Based on the size of the human figures (assuming the people are 6 feet tall), and assuming the pool is 6 feet deep, a very rough estimate of the water in that pool would be 30,240 cubic feet, or 226,210 gallons, or 1,886,591 pounds.

Just to lift the water in the pool alone would require 31.4 million cubic feet of helium at 60 lb lift per 1000 cu. ft.

 That’s 4-1/2 Hindenburgs.

Of course, the airship would need to lift more than just the pool: Engines, anyone? Fuel? How about that hard carapace of a shell?

This “airship” has as much chance of floating in the air as Hugo Eckener after a meal of sauerbraten and kaiserschmarrn.

Which is good, because placing two million pounds of water above the lifting gas would cause this thing to capsize and dump all those people onto the pretty mountains.

And at that altitude, high above those mountains peaks, the helium would expand so much the airship would have to be vastly larger than in that illustration.

And the water in the pool would likely freeze into a block of ice without some rather effective — and heavy! — heating system.

But when some people think about airships, they forget about physics.

Bless their hearts. 🙂

The post Physics ruins all our Fun: Luxury airship edition appeared first on Airships.net.

Much of that discussion has involved ridicule of their unrealistic design (which seems to defy the laws of aerodynamics) and of their suggestion to inflate a passenger aircraft with hydrogen.

Unfortunately, some of that discussion has also included suggestions that the Seymourpowell project is a “con.”  Some people have even compared Seymourpowell [warning: Flash-heavy site] to Turtle Airships; I think that particular comparison is absurd.

Let me offer my personal opinion, based solely on public information and my own intuition:  While I have never met or even spoken with anyone at Seymourpowell, I cannot imagine that their project was intended as any sort of financial fraud.

The only possible “con” about Aircruise, as far as I can tell, was Seymourpowell’s attempt to get publicity for themselves and their client by implying that a purely conceptual project was actually a real engineering possibility.

Seymourpowell probably knew that many people fall into an unthinking trance of “oohs” and “ahhs” when you call something green, sustainable, or eco-friendly, or when you show them awe-inspiring pictures of futuristic visions.  And Seymourpowell probably guessed they could use this phenomenon to show off their impressive CGI skills and creative abilities and attract publicity for the firm and its client.

Cynical, perhaps, but far from evil.

At worst, Seymourpowell took advantage of the public’s weakness for any “eco-friendly” and luxurious alternative to long flights in tiny airline seats, being charged for blankets, pillows, and toilet-access by snarling flight attendants who will have you arrested if you fail to show sufficiently obsequious deference, while clogging our atmosphere with poisonous carbon emissions.  But I think the only thing Seymourpowell was trying to con is a few moments of our time and mental attention.  At worst, you could call it a hoax rather than a con, and even hoax may be too strong a word; it was really just cynical.

(click to enlage)

I think there is a huge moral difference between Seymourpowell and “Turtle Airships.”  While their airships may be equally impractical, Turtle Airships used their imaginary dirigible to obtain money from the public.  Turtle promised free rides in an unrealistic airship to entice unsophisticated members of the public to send them money for an e-Book, and they apparently tried to raise investment capital in India, China, Dubai, and elsewhere.  (In fairness to Turtle, they seem to have toned down their online “marketing” recently, or at least they are no longer selling their e-Book, which is currently available for free.)

And there is a huge gulf between the small-time e-Book scam of Turtle Airships, whose credentials and background are left rather murky on their various websites, and the conceptual design project of Seymourpowell, who may not be aircraft engineers, but who are serious members of the industrial design profession.

(click to enlarge)

Neither the Aircruise nor the Turtle Airship will ever fly (at least, not in anything close to their proposed forms), and the mainstream media should have been a lot more suspicious of Seymourpowell’s flammable-pie-in-the-sky; the real story here is about bad journalism, not about Seymourpowell.  It is the journalists who should be criticized, for abandoning their ethical responsibility to act as fact-checkers and filters rather than mere conduits for press releases.  Seymourpowell seem to be just clever and creative (if somewhat cynical) self-promoters.  They were willing to (harmlessly) mislead the public in return for a few minutes of fame, but that’s not so unusual.  The real story is the journalists who let them get away with it.

The post Seymourpowell Aircruise: Hoax, Con, or Merely Cynical? appeared first on Airships.net.

The press falls for publicity stunt… Hook, Line, & Dirigible:

What began as a fun exercise by a London design firm, to publicize the creative thinking of the firm and its client Samsung, has been picked up as if it were a real “news story” by CNN, the Telegraph, and other media outlets.

The firm of Seymourpowell has previously designed sex toys and packaging for condoms, tampon applicators and cat food but has never engineered an aircraft, yet they recently announced “plans” for a 100-passenger, octahedron-shaped, 870-foot tall luxury airship called the Aircruise, inflated with over 11 million cubic feet of flammable hydrogen (just like the Hindenburg).

Apparently no-one told CNN or the Telegraph that this is an amusing design exercise and not a real aeronautical possibility, and they didn’t check with any engineers before printing the Seymourpowell press release.

This was a great publicity move which generated significant media coverage.  And there is no denying that Seymourpowell’s airship fantasy is beautiful: It inspires people to imagine the possibilities of the future, just as they intended, and shows that Seymourpowell and Samsung can dream great dreams.  In fact, it follows a long tradition of airship futurism, in which airships have been used to illustrate the promise of a brighter tomorrow. But it is not a real project.

In cooperation with its client, Samsung, the firm produced a lavish CGI video with depictions of the ship’s modern interiors, which include passenger apartments complete with kitchens and cooking ranges (always a good idea on a hydrogen airship).

Unfortunately a few media outlets now have egg on their face for passing this along as a real project, without first checking the facts with aeronautical engineers or aerospace consultants.

Even the tiniest bit of journalistic skepticism would have raised some questions:

• The airship is shaped like a giant wall, the worst possible aerodynamic design, as opposed to a more streamlined form; it would require tremendous amounts of energy to overcome wind resistance for forward motion, assuming it could fly against headwinds at all.

• The video focuses mainly on the beautifully-designed interiors, but interior design has never made an aircraft fly and the focus on lounges, penthouses, and other features unrelated to flight should have been another question mark for journalists.  (The Battlestar Galactica has cool interiors, too, but that doesn’t mean it can fly.)

• The ship is supposed to operate from a modernistic docking station, but since the aircraft is shaped like a giant sail virtually any gust of wind would drive the ship into the station’s pincer-like claws, shredding the envelope and causing a disaster of Hindenburg-like proportions.

• Reporters should also have noticed that the floating diamond has no visible means of propulsion or directional control: it has no propellers, thrusters, engines, or visible control surfaces.  But instead of raising questions about the design multiple news stories have claimed the airship will carry passengers from London to New York in 37 hours, at speeds up to 150 km/h, even faster than the ill-fated (but at least streamlined) Hindenburg.

• And then, of course, there’s the hydrogen.

The Seymourpowell publicity campaign was brilliant, but the incident serves as a warning to journalists who are tempted to rely on a press release about a technical subject without seeking independent verification of the facts.

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