PPRuNe Forums - Airship order from Air Nostrum

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Quote:

Originally Posted by LessThanSte (Post 11247486)

Any reasonably accessible field (I can think of 3 or 4 locations within 3 miles of my desk) is suddenly a potential journey start point.

Well maybe not that suddenly:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....773e65614d.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asturias56 (Post 11247442)

There aren't any other fleets of airships around. The problems seem to be systemic looking back over 120 years - they're a dead end for almost all commercial uses

I don't think that's true. We need to constantly review what were once seen as dead-ends, in the light of emergent technologies. For example; helicopter-aeroplane hybrids (witness Fairey Rotodyne and V-22), and flying wings (YB-35/YB-49 and B-1). Or indeed, aeroplanes and helicopters generically; they didn't work in the 15th/19th centuries, why did they succeed in the 20th?

I'm not arguing that it will definitely come to fruition, but just because it didn't work then doesn't mean that it can't be viable now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LessThanSte (Post 11247486)

With 5 days aloft time, i could see a lucrative role as an alternative to (very polluting) cruises. We could see one of these pottering around the Nordic Fjords, for example. Beyond that, there is an increasingly popular slow travel movement - for example people choosing ever more to travel by coach than by train. Going by airship instead of by jet will have a heap of positives that may very well outweigh the negatives (speed).

And if it doesn't a large concrete expanse to land (i.e. a traditional airport) - that's a good thing too. Any reasonably accessible field (I can think of 3 or 4 locations within 3 miles of my desk) is suddenly a potential journey start point.

That's not to say that i think this idea will work or that these airships will ever be delivered. But I'm not sure I agree with some (most?) of the negativity above!

Not being negative, just realistic. I have worked in an airship, (smaller than an Airlander and not as aircrew), so I have seen personally what is involved. I would dig out the photos, but not sure where they are.

On a cruise, where are you going to load all the food and toilets and sewage tanks. And bedrooms and kitchen? Or perhaps you mean the pax get off every night?

Landing and taking off needs a large ground crew, engineers and a mast anchor vehicle, GPU and a fuel truck and honey wagon etc who all need to drive to wherever the airship is going to be and be put up in local hotels, incurring taxis etc. Not impossible but not quite as easy or as cheap as landing in any field.

You cannot just tie it to the fence and go for a beer.