Thursday, December 16, 2010

SkyLifter hopes to build a better blimp by going round

SkyLifter hopes to build a better blimp by going round: "
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Most dirigibles are roughly cylindrical, which makes them susceptible to crosswinds. This can make it tricky to, say, lower a heavy load with precision when the wind is not cooperating.



An Australian company called SkyLifter has realized a circular shape would be a better design decision; the wind hits it and goes around it like water flowing around a smooth pebble in a stream. Thus they're developing an eponymous and gi-normous circular blimp that will reportedly be able to haul 150 tons over a distance of 2,000 kilometers without having to set down. That means the SkyLifter could conceivably transport a miniature hospital to a disaster site inaccessible by roads, among other heavy stuff. These things could put the Ice Road Truckers out of business.



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Another cool design feature, beyond the circular shape, is the novel Voith-Schneider propellers they use to provide thrust and steering. They're closer in design to paddlewheels than standard fan-style propellors and can change the direction of thrust almost instantly. You can briefly see what they look like in this vid:





SkyLifter is currently in the testing phase, starting with scaled-down versions of the design and gradually ramping up the size.

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