01-30-2009, 11:29 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
Doctor Who played with this theme a couple of years ago. The TARDIS lands in an alternate universe, and they know this because of the airships flying around.
No explanation was given for this; it was just there so you—and the characters—knew it was an alternative universe. It certainly wasn't due to a lack of technological expertise. |
01-30-2009, 12:13 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Oakland, CA
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
It may be worth mentioning that at least one RL commercial company is trying to repopularize airships (aka blimps or Zeppelins):
Airship Ventures You can take an hour-long tour of the San Francisco Bay Area from Oakland airport for $495. To recap what others have suggested, the difference between timelines where dirigibles became popular than in our own timeline might be nothing more than better weather on May 6, 1937.
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Erik Nielsen One inch short of +1 SM. |
01-30-2009, 12:38 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
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On the other hand, a British failure to develop effective incendiary bullets in 1915-1916, or some viable countermeasure, might go a long way. Oh, if you've got really vast tracts of generally low-value land, airships can potentially serve a useful role as aircraft carriers. That was proved workable historically, but is a bit harder to justify in a world dominated by sea when non-air ships can also carry aircraft. On a plain too vast or inhospitable to set up lots of ground bases, a flying airbase might be viable. |
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01-30-2009, 12:47 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
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01-30-2009, 12:59 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
The basic problem with dirigibles is that they simply don't have the performance to compete with either ships or aircraft. A dirigible with basically equivalent performance to a 747 (same takeoff weight, same fuel consumption) would be about 1500' long with a cruise speed of less than 150 mph. The 747 is 231' long with a cruise speed of close to 600 mph.
Something that results in smaller dirigibles is the most useful option. Denser atmosphere would do the trick. |
01-30-2009, 01:10 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
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I'd love for heavy-lift airships to work out, but I'm not convinced they can beat the existing technology. So I'm looking for ways they could have preempted that technology's being developed in the first place. |
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01-30-2009, 01:11 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
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01-30-2009, 02:21 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: The Enchanted Land-O-Cheese
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
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01-30-2009, 02:39 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hannover - Germany
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
Something that would really cripple Airplanes is the lack of engines with a high power density like internal combustion and jet engines, for a zeppelin the low power density of a sterling engine doenst matter as much because the lifting capacity is independent from the actual engine. Where normal aircraft depend on more powerfull engines for lift (or really big wings). The other thing that lighter-then-air crafts are better at, is the time they can stay in the air, without fuel aircraft will come down while zeppelins just drift in the wind if the engines are stopped, this might make them much more energy efficient and cheaper to operate.
With the last points i think that lighter-then-air crafts could make a comeback for cargo where speed isnt as much of an issue as cost. My vison would be a body made of extra light but tough synthetic or compound materials, the top beeing covered with solar-cells, modern electrical motors that can be powered by the solar-cells, fuel-cells and depending on the actual scenario a multifuel-engine with a generator as backup. |
01-30-2009, 03:01 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The deep dark haunted woods
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Re: [IW] Zeppelins mean Alternate Timelines. So, how are they made feasible?
Lighter-Than-Air vehicles lost popularity because they were seen as unsafe compared to heavier-than-air vehicles. Every LTA craft operated by the US military was destroyed in a crash. All that would be needed is more cautious pilots and better publicity.
If you want perfectly safe airships, the closest you'll get is vacuum dirigibles - using vacuum instead of lifting gas, which would be more efficient than even helium and would not explode. But for that you would need rigid material as light as cloth with the tensile strength of inch-thick steel. And the ramifications of a material like that would alter civilization and technology almost beyond comprehension. |
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airship, alternate history, infinite worlds |
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