Could airships make a comeback? | Nick Rogers | TEDxKingstonUponThames
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- Airships were once kings of the skies. Transporting passengers across continents at speed and in luxury, they were the future of long-distance travel. With the tragic loss of the Hindenburg in 1937, the airship dream suddenly died, in one of the few examples of a technology vanishing with nothing to replace it. But with modern technology and materials, and myriad modern roles to perform, could the dream at last become reality?
Nick Rogers, a transport operations professional and a Member of the London Assembly, watched an airship fly over his school at the age of eight and has been hooked ever since. Nick is a former council member of the Airship Association and is the host of the forthcoming podcast ‘Up Ship! The Airship History Podcast’. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
Ta Nick. Lovely talk live, lovely to hear again. Loving your podcast too!
What I would give to fly on a airship, especially a rigid sorta like the old ones. It's one hundred percent on my bucket list.
Please talk about how transport no longer limited to the width of the roads could revolutionize delivery of things like manufactured homes. Imagine lifting components far larger than those now able to transit highways. Mass production becomes possible at centralized locations, and the entire home construction industry is disrupted for the better.
Maybe not fully assembled houses, but we're now at the age where all the parts of a home can be manufactured in one facility, flat-packed and shipped by truck. We could haul 2-4 flatpack houses or even fleets of containers by cargo airship.
In the 1980's Alan Bond made airships in Australia. He saw these as having uses in offshore surveillance and tourist site seeing. I saw the prototype flying over Sydney regularly. For so
me reason they were unsuccessful. Very sad
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Vertical take off and landing with more than a helicopter can carry is the killer application.
Airship stabilized space fountain systems are the future
refreshing
The Hindenburg disaster was not the reason airships were abandoned; the technological superiority of newly-designed fixed-wing airplanes made Hindenburg obsolete before it even left its construction hangar for the first time in March, 1936. For example, in November, 1935 Pan American’s Martin M-130 “China Clipper” airliner flew from San Francisco to Honolulu (a distance farther than the longest leg between the United States and Europe).
Airplanes could travel faster and, more importantly, much more economically than airships, and once heavier-than-air technology reached a certain point, in the mid-1930s, the end of the airship era was inevitable, and the incredible advance in airplane technology resulting from World War II ensured the airship as a significant form of transportation would never return.
Airships will definitely have a role in the future, but it will be a niche role, filled by a small number of airships (including those designed by LTA Research), for a few very narrow and specific applications.
Imagine airship with perovskite coated solar cells and battery powered-truly ecological and economical transport
Yeah i mean the technology of these is a real alternative especially looking at the climate: Just look at those of Airlander and Flying Whales and other companies. I hope we'll see them in our skies more when the plant in the UK is up and running
If they can overcome the challenges with using airships for transport of cargo, it would provide a new, direct route for transportation of cargo while easing congestion on highways. There are still significant challenges, but given the resourceful nature of industry, it’s possible these could be overcome in a timely fashion.
I would love to take my Highwind for a test flight!
There is only ONE airship company that has a viable design. TURTLE AIRSHIPS. No more glorified balloons! No blimps, no dirigibles. Changes must be made..........to fully rigid hulled lighter-than=air craft,, designed with lifting body shapes instead of the traditional cylindrical types. Airships that are made of fireproof materials, so they can use unlimited Hydrogen gas for lift instead of scarce and expensive Helium. No airship that proposes to carry and deliver payloads that are suspended by cables will succeed; nor those that propose to "compress helium", or use any type of "hovercraft-like" landing system.
Airships have to be the future for travel
❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉
Thank You Nick Rogers. Modern Airship technology can be a great benefit to humanity. SOSSTSE Scientific Technology Solutions, SOSSTSE Voices of hope.
I'm not an airship nerd but I love travel opportunities. The more opportunities to explore our world the better. And if in the 30s it took an airship 2 days to get from Germany to the US, I'd love to see how fast it'll happen now.
Great talk, except for one point... helium is not sustainable. It's a limited resource.
My initial thoughts too. Having a brief look at the man's background I wouldn't be surprised if this is all to promote a company he has interests in and has no actual fascination with airships at all.
