Coal
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I can't help feeling there's a place for them in the transport of goods, like canal barges, slow, but cheap.
ramonmercado
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Enormous, unique and British-built, the Airlander 10 is on the verge of taking to the skies.
The fully assembled aircraft was unveiled, floating in its Bedfordshire hangar, on Monday: an airship-cum-plane pumped with a million cubic feet of helium, big enough to dwarf the largest jumbo jet.
The super-strength fabric of its hull holds four engines, fins and the flight deck. Months of ground tests are ahead but its creators hope the hybrid craft will fly over the UK this summer.
The 92-metre-long (302ft) Airlander’s shape gives it lift like a plane when propelled, and it can land and take off on most terrain or on water, on its pneumatic skids. Able to stay aloft for five days, it could potentially have civil, military and leisure uses: whether lifting machinery to remote areas, providing surveillance and communications, or carrying the super-rich.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rship-unveiled-bedfordshire?CMP=twt_b-gdnnews
The fully assembled aircraft was unveiled, floating in its Bedfordshire hangar, on Monday: an airship-cum-plane pumped with a million cubic feet of helium, big enough to dwarf the largest jumbo jet.
The super-strength fabric of its hull holds four engines, fins and the flight deck. Months of ground tests are ahead but its creators hope the hybrid craft will fly over the UK this summer.
The 92-metre-long (302ft) Airlander’s shape gives it lift like a plane when propelled, and it can land and take off on most terrain or on water, on its pneumatic skids. Able to stay aloft for five days, it could potentially have civil, military and leisure uses: whether lifting machinery to remote areas, providing surveillance and communications, or carrying the super-rich.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rship-unveiled-bedfordshire?CMP=twt_b-gdnnews
Ermintruder
The greatest risk is to risk nothing at all...
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- Jul 13, 2013
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- 6,201
Such a self-evidentially logical development.
And, at first-impression, so precidented as to be almost passé
But no...consider these factors. If the designers have incorporated drone-style multi-engined tri-axial stability, creating the first-ever fullsize commercial aerostat, that will be a massive advance.
I'm hoping this is what's being hinted at, with this being termed a four engined semi-aircraft.
The first dirigibles were entirely slaves to lateral wind-flows, with fixed puller-props providing only the most-basic of directional advantages over balloons. The absence of movable aerofoil surfaces was attempted to be overcome with multiple engines, but it was never properly achieved.
If this extended blend uses, presumably, high efficency controllable fan units, with ceramic or other non-metallic bearings, high energy density battery chemistry, and modern multipath resilient telecontrol systems, it will be a dream come true. In fact, it will be a combined realisation of so many hoped-for designs (history fails in particular to sufficiently-laud Cayley).
And, at first-impression, so precidented as to be almost passé
But no...consider these factors. If the designers have incorporated drone-style multi-engined tri-axial stability, creating the first-ever fullsize commercial aerostat, that will be a massive advance.
I'm hoping this is what's being hinted at, with this being termed a four engined semi-aircraft.
The first dirigibles were entirely slaves to lateral wind-flows, with fixed puller-props providing only the most-basic of directional advantages over balloons. The absence of movable aerofoil surfaces was attempted to be overcome with multiple engines, but it was never properly achieved.
If this extended blend uses, presumably, high efficency controllable fan units, with ceramic or other non-metallic bearings, high energy density battery chemistry, and modern multipath resilient telecontrol systems, it will be a dream come true. In fact, it will be a combined realisation of so many hoped-for designs (history fails in particular to sufficiently-laud Cayley).
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2001
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- 54,631
Airlander 10: Crowdfunding target reached in less than 10 hours
2 April 2016
Hundreds of people invested £500,000 in less than 10 hours to help get the world's largest aircraft - dubbed the "flying bum" - off the ground.
The £25m Airlander 10 is being built at Cardington Sheds in Bedfordshire and is due to be launched later this month.
Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) said the latest crowdfunding drive had seen some 600 people invest in the project.
A spokesman said: "It's staggering and fantastic, and great to know that the general public is behind us."
The company, which has been raising £4m for its extensive Return to Flight programme both through this scheme and other "high net worth" investors, said it would be allowing further donations for a "limited period".
Investors will get shares in the company.
The Airlander 10 is 302ft (92m) long and has been built in the UK's biggest aircraft hangar.
The US army ran out of money to develop the Airlander 10 as a surveillance machine, so the British aerospace company behind it bought back the rights.
HAV has spent the past nine years developing the prototype, which has been described as the "flying bum" by some on social media.
The firm is hoping to build 12 Airlanders a year by 2018.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-35933333
2 April 2016
Hundreds of people invested £500,000 in less than 10 hours to help get the world's largest aircraft - dubbed the "flying bum" - off the ground.
The £25m Airlander 10 is being built at Cardington Sheds in Bedfordshire and is due to be launched later this month.
Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) said the latest crowdfunding drive had seen some 600 people invest in the project.
A spokesman said: "It's staggering and fantastic, and great to know that the general public is behind us."
The company, which has been raising £4m for its extensive Return to Flight programme both through this scheme and other "high net worth" investors, said it would be allowing further donations for a "limited period".
Investors will get shares in the company.
The Airlander 10 is 302ft (92m) long and has been built in the UK's biggest aircraft hangar.
The US army ran out of money to develop the Airlander 10 as a surveillance machine, so the British aerospace company behind it bought back the rights.
HAV has spent the past nine years developing the prototype, which has been described as the "flying bum" by some on social media.
The firm is hoping to build 12 Airlanders a year by 2018.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-35933333
ramonmercado
CyberPunk
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- Eblana
Canada’s daunting logistics
Airships in the Arctic
Dirigibles are being floated as the future mules of the great white north
From the print edition
EACH year around this time Craig and Cathy Welsh list all the food, drink, clothing and furniture they need for the next year. They then fly 2,000 km (1,250 miles) south to Ottawa from their home in Iqaluit, buy the non-perishables and put them on a ship that will call once the sea ice melts around July. Estimating quantities can be tricky: one bulk toothpaste purchase lasted more than eight years. Yet local prices are so high that they still save money.
Canada’s transport network, like its people, is squeezed along its southern border. The Arctic depends on air freight, seasonal sea shipments and ice roads. Living costs are exorbitant, but building new infrastructure is even more so: the latest proposal, for a 7,000-km corridor of roads, pipelines and railways has a non-starter price tag of C$100 billion ($80 billion). Now, soaring above such unrealistic options, an old technology is being touted as a new solution: airships.
Also known as dirigibles or (without a rigid structure) blimps, their basic design hasn’t changed in 150 years: a bag of lighter-than-air gas, plus a propulsion system. Airships fell out of fashion after the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, which killed 36 people, and all but vanished in the jet age. Now they are getting a long-overdue makeover. Dirigibles are far slower than planes: they max out at just 110kph (70mph). But they consume much less fuel and cost about half as much to make. They are also easier to fly in dense, cold air than in hotter, more turbulent southern climes, says Grant Cool, who markets them for Lockheed Martin.
Moreover, dirigibles do not need an airport to unload. One lighter-than-air model in development by LTA Aérostructures of Montreal would lower up to 70 tonnes of cargo to the ground, requiring only a mooring mast. A heavier-than-air hybrid from Lockheed Martin can land on any flat land or ice. John Laitin of Sabina Gold and Silver, a mining firm, says he paid C$1.90 per tonne per km for Arctic air freight in 2013. Airship makers say they could run that route for C$1.07. ...
http://www.economist.com/news/ameri...uture-mules-great-white-north-airships-arctic
Airships in the Arctic
Dirigibles are being floated as the future mules of the great white north
From the print edition
EACH year around this time Craig and Cathy Welsh list all the food, drink, clothing and furniture they need for the next year. They then fly 2,000 km (1,250 miles) south to Ottawa from their home in Iqaluit, buy the non-perishables and put them on a ship that will call once the sea ice melts around July. Estimating quantities can be tricky: one bulk toothpaste purchase lasted more than eight years. Yet local prices are so high that they still save money.
