Massive new aircraft the Airlander 10 is unveiled | Hacker News Reader

Massive new aircraft the Airlander 10 is unveiled

theguardian.com

46 pointsjonbaer18 comments

A bit OT but the hangars at Cardington are amazing.

You see them in the distance and you think "oh that's interesting", then you realise they're a lot further in the distance than you first thought, and you think "bloody hell! They're massive!"

if you like big hangars, the old CargoLifter Hangar[1] near Berlin, Germany is also amazing. Even more amazing since they went bankrupt and it was converted into a tropical island resort[2] where you can go to sun bathe in the icy Berlin winters.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands_Resort

original purpose: building a giant airship

new purpose: pasty white germans eating barbecued sausage and drinking beer on a fake tropical beach

Very cool! I've always been fascinated by lighter-than-air vehicles, and I'm excited to see that the technology is still being developed. For anyone who's interested, the history of the field is littered with odd false starts, such as the US Navy's (now long defunct) LAV fleet circa 1920 [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shenandoah_%28ZR-1%29

Nice just down the road from me about 18 months ago I did a spec job application to them.

Might tale the day off work to see her fly for the first time.

It should work, but what is it for? For "surveillance", a small drone is far more cost effective.

And how much helium does it leak per week? That's what killed Airship Ventures, Silicon Valley's airship. The price of helium doubled.

It has the same cost as ice-trucking in the arctic without the risks.

Edit: Okay, Transport is the purpose of the Lockheed craft. This craft, however, eludes me... they're pitching it for sensing/telecommunications purposes.

The cost per ton of payload is hoped to be significantly cheaper than traditional aircraft. Also, it can land anywhere, so no need for a for a runway.

> It should work, but what is it for? For "surveillance", a small drone is far more cost effective.

The article mentions that this aircraft is able to "stay aloft for 5 days". I'm sure no drone has similar loiter capabilities like this craft, not to mention a far higher payload.

Furthermore, I suppose it would be far easier (if not trivial) to turn this vehicle into a drone than an airplane.

Don't overlook the cruise market. People pay a lot of money to travel on slow cruise ships -- in fact, leisurely travel is part of the appeal. The problem with current cruise ships is that they can only travel over water. There is no such limitation with an airship.

This article has more details:

http://www.blimpinfo.com/airships/hybrid-hopes-an-inside-loo...

Thanks! We've changed the URL to that from http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a20065/airlander-long....

The new link is just an article copy-pasted (with attribution, but unclear whether it's with permission) from the real source, which is this:

http://aviationweek.com/greene-tweed/hybrid-hopes-inside-loo...

Double thanks! Changed from http://www.blimpinfo.com/airships/hybrid-hopes-an-inside-loo....

Edit: actually, since these are out of date, let's use the Guardian URL that the Popular Mechanics article pointed to.

With the exception that it is from 2015, and the "news" is that its almost ready to fly (see http://gizmodo.com/our-first-look-at-airlander-10-the-larges...). It was supposed to start air trials in "early" 2016 and it looks like it won't miss that mark by too much.

And on a related note, it would be unsettling to see this: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--FtZsEwdI... coming down from the sky. Kudos to the photographer for getting the whole front of the aircraft in the shot though.

Anyone who remembers a particularly ludicrous TV SF series from the late 1990s will immediately wonder if it can blow up planets:

https://coubsecure-a.akamaihd.net/get/b89/p/coub/simple/cw_t...

Something... awful.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com