Clipmarks | Airships Clips

Say wow! the flying jellyfish

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:49:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Last year Festo surprised everyone with their amazing prototype of the Air_ray a manta ray that swims through the air and the b-IONIC Airfish. We reported on it in a great post which was titled "Airships are just like fish in the sky" Festo is currently at the Hannover Messe 2008 and they brought an just as stunning new project with them. We present the Air Jelly, a jellyfish that swims through the air. Currently the information about the AirJelly is only available in German at the Festo Website but the pictures speak for them self, of course we also provide you with a direct link to the autotranslated Page in English about the AirJelly
The Video on the Website of Festo did not work for me so I uploaded it to YouTube just in case you can not see the "Flim" on the Festo website:

Tags: robotics, jellyfish

Infinite Winds - Discovery Project Earth

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:04:02 GMT

clipped by: bsykora
clipper's remarks: Can a wind turbine 1,000 feet above sea level produce enough power to replace fossil fuels?

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Infinite Winds
Premieres Friday, Sept. 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Fred Ferguson, a Canadian engineer specializing in airships, has designed a revolutionary wind turbine that will use the constant winds that exist at 1,000 feet above sea level to produce energy. Testing a 70 foot prototype for the first time, they will need to prove that is can convert this untapped energy into electricity.

Tags: global warming, discovery, wind

Future space robots may think for themselves

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:18:17 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Future space robots may think for themselves

Scientists envision 'bots working intelligently while exploring distant worlds

INTERACTIVE

Ten great movie robots

EVE, otherwise known as the Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, represents an intelligent probe sent to an abandoned Earth in the film "WALL-E."

By Jeremy Hsu

A spaceship descends with a thunderous roar and deposits a futuristic probe before taking off again. The Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator (EVE) soon activates and begins flying around, scanning the barren surface for signs of life.

Scientists today can only dream of having a robotic explorer like EVE from the Disney/Pixar film "WALL-E." But some researchers are working on autonomous spacecraft, airships and rovers that can cooperate intelligently while exploring distant worlds.

The key rests with software algorithms that help robots make command decisions on their own.

Perhaps best of all, intelligent robots could react quickly to surprises and investigate anomalies

Tags: tech

airship revival

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:28:03 GMT

clipped by: acwood

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Is it time for an airship revival?

Every few years the idea of people flying around in a Zeppelin makes something of a comeback.

Now, with the cost of aviation fuel soaring and air and noise pollution becoming increasingly big issues, has their day finally come?

One manufacturer in Germany believes so and it is producing a new generation of hybrid airships: the Zeppelin NT.

Modern airships are filled with Helium rather than Hydrogen

Tags: airship, enviroment, pollution, travel

The Blimps are coming

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:00:39 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: now just imagine a wildcat in a skycat..

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

New Airship Designs Are More Than Just a Lot of Hot Air

It's not going to replace the 747, but it looks like the airships may be making a comeback.

As the search intensifies for transportation not reliant on petroleum-based fuel, several companies are promoting a new generation of airship technology. A British Company called SkyCat is licensing its heavy-lift airship design; and the Zeppelin NT, built with proceeds from the Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin endowment, recently completed its maiden flight.

On its website, the American Blimp Corporation provides a basic explanation of how airships work. Non-rigid airships, known as blimps, are members of the Lighter than Air family of aircraft, a category that also includes hot air balloons. They have no wings and no structure within their envelope, only air and helium, gases which allow an airship to retain its shape and creates buoyant lift.

Tags: blimps, zeppellin, aircraft

Steampunk: Re-Imagining the Past

Sun, 18 May 2008 07:31:52 GMT

clipped by: revenantdm
clipper's remarks: This article talks about a 28 minute film that is done in what is known as Steampunk Fiction.
What is Steampunk? Alternate Earth Sci-Fi with a focus on technology of now and the future and even the imagination if Steam-power had remained the operating force behind all mechanics and electronics...

