China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Applications of Solar Textile Fabrics
Published in Robert Mather, John Wilson, Solar Textiles, 2023
An airship is a craft that is lighter than air yet, like an aeroplane, can be propelled in a desired direction. The gas used for lifting an airship is generally helium. Hydrogen has also been used, but its high flammability has been the cause of a number of airship disasters. There are three main types of airship: nonrigids (often known as blimps), semirigids and rigids. Figure 8.5 provides some examples. All contain balloons, usually made of polyester or maybe neoprene. A blimp is essentially a massive balloon that contains the gas, with a gondola slung underneath for carrying passengers and crew. A semirigid is very similar, but it possesses a structural keel that extends along the length of the base of the balloon and supports the gondola. A rigid airship possesses a framework of metal girders covered with fabric. It is not, however, airtight; inside the framework are several balloons filled with gas. Perhaps the most remembered examples of rigid airships were those designed by von Zeppelin in Germany in the early twentieth century and the Hindenberg, which dramatically exploded in 1937 while attempting to dock at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey in the USA.
Aircraft and flight operations
Published in Peter S. Morrell, Thomas Klein, Moving Boxes by Air, 2018
Peter S. Morrell, Thomas Klein
Airships are lighter-than-air aircraft that obtain their lift from gases such as propane, hydrogen or helium. The gas is contained in a balloon that can be flexible or rigid in structure. Helium is used today after previous disasters with inflammable gases. One project, the German based Cargolifter, was discontinued following bankruptcy in 2002. Its CL75 ‘Aircrane’ which is filled with 100,000 m3 of helium was at one time on the verge of being sold to a Canadian company, and a larger 550,000 m3 vessel powered by eight turboprop engines and designed to carry a 160 tonne payload was planned with a range of up to 10,000km.
Mars Surface Exploration via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Published in Shashi Bhushan, Manoj Kumar, Pramod Kumar, Renjith V. Ravi, Anuj Kumar Singh, Holistic Approach to Quantum Cryptography in Cyber Security, 2023
Manjula Sharma, Akshita Gupta, Sachin Kumar Gupta
However, the changes in altitude and position are challenging for balloons. It is practically not possible for the balloons to last long in the heat. Balloons often have trouble holding their station, suggesting that balloons are inflexible in the field of atmospheric science. On the other hand, airships are difficult to position and deploy at low speeds [21]. The three kinds of balloons effective for space missions are superpressure balloons, standard helium balloons, and Montgolfiere balloons.
Design and route optimisation for an airship with onboard solar energy harvesting
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2023
Christoph Pflaum, Tim Riffelmacher, Agnes Jocher
Airships can be characterised by rigid and non-rigid frames. Here, rigid framed airships are analysed due to their higher resistance to unfavourable weather conditions (see Zeppelin 1908), which is considered to be an important factor for mid-range and long-haul applications. To estimate parameters like the airship’s weight, data from the airship LZ 129 (see Dörr; Kleinheins 1996) are used. The sizes of this airship are: length 246.7 m, width: 41.2 m, and height: 41.2 m.
Public technology: nuclear energy in Europe
Published in History and Technology, 2018
If thinking about space was one kind of thinking affected by technology, evaluating risk was another. Throughout the twentieth century, many military technologies too were issues of public debate – despite the secrecy associated with artifacts which could be used to wage wars. Before the First World War the Dreadnought battleship in Great Britain and the Zeppelin rigid airship in Germany, which by then was publicly perceived primarily a civil technology, developed into icons of national identity. When the Zeppelin airship LZ 4 crashed in a storm in Echterdingen near Stuttgart in 1908 and eventually exploded under the eyes of a huge crowd, a spontaneously arranged donation campaign yielded the enormous amount of 6 million Marks within weeks. The young and still fragile German nation had found a literally powerful technological symbol for social integration beyond fierce political struggles and strong class conflicts. After this co-called 'miracle of Echterdingen', the public in turn socially appropriated the Zeppelin and attentively followed its further technological improvement.39 This is not to suggest that Germany was unique in using technology, but rather that individual national discourses made their own distinctive use of particular events and technologies. Some years later, another disaster catalyzed technological change. When in April 1912 the passenger liner RMS Titanic, pride of the White Star Line, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after colliding with an iceberg during its maiden voyage, it created one of the first modern media events. The public outrage at the huge death toll of more than 1,500 lives and the operational failures initiated major changes in maritime technology, regulations and safety measures. A new regime of international governance emerged from the public response to the disaster, including the International Ice Patrol and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea; since then, the Titanic has developed into a global site of memory initiating numerous works of popular culture.40 Similarly, when in May 1937 the Zeppelin Hindenburg, the largest aircraft ever built, landing at a Navy base in Lakehurst, New Jersey, burst into flames and crashed with 36 people dying, the disaster ended a long period of using airships as a popular means of transatlantic transit. Because it happened during a landing, the disaster was broadcast live; people could follow the fading away of the Hindenburg around the globe.41 The shocking images created a mediatized event of global significance which not only caused the end of transatlantic airship travel, but also triggered major changes such as the replacement of hydrogen by the less inflammable helium as carrying gas.42 In mass mediatized societies, the public impact on technology often results from such disasters which Charles Perrow has labeled 'normal accidents'.43