According the the white paper on the "Technology" link:
The gravityplane must be very large in order to be lifted by a lighter-than-air lifting gas such as helium that provides a very low amount of lift, thus a small gravityplane can never be built and models of the craft will always be very large. However, a scale model of the gravityplane can be built as a sea glider that is less than 30 foot long that will be capable of holding four passengers. The sea glider can work in water at this small size, because water has a lifting capacity 821 times greater than the lifting capacity of air (62 pounds per cubic foot lifting capacity for water and.0755 pounds per cubic foot lifting capacity for air).
If at 30 feet a gravityplane can hold 4 passengers, could this design ever provide a viable means of transport for larger groups of people?
30 feet/4 people = 7.5 feet/person
Thats approx 75 feet per group of 10. Makes for quite a large plane for even medium sized groups.
For cargo I suppose this could be cost effective depending on the maintenance costs and its lifetime. Lets assume that an average person weighs 200lbs (I know it may be too large, but to allow for an optimistic view of the plane's carying capacity).
7.5feet/200lbs ~= 1foot/26lbs
May be good for cargo because shape, size and conditions don't really matter.
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Ok, I apologize. My math sucks. I just got out of a calc midterm and i'm burnt out :\
According the the white paper on the "Technology" link:
.0755 pounds per cubic foot lifting capacity for air).
The gravityplane must be very large in order to be lifted by a lighter-than-air lifting gas such as helium that provides a very low amount of lift, thus a small gravityplane can never be built and models of the craft will always be very large. However, a scale model of the gravityplane can be built as a sea glider that is less than 30 foot long that will be capable of holding four passengers. The sea glider can work in water at this small size, because water has a lifting capacity 821 times greater than the lifting capacity of air (62 pounds per cubic foot lifting capacity for water and
If at 30 feet a gravityplane can hold 4 passengers, could this design ever provide a viable means of transport for larger groups of people?
30 feet/4 people = 7.5 feet/person
Thats approx 75 feet per group of 10. Makes for quite a large plane for even medium sized groups.
For cargo I suppose this could be cost effective depending on the maintenance costs and its lifetime. Lets assume that an average person weighs 200lbs (I know it may be too large, but to allow for an optimistic view of the plane's carying capacity).
7.5feet/200lbs ~= 1foot/26lbs
May be good for cargo because shape, size and conditions don't really matter.