Clip Source: www.wired.com

Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

Steampunks love their airships. All manner of dirigibles and other strange floating craft ply the skies of The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, a 26-minute animated film by Academy Award-winning director/animator Anthony Lucas.

Jasper Morello encapsulates the steampunk ethos in the very mechanics of its creation. The film combines art and animation technologies of the past, like paper silhouettes and stop motion, with the most cutting-edge tools of today, including 3-D modeling, atmospheric effects and multi-technique compositing. The results are stunning: an immersive, alternative universe where land masses float in the sky and giant airships (and predatory flying fish) traverse the inhospitable void.

Image: Anthony Lucas, courtesy of 3D Films

Solar Blimp Could Bring Power To Disaster Areas

Sat, 17 May 2008 05:03:15 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: At least so long as there is helium to keep it afloat.

Clip Source: www.switched.com

Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen's undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way.

Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored "power boxes" that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets.

Zeppelin!

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:10:00 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: I would love to ride in one of these!

Clip Source: www.altfrankfurt.com

Frankfurt am Main
Zeppelin!
Special Topics
Views of the Old City of Frankfurt am Main before the Wars
Ansichten der Altstadt von Frankfurt am Main.

The great Zeppelin Airships were once at home in Frankfurt. This series of photographs shows memories of the ILA, Internation Airship Exposition, held in Frankfurt from July until October 1909, as well a pictures of the most famous Zeppelin of all, the LZ-129, Hindenburg.
Click on any Picture to begin your virtual tour.

Graf Zeppelin & Hindenburg, 1936

International Airship Exposition
Internationale Luftschiffahrt-Ausstellung
ILA 1909

Rebstock Airfield
Flugplatz Rebstock 1909

LZ127
Graf Zeppelin

LZ129
Hindenburg

LZ11 Viktoria Luise

Zeppelin Hanger

The Ground Crew

Passengers

The Airship Hindenburg LZ-129
The Interior
The Tragedy at Lakehurst

The Airship Graf Zeppelin LZ-127

LZ-11 Viktoria Louise

Clip Source: www.altfrankfurt.com

ILA 1909 - Schumanntheater & Festhalle

ILA, 1. Aug, 1909

Zeppelin and Parseval over the Roemer
Zeppelin und Parseval über dem Römer
1909

Souvenir Items

May 6, 1937: A Ball of Fire und Alles Ist Kaput

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:24:21 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.wired.com

1937: The German passenger zeppelin Hindenburg explodes and crashes while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 people and dooming the future of commercial trans-Atlantic zeppelin service.

The Hindenburg (which might have been named Adolf Hitler if not for the strong anti-Nazi views held by Hugo Eckener, director of the Zeppelin Company) and its sister ship, Graf Zeppelin II, are the largest aircraft ever to fly. They stretched 804 feet — nearly the length of the largest trans-Atlantic ocean liners of the period.

Although other nations, notably Great Britain and the United States, built rigid airships, the German technology was superior. The Hindenburg’s latticework airframe was constructed of a lightweight alloy composed largely of aluminum and copper. Sixteen gas cells expanded to a capacity of 7,062,100 cubic feet for lift, and the airship was propelled by four 16-cylinder diesel engines, allowing it to carry 72 passengers and 60 crew across the Atlantic Ocean

Tags: hindenburg, airships

Manned Cloud

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:21:41 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.dezeen.com

Here’s another designer dirigible: Manned Cloud is a flying hotel proposed by French designer Jean-Marie Massaud.

The whale-shaped airship, developed with French national aerospace research body ONERA, will be able to accommodate 40 guests and have a range of 5,000 km.

Manned Cloud will have a cruising speed of 130 km/h and a top speed of 170 km/h. Two two-deck cabin will contain amenities including a restaurant, a library, a fitness suite and a spa. There will also be a sun deck on top of the double helium-filled envelopes.

