We also believe, as a real estate lawyer might put it, that CARRYING PASSENGERS IS NOT THE HIGHEST AND BEST USE OF AIRSHIPS .
Dr. Barry Prentice, of the Airships to the Arctic Conference series, has focused his entire professional career on Supply Chain economics and methodology --- that is, trying to determine the least expensive, most reliable, most dependable approach to solving the complex supply equation . In particular, he has for many years devoted his attention to the thorniest problem facing Canada, and therefore the World : overcoming seemingly insuperable difficulties in getting food and materiel to the extraction industries and inhabitants of Canada's Far North (and, we might add in passing, all the regions of the world with similarly difficult, seemingly non-traversable terrain, such as the rain forests of Borneo, the Amazon region of Brazil, the Himalayas , and the Antarctic), and furnishing emergency services to those regions. His conclusion, derived through his iconic Arctic Conference series, is that airships can provide this solution.
I agree ! I think that anyone who has followed the Ice Road Truckers television reality show and witnessed the ordeals of those supply chain providers will agree . In each case, airships present a much better transport method than trucks (lorries) .
We didn't say perfect : Just remember that the Perfect is the enemy of the Good : in other words, if you wait until you have perfected a solution, the opportunity for a good solution probably will have passed . Just think of the development of the automobile. The first ones must have been dreadful to operate and to travel in. We can't wait until the airship equivalent of a four-door Cadillac sedan is developed; let's make do with the Model A Ford. BUT, given that each of the components outlined below in my list below is well-defined, let's use the best of each and begin operations.
What I perceive is that current airship development efforts are forging ahead in the apparent hope of receiving the fabled $500,000,000 military contract at the end of the rainbow. Those firms that have gone through this cycle and then found, to their horror, that the contract is suddenly cancelled (read the news), that funding is no longer available, or that the Pentagon has changed its mind. They then have great difficulty recovering their equilibrium --- and that's a bad position for an airship firm .
Sometimes the best solution is to plunge in, as we have done. On the other hand, having this list of Characteristics of the Ideal Airship on hand may well prove to be a Fusion design that provides the best solution we have right now. IS ANYONE OUT THERE BUILDING THIS AIRSHIP ???
This BLOG lists below the Top 16 Characteristics Plus One .
THE TOP SIXTEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IDEAL AIRSHIP FREIGHTER
1. Hybrid --- designed with winglets or lifting planes to provide some of the lift, the balance of the lift provided by ...
2. ... hydrogen, and probably contained in ballonets (separate auxiliary storage spaces) , produced by ...
3. ... Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) because of the expense and other negative aspects of producing hydrogen by electrolysis and other methods .
4. This hydrogen to be used as the lifting gas ...
5. ... and the fuel for ...
6. ... a Fuel Cell to produce ...
7. ... electricity for the ...
8. ... electric motors driving ...
9. ... the Ducted Fans ... propellers encased in cowls for maximum effective propulsion and ...
10. ... mounted in universal swivel mounts so they can be used for
11. ... lift, by pointing them downward, and
12. ... steering, rather than using rudders, and
13. ... reverse thrust to hold the airship down onto the ground without the need for dangling ropes and a large ground crew .
14. The airships would carry detachable standard cargo containers designed for speed and convenience in loading and unloading, and aerodynamically streamlined for minimum drag ..
15. Unmanned , for safety, for convenience, to maximize the useful payload; proven by use in military applications, with minimum risk to crew or other personnel that otherwise might be aboard aboard.
16. The entire airship designed in a shape akin to the famous Deltoid Pumpkin Seed . And ...
THE 17th CHARACTERISTIC : AN ARTICLE OF FAITH : TIE THEM ALL TOGETHER WITH THE HIGHEST AND BEST USE IN MIND
Good Luck ! BUT if the design is good, you won't need luck !
For those who did not catch the APPLICATIONS chapter the first time around , here it is, again :
SOME OF THE MANY APPLICATIONS FOR WHICH AIRSHIPS ARE SAFE & SUITABLE
1. Sporting event video coverage
2. Law enforcement: traffic, aerial views of traffic accidents;
3. Marine mammal population census, migration patterns
4. Design-and-Build surveys for planning & construction of bridges & roads
5. Marine biology --- spotting red tides in coastal waters; monitoring the health of coral reefs
6. Fire fighting --- first-on-scene situation assessment in high rise fires, inaccessible areas, or involving hazardous materials
7. News organizations --- parades, ceremonies, sporting events, and in situations where danger to the news crew is possible
8. Radioactive and toxic waste sites --- photography & survey without risk
9. Geology --- Oil field exploration; survey & sample of volcanic eruptions
10. Federal & State Forest and Wildlife Services --- tree census; lumber poaching; game and fish poaching
11. Telecommunications --- surveying & designing fiber optic cable installations
12. Meteorological observations --- measuring wind speed, air pressure, air temperature, dew point, and humidity at various altitudes above ground level
13. Raising communications antennas during emergency situations
14. Fishing --- spotting big game fish for sport fishing, and schools of food fish for purse seining; seining schools of small fish and invertebrates visible from the air, for sale as bait
15. Monitoring railways, pipelines, and power lines --- a constant and ever- present requirement
16. Monitoring air pollutants for air quality standards determination
17. Agriculture --- Precision Agriculture techniques using remote sensing technology to monitor crop moisture content; no-harm seeding from the air, in which the soil does not get compacted by heavy tractors, and therefore remains friable as a good seed bed
18. Archaeological site mapping; correlating aerial photographs with ground level excavations and discoveries
19. Commercial aerial photography for tourist and visitors’ bureaus, yacht brokers, school programs; realtors;
20. "Green" non-disruptive exploration of ecologically sensitive biospheres, such as rain forests and forest canopies
21. Lifting transmitting equipment into the sky for maximum range.
22. Radio antennas receiving and relaying Intelligence, Survey, and Reconnaissance (ISR) data from Ground Forces [military]
23. Long term recording in place by meteorological instruments ---
anemometers, humidity meters, thermometers, etc.
24. Air sampling for pollutants, particulates, insects, and pollen.
25. Acoustic sensors for detection of intruders, without the noisy interference of internal combustion engine noise
26. Radio relay and jamming for counter-insurgency purposes. [military]
27. Detecting of mines & other explosive devices [military and, for civilian use, unexploded abandoned mines, a major cause of injuries to children in former war zones ]
28. Thermal imaging
29. Precise aiming of conventional ballistic weapons from a safe distance by Forward Artillery Observers [military]
30. Battlefield or distant control of ground forces [military]
31. Crowd control and detection devices [law enforcement]
CONCEIVED and COMPILED by HYBRIDPELTA .
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