Canadian Company Plans Solar-Powered Heavier-Than-Air Airships

savuporo writes "By crossing airships with airplanes, Solar Ship is planning to build a craft that can carry heavy loads long distances with a tiny carbon footprint. Filled with helium, they soak up rays from the sun to provide the energy for forward motion and fulfill its original design challenge – carry 1,000 kilograms (2,205 lbs) of payload 1,000 kilometers (621.4 miles). The craft is heavier than air, and uses a combination of helium filling its interior and its lifting body delta wing shape to stay airborne. Solar Ship shows plans for a range of different size craft for different duties."

Comments

Re:A bit short sighted

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Oh the humanity...

The Deltoid Pumkin Seed

[Required Snark]

This idea seems familiar...

http://www.johnmcphee.com/deltoid.htm

The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed tells the fascinating story of the dream of a completely new aircraft, a hybrid of the airplane and the rigid airship--huge, wingless, moving slowly through the lower sky. It flies aerodynamically. It floats aerostatically. It carries bridges, buildings, fleets of trucks. It is a flying warehouse. It eliminates the need for roads, railroads, prepared harbors. Or so goes the dream. With an arching back and a deep belly, it looks like a tremendous pumpkin seed.

Re:is there a helium shortage?

[Troggie87]

Helium is the least reactive noble gas, and much lighter than air. Common sense says that it will rapidly leave our atmosphere. I dont remember the exact details (I had this brought up in a class once), but it was some combination of the ascending helium reaching escape velocity and solar wind peeling off anything that might try to settle in a super high orbit. The impending heium shortage is a well known problem, and a significant part of the reason I get an overwhelming urge to punch clowns in the face every time I see them handing out balloons.

And frankly, almost every alternative energy solution has serious if not fundamental flaws. If they didn't, we would already have been using them. Seriously, this "you're all just pessimists who work for oil companies and kick puppies" crap is getting old. Going off half cocked with some doe-eyed fantasy of a technotopian future filled with helium blimps and solar farms the size of small nations isn't going to fix anything. It took a hundred years and a lot of ignorance to get stuck in this energy policy quagmire, and logic dictates it will take twice that amount of time to get back out. You dont extract yourself from quicksand by thrashing about in a panic.

Re:Helium?

[TheRaven64]

There are two places where airships have an advantage over jets:

The first is carrying a lot of cargo that isn't particularly urgent. Modern designs can go at about 80 miles per hour, which competes well with any form of ground transport - even trains once you remember that they can go in a straight line - and they can do this all day, and this adds up to quite long distances.

The second is tourist travel. Think of an airship like a cruise ship that can go over land. Quite often, being able to see the scenery moving slowly by is a selling point.

Re:A bit short sighted

[Arlet]

But the same problems would face the designers of a large airship. The helium may not leak through the skin itself, but it will be challenging to keep all the seams tight enough to prevent leakage. Also, after a while, microscopic cracks could develop due to flexing and bending in the wind.