I had the opportunity to talk to Roger Munk before his untimely death. He said that he had attended a lecture in the late 1960s or early 1970s, by a First World War 'blimp' pilot, and had chatted to him afterwards. The blimp pilot had written on a napkin the ten issues which he believed would need to be overcome before airships became a practical proposition. Roger Munk then set about tackling each of these issues in his successive designs.
What the Airlander does which previous designs did not, is to generate a significant amount of lift from firstly, vectored thrust, and secondly, once airborne,
the shape of the envelope (hence the double bubble shape). This overcomes the loading/unloading issues cwatters describes, and allows a much smaller vehicle for the same payload.
As flown in the USA, the engines used were well below the power of the original spec. and only allowed a limited degree of thrust vectoring. With the right engines, which will allow Airlander to realize its full potential, I think they will be onto a winner.
Last edited by Mechta; 9th Feb 2016 at 17:48.