Canada’s transport network, like its people, is squeezed along its southern border. The Arctic depends on air freight, seasonal sea shipments and ice roads. Living costs are exorbitant, but building new infrastructure is even more so: the latest proposal, for a 7,000-km corridor of roads, pipelines and railways has a non-starter price tag of C$100 billion ($80 billion). Now, soaring above such unrealistic options, an old technology is being touted as a new solution: airships.
Also known as dirigibles or (without a rigid structure) blimps, their basic design hasn’t changed in 150 years: a bag of lighter-than-air gas, plus a propulsion system. Airships fell out of fashion after the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, which killed 36 people, and all but vanished in the jet age. Now they are getting a long-overdue makeover. Dirigibles are far slower than planes: they max out at just 110kph (70mph). But they consume much less fuel and cost about half as much to make. They are also easier to fly in dense, cold air than in hotter, more turbulent southern climes, says Grant Cool, who markets them for Lockheed Martin.
Moreover, dirigibles do not need an airport to unload. One lighter-than-air model in development by LTA Aérostructures of Montreal would lower up to 70 tonnes of cargo to the ground, requiring only a mooring mast. A heavier-than-air hybrid from Lockheed Martin can land on any flat land or ice. John Laitin of Sabina Gold and Silver, a mining firm, says he paid C$1.90 per tonne per km for Arctic air freight in 2013. Airship makers say they could run that route for C$1.07. ...
http://www.economist.com/news/ameri...uture-mules-great-white-north-airships-arctic
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- 54,631
World's largest aircraft leaves hangar for first time ahead of maiden flight
Luke Heighton
6 August 2016 • 3:01pm
As compliments go, being compared with a giant, gas-filled 300ft long, 143ft-wide ‘flying bum’ cannot rank highly on most women’s wish lists.
But as the airship Martha Gwyn inched its way out of an enormous green hangar for the first time, the soubriquet seemed anything but blimpish.
Named after the wife of businessman Philip Gwyn, yesterday’s (Saturday) public unveiling represented a milestone in a £350million project that had once appeared doomed to remain grounded.
Four years after the US Army deemed it too expensive, the hybrid airship – a carbon-composite cross between a zeppelin, a helicopter and an aeroplane - was gently piloted into the open in a delicate five-minute operation.
It was towed 30 minutes to its resting point at a primary mast site, one of two specially prepared on the same airfield at Cardington, Bedfordshire, where in 1919 British engineers embarked on their own failed attempts to challenge Germany’s fated Zeppelin programme.
It came after tests on the bulbous dirigible’s engines, generators and systems were completed last week, ahead of some 200 hours of test flights, with engineers keen to avoid disaster.
Thirty-six people lost their lives on May 6, 1937, when the hydrogen filled Hindenburg airship, which was three times longer than the Martha Gwyn, burst into flames at Manchester Township, New Jersey.
Once airborne, the huge aircraft, which is filled with 1.3 million cubic feet of helium, can stay airborne for around five days during manned flights, cruising at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour 20,000ft above the earth.
Some 50ft (15m) longer than the largest Airbus A380 passenger jets, the behemoth was developed by British firm Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), after it launched a campaign to return the Airlander 10 to the skies in May 2015.
It derives 60pc of its lift aerostatically (by being lighter-than-air), and 40pc aerodynamically (by being wing-shaped), and was helped into being by a £250,000 donation from Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson.
HAV claims vehicle, which is capable of carrying loads of up to 10 tonnes, could be used for a variety of functions such as surveillance, communications, delivering aid and even passenger travel.
