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Post by David N.Tanner 07011959 on Sept 10, 2016 14:55:24 GMT
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Post by boxholder on Dec 29, 2016 13:54:22 GMT
For those interested: The Landships II website (www.landships.info/landships/models.html#) has a FREE zeppelin card model. It is 1/144. If rescaled to 1/100 for AQMF, it is about 65 inches long. This show how huge these things were.
David Tanner found this site and posted it in "I'd like to see..."
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 1, 2017 5:52:09 GMT
Speaking of dirigibles etc. Amazon has announced a plan to build floating 'warehouses' from which to dispatch drones with commonly purchased items. Seems a natural for Scotts books! The thing is a zeppelin like thing with the warehouse below the gas filled bag (presume helium) with a maintained altitude of 45,000 feet. We'll see. I could see loads of problems with this particularly with security matters over any town/city it hovers.
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Post by boxholder on Jan 1, 2017 12:32:10 GMT
Yes, but Amazon will likely find things further in the future than they might wish: www.popsci.com/worlds-longest-airship-bottoms-upAnd managing the buoyancy of a changing inventory in real time will be interesting. Plus, at 45,000 feet any personnel will need a pressurized cabin structure and emergency oxygen system. And it takes a lot of gas to support weight. The Hindenburg passenger cabin was only a small volume along the lower keel. All the rest of that volume was space for the gas. Imagine the size that it would take to support an Amazon warehouse full of stuff. It is cool to have some "out there" thoughts, but the clue bird and its pal, reality, will be coming to visit them. Physics WILL NOT be denied! One other thing: People are all exercised over cosmic radiation dose on extended space missions to Mars. When you are at high altitude, the shielding from the atmosphere is reduced. At 40,000 feet, you might as well be in deep space. Just think how the staff will like being up there for weeks or months.
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Post by hardlec on Jan 1, 2017 19:33:28 GMT
Here's a question I'd like some feedback on:
The Akron and Macon, the US built airship aircraft carriers, had a trapeze system where aircraft were picked up and launched from the bottom of the ship. The turbulence created a problem with retrieval created a lot of problems. My limited knowledge of buoyancy suggests that the bottom of an airship is structurally weakest on the bottom.
It seems to me that an aerial aircraft carrier would do better with a flight deck on the top of the airship.
As for the coolness factor, a flight deck on the top of the airship would look better than a trapeze on the bottom.
A possible anachronism:
The US built an airship called the ZMC-2. It had a skin of Aluminum. A small, test case, it had a long, safe career, but it was too small for practical use and was scrapped during WWII when the aluminum was sorely needed.
Aluminium clad airships were much more fire resistant and had a much lower loss of lift gas than fabric covered airships. They were also lighter, as the monocoque structure required less interior bracing.
Would it be too big a stretch to have aluminium skinned airships?
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Post by boxholder on Jan 1, 2017 22:38:50 GMT
Scale effect might help an aluminum skinned airship. Surface area (weight of the skin) would increase with the square of scaling while volume (a measure of lifting gas) would go up with scale cubed.
This may be one case where scale factor is on your side.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 2, 2017 3:37:28 GMT
I really favor the deck on top of the airship - models from Spartan Miniatures work fine and the concept of large 'fans' for left are previewed in the various GI Joe and Shield movies.
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Post by hardlec on Jan 2, 2017 16:57:24 GMT
Scale effect might help an aluminum skinned airship. Surface area (weight of the skin) would increase with the square of scaling while volume (a measure of lifting gas) would go up with scale cubed. This may be one case where scale factor is on your side. Indeed. Bigger airships have proportionately more lift and less weight to structure.
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