First, let me define Hard Recommendations. We're not referring to difficult ones, but rather to someone just flat-out telling everyone what should be done . We need to be looking at, planning, and working with one well-defined methodology, utilizing the Systems Approach, when it comes to transportation, freight transport, and military uses of airships , that is, detemine the solution by working backwards from the problem --- What are we really trying to do ?
My recommendation :
A Hybrid Airship is needed to take advantage of its benefits in this situation --- esentially no infrastructure needed. This avoids the difficulties imposed by the will-o' the wisp mind changes of political fortunes and whims . Some wise man once commented that the advantage of the law was not so much that it worked in the best way in all circumstances, but that it was predictable . You could plan your life, your business, your courses of action, because you had a pretty good idea of what outcome would be achieved, given every eventuality. We see how lack of predictability kicks in with every change of administration in our state and Federal governments. Take New Jersey's rail situation. Years of effort and planning were all for naught when, very recently (2010-2011), the new Governor, operating with a slash-and-burn budget, just canceled what would have been a first-rate transportation program building new access rails into New York City. One stroke of the pen, and years of planning went (forgive the pun in this situation) Down the Tubes.
If we used hybrid airships for short-to-medium transport, infrastructure needs would be minimal. "Up ship" at almost any facility and carry on to the destination. Exaggeration for effect, but essentially true.
Why hybrid? Land on almost no runway, or on water, or ice, or snow. Why hybrid? ... because that airship does not depend on hydrostatic lift alone, that is, only on the displacement of air by a lighter-than-air substance. It takes advantage of aerodynamic lift, so that even slight forward motion adds to the lifting moment using Bernoulli's Principle over an airfoil. Why hybrid, ? ... so that those electric thrusters built into the design assists with takeoff, with lift, with directional vectoring, even with landing utilizing suction of the up-down thrusters to stick to the surface and minimize the need for a ground crew grabbing on to the lines. In other words, a hybrid airship takes advantage of every benefit it has over the conventional dirigible.
Second, powered by fuel cells generating power for operation. Advantages here :
1. all the electric power that might be needed, for onboard power, for almost instantaneous control response, for operation of the modalities needed to accomplish the mission, for lighting and comfort of the passengers, providing comfort, silence, stealth, greatly diminished vibration, for an absolute minimum of noxious emissions, and, finally, of course, for the Classic --- dependence on foreign oil ---- or even on Texas oil or Alaska oil shale, or ... well, you name it.
2. backed by batteries in the event of sudden catastrophic failure ... the flexibility of electric power is required .
3. A variety of fuels and a variety of catalytic materials are available, and new ones are being developed and tested almost monthly. We can leave it to our inventive chemical engineers and materials scientists to offer us the best choices. Hydrogen is very widely available or can be manufactured easily and cheaply. We had to laugh when a challenge was issued by a Member of the Unread who claimed that the very high temperatures required to catalyze water into H2 and O2 are very expensive to produce; he seemed to forget the ease of achieving extremely high temperatures through the use of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). Supply of water ... essentially infinite ... same for supply of solar power, or so it appears in contrast to oil or botanical fuel sources.
4. Infrastructure --- all that's really needed is a not-very-large flat area. Transportation hubs ? Anywhere to anywhere. Dr. Barry Prentice, a faculty member at the University of Manitoba, has for years been beating the drums for a program called Airships to the Arctic, encouraging the use of airships in place of the dreadful ice roads that are used to transport goods vital to the survival of settlements in Canada's for north; climate change is metamorphing these into thin ice and water. An entire TV reality program has been developed on the strength of the major difficulties encountered in trying to provide vital transportaion in very difficult situations. Year after year, although the presenters seem to offer one solution after another, none ever appear to be implemented.
Clearly, airships traveling over those routes without the need for ground support appears to be a viable solution. Although the need is there, and the path is clear, there is a good deal of discussion, but --- until very recently --- little progress in implementation.
What does seem to be driving the transformation of talk into action is, sadly once again, the needs of military services in response to the requirements of war. The Pentagon has entered into a contract on the order of $150,000,000 with a British firm (interesting, given the plunging value of the U.S. Dollar against the British Pound) to produce airships (if I may insert a chuckle here, a trial balloon) .
More to follow soonest. Next time, the occasional victory, like the production of remotely operated airships by a Swiss firm and sale to some unusual clients. Inexpensive, off-the-shelf,
pragmatic !
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