Further ground assessments will now be carried out before the craft, formerly known as the Airlander 10, takes to the skies for the first time at a date yet to be announced.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...aft-leaves-hangar-for-first-time-ahead-of-ma/
Many photos on page.
Luke Heighton
6 August 2016 • 3:01pm
As compliments go, being compared with a giant, gas-filled 300ft long, 143ft-wide ‘flying bum’ cannot rank highly on most women’s wish lists.
But as the airship Martha Gwyn inched its way out of an enormous green hangar for the first time, the soubriquet seemed anything but blimpish.
Named after the wife of businessman Philip Gwyn, yesterday’s (Saturday) public unveiling represented a milestone in a £350million project that had once appeared doomed to remain grounded.
Four years after the US Army deemed it too expensive, the hybrid airship – a carbon-composite cross between a zeppelin, a helicopter and an aeroplane - was gently piloted into the open in a delicate five-minute operation.
It was towed 30 minutes to its resting point at a primary mast site, one of two specially prepared on the same airfield at Cardington, Bedfordshire, where in 1919 British engineers embarked on their own failed attempts to challenge Germany’s fated Zeppelin programme.
It came after tests on the bulbous dirigible’s engines, generators and systems were completed last week, ahead of some 200 hours of test flights, with engineers keen to avoid disaster.
Thirty-six people lost their lives on May 6, 1937, when the hydrogen filled Hindenburg airship, which was three times longer than the Martha Gwyn, burst into flames at Manchester Township, New Jersey.
Once airborne, the huge aircraft, which is filled with 1.3 million cubic feet of helium, can stay airborne for around five days during manned flights, cruising at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour 20,000ft above the earth.
Some 50ft (15m) longer than the largest Airbus A380 passenger jets, the behemoth was developed by British firm Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), after it launched a campaign to return the Airlander 10 to the skies in May 2015.
It derives 60pc of its lift aerostatically (by being lighter-than-air), and 40pc aerodynamically (by being wing-shaped), and was helped into being by a £250,000 donation from Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson.
HAV claims vehicle, which is capable of carrying loads of up to 10 tonnes, could be used for a variety of functions such as surveillance, communications, delivering aid and even passenger travel.
Further ground assessments will now be carried out before the craft, formerly known as the Airlander 10, takes to the skies for the first time at a date yet to be announced.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...aft-leaves-hangar-for-first-time-ahead-of-ma/
Many photos on page.
Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
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- 51,653
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- Inside a starship, watching puny humans from afar
I missed this. Cardington isn't that far away.
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2001
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- 54,631
Well get down there with a camera, pronto! Get us some photos to show without some copyright issues, which are all that's available at the moment.
ramonmercado
CyberPunk
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- Aug 19, 2003
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- 58,212
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- Eblana
Weird History @weird_hist 10h10 hours ago
Not quite a flying bicycle, but pretty close - signal corps dirigible No 1, early 1900s.
Not quite a flying bicycle, but pretty close - signal corps dirigible No 1, early 1900s.
Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
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- Sep 18, 2001
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- Inside a starship, watching puny humans from afar
Bet that was hard to fly.
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Bigphoot2
Not sprouts! I hate sprouts.
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- 11,074
Oops
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lands-base-just-SEVEN-days-maiden-voyage.htmlBREAKING NEWS: What a bummer! 'Big ass' airship hits a telegraph pole and suffers cockpit damage just SEVEN days after its maiden test-flight
By MARK DUELL FOR MAILONLINE
- 320ft long Airlander 10, nicknamed the 'Flying Bum,' made its maiden voyage last Wednesday
- Plane, which can carry a ten tonne pay load, crashed at Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire today
- Airlander is on sale for £25million and will be able to stay airborne for five days during manned flights
- Developers say plane can be used for surveillance, communications, aid delivery and passenger travel
PUBLISHED: 12:10, 24 August 2016 | UPDATED: 12:49, 24 August 2016
The world's largest aircraft hit a telegraph pole and suffered cockpit damage as it crash landed at its base today.
