move forward at slow speeds in complete silence.
A Helicopter.
There are laws about throwing them overboard you know. There have to be, since nobody has done so so far.
I thought for sure they found a way to use my.. erm... natural gas a cheap form of transportation!