More on airships in our earlier stories on the Strato Cruiser “lifestyle Zeppelin” and the Aeroscraft ML866 hybrid aircraft.

Here are the details from Massaud:

Does War Influence Ingenuity?

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:47:53 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

We're told that "necessity is the mother of invention," but history doesn't really bear that out. The true mother of invention is our powerful driving internal need to invent. We invent because we want to invent. It's freedom that's the real mother of invention.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

The common wisdom tells us that war speeds up invention -- that airplane performance, ship technology, and engine design all raced ahead during WW-I and II -- that governments can speed the creation of ideas. But there's good reason to ask if this is really true.

I'll use airplane speeds to show why I have doubts, but any other technology would show the same thing. Airplane speeds are a good thing to look at because we know how badly everybody wanted to speed up their planes during WW-I and II.

The remarkable fact is that throughout its history the speed of flight has doubled every nine years. The rate of increase has been dead steady from the first primitive airships in the 1880s right up until orbital flight made speed a non-issue. That nine-year doubling has been absolutely untouched by war, depression, or presidential proclamations.

What government commitment does increase during war is production.

But human ingenuity is quite a different creature.

Click here for audio of Episode 35.

Tags: science, history, war

A Manned Cloud

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 08:45:42 GMT

clipped by: flipper1378

Clip Source: www.dezeen.com

Manned Cloud by Jean-Marie Massaud

Here’s another designer dirigible: Manned Cloud is a flying hotel proposed by French designer Jean-Marie Massaud.

The whale-shaped airship, developed with French national aerospace research body ONERA, will be able to accommodate 40 guests and have a range of 5,000 km.

More on airships in our earlier stories on the Strato Cruiser “lifestyle Zeppelin” and the Aeroscraft ML866 hybrid aircraft.

Are Airships the future of travel?

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:52:50 GMT

clipped by: k9riley99

Clip Source: green.yahoo.com

Three airships that might fly you to Europe someday

We at EcoGeek have a crush on airships. They're elegant, efficient, exciting, and require very little infrastructure. Airships have the potential to be more efficient than airplanes, cars, and even passenger trains and barges.

In a carbon-conscious world, passenger flight is difficult to rationalize. But we've got to get from point A to point B -- there are births, funerals, weddings, and graduations to attend. Right now, there's no alternative to traditional heavier-than-air travel.

Here are three airships that have a good chance at changing that:

The Aeroscraft

Aeroscraft comes first because it seems both more ambitious and farther along in development than the others. As lighter-than-air (LTA) craft are completely subject to the weather when not under their own propulsion, low-speed control is a big deal. Aeroscraft has kept that in its sights.

The SkyCat

But they're still planning for a possible U.S. to Canada LTA shipping route.

Tags: flight, airships, efficient

The Airships of the Future

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:02:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

If you watch just about any SciFi movie or TV series, or read any book where the Nazis won in World War 11 as historical fact, then you will most likely have seen an airship! They seem to be the stuff alternate time lines are made of, with movies like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and books like Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials both preferring airships, zeppelins or dirigible to your good old fashioned airplane.

So in a carbon conscious world where doing something for the environment is critical, it makes sense that airships are once again being talked about.

The two-football-fields-long concept Aeroscraft pictured above is not a Blimp. Think of it as a flying "Queen Mary 2" that will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in well-appointed staterooms.

Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air

Tags: airships, technology, transportation, carbon conscious, future

Steam Brigade Game - HarmonicFlow.com

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:05:11 GMT

clipped by: shamanFlow
clipper's remarks: Travel back to an alternate history where graceful airships rule the skies and steam-powered tanks wage war on the ground! Build an army, capture bunkers, defeat turrets, and use your airship to carry your troops behind enemy lines! Push forward across beautiful vistas and lush scenery and wrap yourself up in a vibrant and compelling story!

Clip Source: www.harmonicflow.com

Tags: action, shooter, games, download, steam brigade