The striking 320ft-long Airlander 10, nicknamed the 'Flying Bum', made its maiden voyage last Wednesday.
The aircraft, which can carry a ten-tonne pay load, crashed at Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire today.
One eyewitness said: 'A line that was hanging down from the plane hit the telegraph pole about two fields away.
'Then, as it came in to land, it seemed to nose dive and landed on the cockpit, smashing it up.'
+8
Airlander 10: The plane, which can carry a ten tonne pay load, crashed at Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire today
+8
Cockpit damage: The 320ft long Airlander 10, nicknamed the 'Flying Bum,' made its maiden voyage last Wednesday
The Airlander is on sale for £25million and will be able to stay airborne for five days during manned flights.
The developers say the plane can be used for surveillance, communications, delivering aid and passenger travel.
The bulbous exterior of the part plane, part helicopter, part airship has earned it the tongue-in-cheek nickname.
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But the developers have called the ship a 'great British innovation' after the successful flight last Wednesday.
It was billed a modern milestone in airships, which were all but abandoned after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.
The Airlander is designed to use less fuel than a plane, but carry heavier loads than conventional airships.
+8
The vast aircraft is based at Cardington, where the first British airships were built during and after the First World War
+8
The aircraft was initially developed for the US military which planned to use it for surveillance in Afghanistan
HAV say it can reach 16,000 feet, travel at up to 90 mph and stay aloft for up to two weeks.
The aircraft was initially developed for the US military which planned to use it for surveillance in Afghanistan.
But the US blimp program was scrapped in 2013 and since then, HAV, a small British aviation firm that dreams of ushering in a new era for airships, has sought funding from government agencies and individual donors.
The vast aircraft is based at Cardington, where the first British airships were built during and after the First World War. That system was abandoned after a 1930 crash that killed almost 50 people, including Britain's air minister.
That accident and others — including the fiery 1937 crash in New Jersey of the Hindenburg, which killed 35 — dashed the dream of the airship as a mode of transportation for decades.
+8
Watching on: The Airlander is on sale for £25million and will be able to stay airborne for five days during manned flights
+8
Up in the air: The developers say the plane can be used for surveillance, communications, delivering aid and passenger travel
Unlike hydrogen, the gas used in the Hindenburg, helium is not flammable.
The maiden flight last Wednesday came days after a test flight planned for the Sunday before was scrapped at the last minute because of an unspecified technical issue.
It can also carry up to 10 metric tons (22,050 pounds) of passengers or cargo.
The company hopes to have an even bigger aircraft, capable of carrying 50 metric tons (110,000 pounds), in service by the early 2020s.
+8
The developers called the ship a 'great British innovation' after the successful maiden flight last Wednesday (above)
+8
Its four engines appeared noticeably quieter than a plane or helicopter as it took to the skies last Wednesday (pictured)
Chris Pocock, defence editor of aviation magazine AIN, recently said that the jury is still out on whether the craft is commercially viable.
'Airships and hybrids have still got a credibility gap to cover,' he said. 'Technically I think they are there now, but economically I'm not so sure.'
Crowds clapped and cheered as the craft soared above them during its first outing from the First World War hangar where it was revealed in March after undergoing 'hundreds' of changes by HAV over two years.
It is about 50ft longer than the biggest passenger jets but its four engines appeared noticeably quieter than a plane or helicopter as it took to the skies last Wednesday.
ramonmercado
CyberPunk
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Corbyn blamed.
Graylien
As if!
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- Jul 31, 2004
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- 4,428
- Location
- Norwich.
...or Brexit.
Personally, I think it would be commercially viable to build a huge passenger airship as an airborne cruise liner for the super rich.
As a boy I used to love sketching elaborate airship designs. Perhaps I should get my pencils out and head to Kickstarter?