Yes, limited but quite abundant.
@@KevinFields777 I Googled the estimated time of depletion of this NONRENEWABLE element. It said about 40 years at the current rate of usage. If that rate increases because of new use cases, it will be even sooner.
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I gotta say I love this guy’s name
Hey, a single moment? There is a history of airship disasters, the difference about the Hindenburg was that it was caught on film. Once it was in the public eye, the history of airship disasters had a light cast upon it.
Airships have one critical flaw…weather permitting
Any day that you can watch the sunset is a great day.
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There is a new factory in Doncaster which has recently signed a contract to make these.
Bet he owns part of it.
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Use monatomic deionized hydrogen because it is lighter and nonflammable !!
They should.
Could catapults?
Yes. Small Airships have a great advantage over driving cars to work 60 miles distance.
Yes, I can see myself thumbing my nose while flying over LA
Except for when it's windy. Which is every day in certain parts of the country.
@@scootypuffjr. airship parking outside, above, or within a large enough power lines perimeter solves that issue if it means a small walk or bike ride.
@danielfoster2788 that makes no sense. Air ships do not have the thrust capability to overcome wind. They get tossed around like a party balloon.
@@scootypuffjr. that depends upon the lift and anchor ratio of your parking structure and as I said launch clearance.
Isn't Helium irreplacable though?
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patent US11027816 describes how Los Alamos National Laboratory achieved an air-buoyant VLTAS ( Vacuum Lighter Than Air Structure ) from a very strong aerogel analog
Abstract : Air-buoyant structures, and vehicles incorporating air-buoyant structures, are provided. Hollow, air-buoyant structures may include a shell of ultra-low density aerogel material, foam material, or vapor-expanded material that is strong and stiff enough to withstand atmospheric pressure and lightweight enough to achieve buoyancy in air under evacuation. The shell may be reinforced with a suitable reinforcing material, such as helical nanofibers. The air-buoyant structures may also include vacuum pumps and valves operably connected to or integrated with the hollow shell. The vacuum pumps and valves may be configured to pump air out of the hollow shell and allow air back into the hollow shell to control buoyancy.
primary claim : An air-buoyant structure, comprising:
a shell comprising an aerogel material, a foam material, a vapor-expanded material, or any combination thereof;
a cavity defined by the shell and located within the shell that is under reduced pressure conditions as compared to atmospheric pressure at a specific altitude; and
a plurality of vacuum pumps and valves integrated with the shell, wherein
the plurality of vacuum pumps and valves are configured to maintain the reduced pressure conditions within the cavity by pumping air out of the cavity.
secondary claim : The air-buoyant structure of claim 1, wherein the shell is reinforced with helical nanofibers.
==
search for
Approaching air buoyancy in aero cryogel vacuum vessels researchgate
abstract : Air impermeability has been observed in low-density aerogel and cryogel materials, which has led to a series of experiments to investigate the feasibility of an air buoyant vacuum vessel, as well as the fabrication and testing of sub-buoyant prototypes. Bulk samples of silica aerogel were shown to isolate vacuum from ambient air for several hours with optimal vacuum isolation occurring at a density of approximately 85 mg cm-3. It was demonstrated using polyimide aerogel and cryogel materials that the ability of these foam materials to provide an air impermeable layer between vacuum and atmosphere, in spite of being comprised of mostly void space, is related to material stiffness. It is hypothesized that this behavior is due to local deformation of the random nanostructure of the material. Spherical shell vacuum vessels were produced using the polyimide cryogel, and less than 133 Pa vacuum containment was demonstrated under active pumping. In order to approach the non-buoyant to buoyant transition for these vacuum vessels, a polyimide composite was produced using helical fibers for which preliminary mechanical testing was performed
Ah, at the end he tells us he's a tory. Bet he has shares in Helium, or a Helium producing company and has zero interest in airships other than for financial gain.
No, not really.
My grandfather saw airships land at someone’s house. Now, everyone hates dealing with the airport.
After Boeing's screwup, this is the chance airships need
When will ted himself show up to the talk?
Ted was executed in 1989. This conference is organized in his honor.
@@jktomas oh... Damn
@@jktomas wow sad pepe frog