Timeline for Airship lifeboats, design alternatives
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 24, 2017 at 17:42 | vote | accept | Ash | ||
| Oct 5, 2017 at 23:05 | comment | added | Matt Bowyer | Worth noting that actual lifeboats/rafts may be needed if the airship goes down over water though, | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 9:55 | comment | added | dot_Sp0T | @MichaelK thank you for elaborating, I didn't realise this wouldn't be clear :/ | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 9:11 | comment | added | MichaelK | @cmaster You make the airship itself be the crumple zone, just like you do with cars. That is to say you bury the crash room deep within the airship. | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 9:08 | comment | added | cmaster - reinstate monica | @MichaelK So, more than 2/3 of your crash room will consist of the crumple zone, assuming a room height of 2.5 m. Well, doable, but who'd want to carry so much mass along with an airship? | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 7:29 | comment | added | MichaelK | @cmaster A human can easily survive a 20-40g impact (as proved by Colonel Stapp). 200 kph ~ 60 meters per second. $\frac{60 m/s}{20 * 10 m/s^2} = 0.30 s$. And since $s=\frac{a \cdot t^2}{2}$ we need a crumple zone of about 5-10 meters. An airship can easily provide such padding around a "crash room". | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 7:09 | comment | added | cmaster - reinstate monica | @dot_Sp0T Please don't jump from a height of 200m without a parachute. You'll be as dead as a pancake! | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 6:16 | comment | added | dot_Sp0T | @cmaster define meaningful. Using the Hindenburg as a model once again (as explicitly mentioned in the question), I get a cruise altitude of 200m (or ~650ft) mostly due to the lifting gas' expansion in lower air-pressure. Assuming, again, that an airship uses a means similar to what we know for staying in the air, similar limits will apply. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 21:38 | comment | added | cmaster - reinstate monica | If you are at any meaningful flight altitude, going down with a broken craft is not what you want to do. The surface impact will kill you. Especially if you gather all passengers into a small room: This reduces the surface area per mass ratio, and thus will lead to a higher falling speed. A human with all its surface goes down at some 200 km/h or more, which implies an impact that's way beyond survivable, you don't want to increase that number further. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 21:38 | comment | added | JBH | I love this answer, but the OP stated that you need a controlled descent to avoid a poor landing spot. I'm assuming that you won't have this ability with the mothership. Therefore, technically, this doesn't answer the question. If descending anywhere were an option, a parachute would be useful, but the OP specifically rejected that option. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 21:14 | comment | added | Thucydides | The airships USS Shenandoah and USS Macon both broke up in flight but crewmen managed to remain on board sections of the airship and descend to earth safely. In the case of the Shenandoah, the nose section flew as a free balloon for a period before the crew trapped there managed to land. Sadly, not everyone survived, but staying aboard the airship gives you a better chance at a controlled or semi controlled descent and survival. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 20:54 | history | edited | dot_Sp0T | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 558 characters in body
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| Oct 4, 2017 at 20:37 | comment | added | dot_Sp0T | @notstoreboughtdirt the Hindenburg (as most German airships) was constructed for using helium. The thing is that they didn't get any helium due to an embargo. Indeed helium is not the easiest to acquire, but still an airship would not be using hydrogen unless it were designed around preventing combustion / keeping fires localized. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 20:33 | comment | added | user25818 | The question implies lift using something else which may or may not be flammable, but I would correct the final sentence; the Hindenburg used hydrogen. Lighter than air is almost always hydrogen in our world because it is lightest and I think easiest to acquire. 'Shelter in place' is most robust when you don't have to travel very far to get to there which is really where I wanted to go with the comment. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 20:18 | comment | added | dot_Sp0T | @notstoreboughtdirt if your airship is filled - for whatever mind-bogging reason - with hydrogen, then yes. You wouldn't want to be on top. But in that case you could simply line your compartment with asbestos, water, or even more modern fire-retardants. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 20:17 | comment | added | user25818 | So those pads and straps in every closet are for safety? I just though I was being left out of parties. Also you don't want to be on top of flammable parts (hydrogen in Hindenburg) | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 20:17 | comment | added | dot_Sp0T | @anon if either on fire or being pursued by pirates the ship can still be grounded by reducing lift. I interpreted the question as the upper-most concern being to keep alive the people aboard the ship. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 20:14 | comment | added | anon | Oh, the OP did explicitly say "emergency" not necessarily that it was going down. It could be on fire or boarded by pirates in which case an escape pod would be more preferable. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 19:56 | history | answered | dot_Sp0T | CC BY-SA 3.0 |