Personally, I think it would be commercially viable to build a huge passenger airship as an airborne cruise liner for the super rich.
As a boy I used to love sketching elaborate airship designs. Perhaps I should get my pencils out and head to Kickstarter?
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2001
- Messages
- 54,631
Airlander 10 mooring line hit power cable before crash
A line attached to the world’s largest airship came into contact with high-voltage cable, its manufacturer has confirmed
Press Association
Thursday 25 August 2016 16.23 BST
A mooring line attached to Airlander 10 hit power lines before the airship crashed, its manufacturer, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), has said.
Airlander 10, which is part plane, part airship and the length of a football pitch, was damaged on Wednesday after nosediving at Cardington airfield in Bedfordshire during its second test flight.
UK Power Networks, the firm responsible for maintaining power lines in the area, said five of its customers lost power at about 12.45pm after the world’s largest airship came into contact with high-voltage cables. Supplies were not restored until 2pm.
A statement from HAV said: “Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd can confirm a mooring line attached to the Airlander did contact a power line outside the airfield.
“No damage was caused to the aircraft and this did not contribute to the heavy landing.”
Although the cockpit took the brunt of the impact when the airship hit the ground, no one was injured. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch is to investigate the crash.
etc...
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-10-mooring-line-hit-power-cable-before-crash
Seems to me that dangling mooring lines present dangers. Perhaps they should be on a winch, and only lowered down when needed.
A line attached to the world’s largest airship came into contact with high-voltage cable, its manufacturer has confirmed
Press Association
Thursday 25 August 2016 16.23 BST
A mooring line attached to Airlander 10 hit power lines before the airship crashed, its manufacturer, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), has said.
Airlander 10, which is part plane, part airship and the length of a football pitch, was damaged on Wednesday after nosediving at Cardington airfield in Bedfordshire during its second test flight.
UK Power Networks, the firm responsible for maintaining power lines in the area, said five of its customers lost power at about 12.45pm after the world’s largest airship came into contact with high-voltage cables. Supplies were not restored until 2pm.
A statement from HAV said: “Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd can confirm a mooring line attached to the Airlander did contact a power line outside the airfield.
“No damage was caused to the aircraft and this did not contribute to the heavy landing.”
Although the cockpit took the brunt of the impact when the airship hit the ground, no one was injured. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch is to investigate the crash.
etc...
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-10-mooring-line-hit-power-cable-before-crash
Seems to me that dangling mooring lines present dangers. Perhaps they should be on a winch, and only lowered down when needed.
GNC
King-Sized Canary
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Might spill your sherry, though.
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- Out of Bounds
Retractable / extendable mooring lines have been used for nearly a century, so it's not as if nobody's considered dangling lines a potential problem until now.
My initial theory is that the line may well have been extended only as they approached the planned landing site, but it contacted a power line they didn't know was there (or was that high off the ground, or whatever ... ).
The bit that fascinates me is the claim (in most all the early reports ... ) that the mooring line's contact with the power line(s) wasn't directly related to the Airlander's subsequent nose-dive into the ground.
I'm interested in finding out whether the power line contact somehow screwed up onboard electronics and disrupted an otherwise (semi-?) automated landing procedure. There are a lot of sophisticated controllers used on the Airlander. There are supposedly multiple (four?) fans on the underside that draw the airship to the ground, thus avoiding reliance on multiple physical lines / attachments. An onboard electrical / electronic glitch that resulted in the forward fan(s) alone being activated might explain the airship's monumental 'face plant' maneuver.
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- 7,085
...They suggest using 300-metre-long propeller-powered airships carrying just under one million litres of water and flying high above the flames...
Bearing in mind that a million litres of water is one thousand tonns. And that the lift of the airship would need to be greater than that for the thing to lift off at all, How would you bring the craft down when you have dumped the water ?
It would shoot vertically upwards as soon as the weight was removed.
Also you would have to add the Helium at the same time you loaded the water or you would have a similar problem.
