Posts by HAV304 9 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Nov 2010
Hi All,
Modern weather radar installed in the new hybrid air vehicles will do a lot to negate any risks from downbursts when combined with ground and satellite based weather radar systems for the bigger picture. The Germans never lost a big Zeppelin making numerous croosings of the ITCZ (Inter tropical convergence zone) which having crossed it heading for Brazil in a yacht and flying around Trinidad, is one very bad place for severe thunderstorms.
The modern hybrid air vehicles like the LEMV (HAV 304) are much more powerful with their high tech German diesels and when combined with the lifting body shape they can start a sudden climb or descent in a much more decisive way than an old Zeppelin. They do not fly like an airship as they have both more power available and a flying wing shape that will enable them to deal very effectively with up or down draughts, although they are much safer in severe turbulence because you can not loose control of one, as they have positive stability factors from pendulous stability, so can't be tipped over in flight. If an active tropical storms or tornadoes are avoided they are very safe and the long endurance of such diesel engined HAV's means they will have the reserves at destination to hold clear for days if required. Not quite the situation of the Air France Airbus they are fishing up at present in terms of ultimate safety.
Regards JB (Airship & Blimp Consultant)
You have got Helium 3 mixed up with normal Helium. There is plenty of Helium available as a by product of natural gas liquifaction from the vast gas fields of Qatar, Eastern Siberia, Algeria and new finds in Australia. You will run out of oil well before you run out of Helium, although solar panels will be so efficient by then, that the hybrid air vehicles with their flatter lifting bodies will all be solar assisted diesel electric designs rather than the present high tech German diesel engines.
See the Helium page of my Gasbags site 3w airship.me for more info on Helium supply.
Regards JB (Airship & Blimp Consultant)
There is no need to use Hydrogen from an economic or safety point of view. Once you fill a modern hybrid air vehicle with Helium it uses very little Helium due to the fact that modern envelope materials have increadibly low leakage rates and that the internal pressure differential is minimal, so even a few dozen bullet holes would not make much of a difference (Not that anyone flies so low). The days of using goldbeaters skin and rocket fuel for paint ended ages ago.
The cost of jet fuel is the real issue and the ability of a modern hybrid to do long range point to point cargo, passenger or surveillance operations for one third of the total fuel is one big factor behind the LEMV program in particular.
Regards JB (Airship & Blimp Consultant)
COSH is a longer term research only project. The real answer is the use of a hybrid air vehicle design and the associated far heavier take off static weight that means you do not need to carry heavy compressors or very difficult to certify composite pressure tanks that need to be both fire and bullet proof.
Regards JB (Airship & Blimp Consultant)
Hi there,
The ice roads in Northern Canada are open from between 3 to 4 months during the winter. The main use of a hybrid air vehicle like the HAV 266, would be outside of the period the ice roads are open. The HAV series do not respond to side gusts like an airship and they can even land off the wind as the hoverskirt works with a sideways movement. The basic aerodynamics of a lifting body vehicle are very different to a normal airship and far better in groundhandling terms in particular, which is one reason why the LEMV contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman and Hybrid Air Vehicles for three HAV 304's.
Regards
JB (Airship & Blimp Consultant)
Hi there,
The new generation of hybrid air vehicles like the 20T HAV 266 that is under development by Northrop Grumman's partner Hybrid Air Vehicles in England, would not compete with the ice road truckers for the 3 months or so, that the ice roads are open. Those few stormy months would be used for annual maintenance and crew holidays.
What is really bugging the big players in the mining and oil & gas sectors is that depending on ice roads means they take ages to develop a new mine or field. In the case of a mine they do need supplies and personnel all year, but where the mine is in a very remote location, as most of the remaining sites are, there is no economic way of doing that at present.
Regards
JB
Hi all,
If you want to see how the US Dept of Defense is investing the 517 million for the LEMV program for the US Army, try: www.hybridairship.net which has a list of press links and information on hybrid air vehicles and older airship designs like this E green thing. I hope it does not bump into the Zeppelin at Moffet field.
TRH
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
