Timeline for Which physical laws or attributes would have to be changed to increase the buoyancy of an airship?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 23, 2021 at 9:25 | comment | added | D.J. Klomp | @Demigan, no I agree, I was a bit sarcastic. My problem is usually that Wikipedia has not the best information (certainly not scientifically), but it is most easily accessible. | |
| Jan 23, 2021 at 8:07 | comment | added | Demigan | @D.J.Klomp I wouldnt say "trust wikipedia", there is precious little actual data available about any airships, and wikipedia has the most so far. Although much of the information I've found in other articles about how the US operated their army airships as well giving credence to the wikipedia articles. The information is unfortunately just reports of what the ships did with precious little other data. | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 23:30 | comment | added | D.J. Klomp | @Demigan, Thank you I didn't know that. Apparently, I shouldn't trust a youtube movie but should trust you and Wikipedia instead 😊. They do mention that they could add more passenger cabins because of the change in gas. | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 20:47 | comment | added | Demigan | @D.J.Klomp the Hindenburg was originally designed to use Helium instead of Hydrogen, but the US did not allow Germany to use their stockpile so Hydrogen was used instead. | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 15:51 | comment | added | D.J. Klomp | @PixelMaster Than I don't understand your problem. From skimming your linked question I would say your airship is way to small (more a tiny hot air balloon.) The Hindenburg and many others like it worked so only replacing the hydrogen with vacuum is enough for a working airship if it can withstand the surrounding air pressure. Since volume of a sphere goes with the third power of the radius and the surface area of a sphere with the second power you need to match these correctly. Make your airships the correct size and you have solved your problem. | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 15:40 | comment | added | D.J. Klomp | @Demigan Apparently helium (twice as heavy) does not have enough buoyancy for airships like the Hindenburg. For blimps they use helium but they have much less carrying capacity. | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 15:18 | comment | added | Radovan Garabík | Hydrogen is not explosive in itself, you need oxygen. The best (and physically sound!) option is to have a non-oxygenated atmosphere. There is a slight problem that Hâ‚‚ is still reactive with a lot of elements, so you do not have that much choice here (and still support life as we know it). | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 14:11 | comment | added | John | making hydrogen not explosive would have huge impacts on biology. | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 13:47 | comment | added | Demigan | Are you sure that a modern airship would not be able to use helium? For example the Hindenburg could lift around 9 and a half tons at 230m length. The Airlander prototype could lift 10 tons at 1/3rd the length. The caveat is that the Hindenburg was designed more as a luxury passenger ship than cargo hauler so some weight is in the passenger compartments, but modern materials, new designs that use wings for lift and heavier-than-air airship possibilities could offer the possibility of helium airships. Modern design also limits the flammability (not explosiveness) of hydrogen. | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 13:40 | comment | added | PixelMaster | As evident from my linked question, creating a vacuum-filled sphere is not a problem; my world effectively has a material just like what you suggested in the second paragraph. My problem is that I want to create more buoyancy than a vacuum-filled sphere would have following the laws of the real world. | |
| Jan 22, 2021 at 13:34 | history | answered | D.J. Klomp | CC BY-SA 4.0 |