You can't just dump the Helium on every trip.
And, as previously mentioned, the thing would be very hard to control in the savage thermals above a fire.
INT21
Bearing in mind that a million litres of water is one thousand tonns. And that the lift of the airship would need to be greater than that for the thing to lift off at all, How would you bring the craft down when you have dumped the water ?
It would shoot vertically upwards as soon as the weight was removed.
Also you would have to add the Helium at the same time you loaded the water or you would have a similar problem.
You can't just dump the Helium on every trip.
And, as previously mentioned, the thing would be very hard to control in the savage thermals above a fire.
INT21
Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2001
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- 51,653
- Location
- Inside a starship, watching puny humans from afar
Oh, the huge manatee!
ramonmercado
CyberPunk
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- Aug 19, 2003
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- Eblana
Amazon looks at airships as fulfillment idea in patent filing
December 30, 2016 by Nancy Owano
(Tech Xplore)—Amazon has come up with a neat idea. Whether the idea will ever come to pass as a real move is not certain. However, CB Insights noticed a patent filing where Amazon was suggesting the AFC approach to deliver items ordered. AFC, or airborne fulfillment center, goes into its patent filing title.
"Airborne fulfillment center utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles for item delivery" was first filed back in December 2014. As the BBC noted, "It is not clear whether the filing is a plan for a project that will be realised or just a proof-of-concept."
Amazon was referring to a deployment of delivery drones via these warehouses. The drones would deliver goods from warehouse to the ground.
Why? How would that benefit Amazon? How would it benefit customers?
The combination of drones and aerial centers could make deliveries of goods more quickly. Reports said the goal would be reductions in two forms. The idea would be to cut down on power consumption with each delivery and reduce waiting times.
The patent discussion addressed the power savings, saying that the AFC may be a fulfillment center supported by and/or incorporated into an airship. "An airship, or dirigible, is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft which can navigate through the air under its own power. Airships gain their lift from gas that is less dense than the surrounding air, such as helium or hot air."
The patent made the case on reduced power. "By utilizing an AFC for the storage and delivery of items using UAVs, the power required to complete an item delivery is substantially reduced. Rather than the UAV having to operate at power from the time it departs the materials handling facility to the delivery location and back to the materials handling facility (or another location), the UAV may be deployed from the AFC and descend under the forces of gravity toward a delivery location using little to no power. Only as the UAV approaches earth does it need to fully engage the UAV motors to maintain flight and complete delivery of the item." ...
https://techxplore.com/news/2016-12-amazon-airships-fulfillment-idea-patent.html
December 30, 2016 by Nancy Owano
(Tech Xplore)—Amazon has come up with a neat idea. Whether the idea will ever come to pass as a real move is not certain. However, CB Insights noticed a patent filing where Amazon was suggesting the AFC approach to deliver items ordered. AFC, or airborne fulfillment center, goes into its patent filing title.
"Airborne fulfillment center utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles for item delivery" was first filed back in December 2014. As the BBC noted, "It is not clear whether the filing is a plan for a project that will be realised or just a proof-of-concept."
Amazon was referring to a deployment of delivery drones via these warehouses. The drones would deliver goods from warehouse to the ground.
Why? How would that benefit Amazon? How would it benefit customers?
The combination of drones and aerial centers could make deliveries of goods more quickly. Reports said the goal would be reductions in two forms. The idea would be to cut down on power consumption with each delivery and reduce waiting times.
The patent discussion addressed the power savings, saying that the AFC may be a fulfillment center supported by and/or incorporated into an airship. "An airship, or dirigible, is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft which can navigate through the air under its own power. Airships gain their lift from gas that is less dense than the surrounding air, such as helium or hot air."
