AirshipsSpaceships

[dragonous]

Lately my mind has been buzzing with new airships with no ballast. Pretty simple too (since I got in inspiration from a PS2 game with airships). Still struck with Vtol propulsion to the type that they use in Harrier jets. A small bridge with adaquate sleeping quarters I guess. The entertainment room with the galley attached is yet just a cinch. Lately my last big inspiration has been the Niel Strom. A massive starship design that is in the battlecarrier type. I still don't know why I am so good at this but I'll see if I can have some of this drafted on the internet.

 

[kane007]

The only problem with an airship as a "battlecarrier" is you pop a couple of small arms rounds through its fabric and ....whoooooosh!

 

[nacnud]

Helium airships are pretty much imune to small arms fire, the holes the bullets make are not big enough to let the gas escape fast enough to be a problem.

 

[avaunt]

I say Fletchettes to you, youngling.

 

[spacefire]

large military airships with a complement of fighters to protect the have been attempted in the 30s-see Macon, Akron, and both were destroyed-even though they were using helium.<br />That doesn't mean the technology, in the preradar days, when most fighters were slow biplanes, would not have been a valid one.<br />It just means that they gave up improving on it because the range of aircraft increased dramatically around that time, and heavy bombers appeared, radar was developed-imagine how a big rigid airship would show up on radar- and fighters increased their performance dramatically in terms of airspeed, ceiling and firepower.<br />under such conditions, a large airship was becoming a sitting duck!<br />small, non-rigid blimps have been used extensively in WW2 by the US Navy to hunt for submarines.<br /><br /><br /><br />however..just letting imagination run amok a bit:<br />A huge airship with fighters could have functioned pretty well in a Pre-WW2 conflict. A very big airship would allow for a rigid metallic shell that would be immune to 7.92mm bullets-widely used on most aircraft mounted machine guns before WW2.<br />The retrival and launch procedure for the ships aircraft as used on the Macon was rudimentary at best and could have been vastly improved to allow for retrieval/deployment even in turbulent conditions.<br />Instead of a trapeze on the ship and a hook on the plane, a rigid boom would extend from the rear, and the fighter would guide a 'ring' (mounted on top of the top wing) onto the boom. Afterwards, the boom can be slightly raised, allowing the fighter to kind of slide down into the hangar. The fighter would be slowing down such that it would stall and its weight would take it straight into the hangar.<br />Takeoff, Landing and Ground handling operations-the most delicate part of operating such a craft-depended on a lot of men grabbing ropes and pulling the monster down, or using a simple mooring tower where the craft could be aligned with the wind. Again, <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[le3119]

I had this crazy idea about an airship, filled with hydrogen, that would rise to around 60-80,000 feet, then use its rocket engine fueled by the hydrogen gas to blast into orbit. Probably impossible. The ship would have to carry most of its oxygen along, which is heavier per molecule than hydrogen. Oh well....maybe a biomechanical structure, a new lifeform that could carry us into orbit.

 

[grooble]

Can helium be used as rocket fuel?