Re: Battle blimps

At 6:18 PM -0700 4/16/02, Michael Llaneza wrote:
>And a 747 is pretty small compared to what an airship can 
>accomodate. The tone is the sort of "forward-looking statement" that 
>the SEC puts people in jail for. But 20 years from now something 
>like that may even be plausible. An airship with a couple of air 
>defense lasers sitting at 20 miles altitude can cover a lot of 
>territory and sweep the skies clear, and be impervious to anything 
>in the air. Considering that, I can see value in pursuing very 
>radical studies.

I've been a bit busy with work here.. but the gondola on blimps and 
the volume of non equipment space is pretty disparate. The gondola on 
a typical blimp is probably small enough to fit inside of a C130 and 
leave more room for the air bag and other support gear.

Granted, total volume of the Blimp vs a 747 is pretty similar, but 
the Blimp is mostly puffed air. Being able to have the same cargo 
weight as a 747, would make it a massive airship. Probably on the 
scale of the larger rigids of the interwar years.
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Ryan Gill			  rmgill@mindspring.com
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