However, there is no doubt that the Shindenberg fire on May 6, 1937 sounded the death knell for the budding airship industry.
Seeing the huge German led zeppelin burning and falling in Lakehurst, New Jersey, frightened onlookers. It was burned in a few seconds, and 35 of the 97 passengers were killed. The photos and news clips of hell also brought this shocking scene to people all over the world. [Photo: Hindenburg Disaster History]
Not surprisingly, after the tragedy, the popularity of flying in large inflatable balloons dropped sharply, and the aviation industry never really recovered. But for some people, the dream that it is easier than air travel has been shattered, and institutions and private companies are still experimenting with huge airships.
The following are some modern creations, which show the iconic smooth design and low-carbon footprint efficiency of airship travel.
Airoscraft ML866 designer's description of the planned airplane airship, which overcomes the shortcomings of its predecessors. The test flight time is set at 20 10. (TWA)aero craft's airship engineers are accepting a huge challenge-building an airship with an internal space of 5,000 square feet (465 square meters).
Aeroscraft ML866, known as the "flying yacht", is currently in production and is expected to be completed in 2020. Igor, CEO and chief engineer of the company? Pasternak said in a statement. It is 555 feet (169 meters) long and 95 feet (29 meters) wide. By contrast, the Hindenburg is 804 feet long and 135 feet wide, covering an area of 6,000 square feet (557 square meters) and divided into two decks.
Helium-not the highly flammable hydrogen that caused the fire in Hindenburg-will generate most of the lift of the new spacecraft, and the rest will come from the engine.
In operation, the new airship will be able to reach the cruising altitude of12,000 feet (3,658 meters) and fly as high as 3 100 miles (about 5,000 kilometers). The representative of Aeroscraft said in a statement that the aircraft is expected to carry a payload of 66 tons (60 metric tons) and will use its patented "buoyancy management system" to take off and land vertically.
Airlander/KOOC-0/0 Airlander/KOOC-0/0 is the largest aircraft in the world, and it made its first flight on August 20/KOOC-0/6/KOOC-0/7. (Hybrid aircraft) is the largest aircraft in the world at present. Helium-filled air stabilizer 10, designed and manufactured by British Hybrid Aircraft Company, also integrates the aviation technology of helicopter and aircraft to keep it at high altitude. Its length is 302 feet (92 meters)-by contrast, the largest passenger plane, Airbus A380, is only 232 feet (765,438+0 meters).
The airship was built to cruise at an altitude of 20,000 feet (665,438+000 meters) for up to two weeks, with no one on board and the crew flying for about five days. 20 16 in March, Chris Daniels, director of partnership and communication of hybrid aircraft, told Live Science that the Airlander 10 can take off and land from "almost any surface" and carry cargo weighing 22,000 pounds (9,980 kilograms).
The first flight of Airlander 10 started on August 20 16 17, and the flight time was about 19 minutes. Within 6 miles (10 km) of Bedfordshire, England, the light reaches 500 feet (152 m).
Fireball detector (NASA) 2065438+On April 22, 2002, a group of scientists boarded the airship zeppelin Eureka, a rare daytime fireball from space, the size of a minivan. On May 3 of that year, in order to cruise on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, looking for underground meteorite fragments,
Researchers from NASA and SETI Institute boarded the airship, which is 246 feet (75 meters) long and 1000 feet (300 meters) high, only slightly longer than Boeing 747. During the five-hour journey, they searched for craters, which can mark the static position of meteorite fragments.
Scientists have identified 65,438+02 features that may represent the impact zone. In an area 25 miles long and 6 miles wide (40 kilometers wide and 65,438+00 kilometers),
The walrus project, named after the walrus defense advanced research projects agency (DARPA), is developing a hybrid airship, which will be a "heavier-than-air aircraft capable of generating lift". According to a statement,
The representative of DARPA said that these modern airships will face and overcome the design challenges faced by early airships, and the investigation of "advanced breakthrough technology will support the development of innovative concepts of lift and buoyancy" and "KDSP" is looking for Bigfoot "KDSP" and "KDSP" (photo credit: falcon plan). Can KDSP finally untie the mysterious furry human figure that is called "bigfoot"? Falcon operators think it can do it.
Therefore, the representative of falcon plan announced on 20 12 that they would deploy a remote-controlled helium-filled airship to search over the forest habitat, and it was reported that this creature was found there. The custom-made Aurora Mk II is 45 feet long (14 meters). It will search for clues about bigfoot from a vantage point in the air, scan the terrain below with a camera, and capture images with high definition, thermal spectrum and infrared spectrum.
The usual search methods used by hunters in bigfoot-on foot and from the air-are very noisy, and they say they may scare their subjects. However, Falcon Project officials said in a statement that the quiet and hidden airship supported by helium buoys will enable people on the trail of bigfoot to observe the wild space without disturbing any residents.
Fish-like fish are different from airships. The new airship has no internal frame to support their "skin". They keep their shape and fully expand, supported by the pressure of gas. This flexibility enables researchers to explore a propulsion system that uses artificial muscles to propel an airship in the air, just like a fish swimming in water. "KDSP" and "KDSP": The so-called muscle is the elastic polymer membrane (EAP), which expands and contracts when it is subjected to electric shock, thus producing a bending and rotating stroke. Silfven Michel, a researcher at Empa, a Swiss company that designed the airship, told the reporter technically: "The fuselage of the airship can make the airship move forward, and this technology can be directly transferred from water to air." From the physical point of view, the motion of airship in the air is exactly the same as that of fish in the water. In both cases, objects move in the fluid and follow the same fluid law, "Michelle said.
Back to led zeppelin (Deutsche Bahn Union Archives/ALAMY) In 2008, airship design company Airship Venture Capital Company acquired the led zeppelin-led zeppelin NT design with 12 passengers in California, and German led zeppelin technology company Gmb manufactured the H for sightseeing.
It was not until 1997 that the first airship prototype was launched that the airship returned to the German sky. This is the first time that the led zeppelin has carried out its mission in California since the American Navy airship Kangmei and Akron crashed in the1930s.
The 247-foot (75-meter) long Zeppelin NT airship is significantly shorter than the giant Hindenburg airship, which is 804-foot (205-meter) long. Unlike the Hindenburg, the modern led zeppelin is filled with helium, which is less buoyant than hydrogen, but much more flammable than hydrogen.