The patent made the case on reduced power. "By utilizing an AFC for the storage and delivery of items using UAVs, the power required to complete an item delivery is substantially reduced. Rather than the UAV having to operate at power from the time it departs the materials handling facility to the delivery location and back to the materials handling facility (or another location), the UAV may be deployed from the AFC and descend under the forces of gravity toward a delivery location using little to no power. Only as the UAV approaches earth does it need to fully engage the UAV motors to maintain flight and complete delivery of the item." ...
https://techxplore.com/news/2016-12-amazon-airships-fulfillment-idea-patent.html
Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
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You can patent any old crap in America.
There is no longer any requirement to actually come up with working technology or demonstrate a prototype.
If you have enough money to patent a concept, you can wait around until somebody else comes along to make it happen.
I am reminded of that old British Rail patent for a nuclear-powered spaceship. There was no requirement for the technology to be actually invented for that to be patented. I have no idea how that got patented in the UK - normally there's a bit more rigour to the process.
There is no longer any requirement to actually come up with working technology or demonstrate a prototype.
If you have enough money to patent a concept, you can wait around until somebody else comes along to make it happen.
I am reminded of that old British Rail patent for a nuclear-powered spaceship. There was no requirement for the technology to be actually invented for that to be patented. I have no idea how that got patented in the UK - normally there's a bit more rigour to the process.
ramonmercado
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It's a plane, it's a blimp … it's the world's largest aircraft.
A massive airship dubbed the Airlander 10 recently completed a successful test flight, bringing the helium-filled behemoth one step closer to commercial use.
Though it looks like a massive blimp, the Airlander 10 combines technology from airplanes, helicopters and airships. It is designed to stay aloft at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) for up to five days when manned, according to Hybrid Air Vehicles, the company that built the aircraft. And at a mammoth 302 feet (92 m) long, it is the largest aircraft currently flying. [In Photos: Building the World’s Largest Airship (Airlander 10)] ...
http://www.livescience.com/59206-ai..._medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit
A massive airship dubbed the Airlander 10 recently completed a successful test flight, bringing the helium-filled behemoth one step closer to commercial use.
Though it looks like a massive blimp, the Airlander 10 combines technology from airplanes, helicopters and airships. It is designed to stay aloft at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) for up to five days when manned, according to Hybrid Air Vehicles, the company that built the aircraft. And at a mammoth 302 feet (92 m) long, it is the largest aircraft currently flying. [In Photos: Building the World’s Largest Airship (Airlander 10)] ...
http://www.livescience.com/59206-ai..._medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit
Mythopoeika
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I live fairly near to where it's launched. Never seen it in the sky (yet).
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It was probably too high to see!
Airlander 10 reaches 'highest altitude so far'
14 June 2017 From the section Beds, Herts & Bucks
The world's longest aircraft has successfully completed its fourth test flight, reaching the highest altitude it has attained so far.
The Airlander 10 - a combination of a plane and an airship - took off at 18:15 BST on Tuesday near its base at Cardington Airfield, Bedfordshire.
During the flight, which lasted about three hours, the 302ft (92m) long craft reached 3,500ft (1,067m).
Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) said it was "a hugely successful flight".
Video: 50s.
This is the second successful flight flown since the £25m aircraft nosedived during a test flight on 24 August.
No-one was injured in the accident, but the airship's cockpit was effectively destroyed.
The aircraft, which is the length of a football pitch, was given a pair of "giant inflatable landing feet" as part of a package of improvements following the crash.
The accident was due to the Airlander climbing to an excessive height because its mooring line caught on power cables, an Air Accidents Investigation Branch report found.
HAV developed the vessel, which is quieter and emits less pollution than traditional aircraft, and believes it could be the future for air travel.
The firm is hoping to build 12 Airlanders a year by 2018, some as passenger aircraft that will carry up to 48 people at a time.
Other plans include assisting with coastguard duties and providing military and civil surveillance.
It could also be used for filming and academic research, or delivering heavy equipment to remote corners of the world or for humanitarian missions, the developers have suggested.
etc...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-40272708
Coal
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...or a flying warehouse for Amazon.