Happy Atheist Forum

The new vehicle set to revolutionise the skies (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12110386)

QuoteImagine this: a flying machine that can cruise in the air for three weeks without landing. It does not need a runway and can land anywhere and on any surface.

It may sound like science fiction, but it's not.

It looks like an airship...but the Hybrid Air Vehicle is much more than that.

See also Hybrid Air Vehicles (http://www.hybridairvehicles.net/)

Wow!

interesting.  with the capabilities and airtime it looks to be much more useful than a blimp. could be one to watch.

not sure why someone hasn't done this before...

Quote from: "joeactor"interesting.  with the capabilities and airtime it looks to be much more useful than a blimp. could be one to watch.

not sure why someone hasn't done this before...

Well you would think somebody would have tried this before. But for the US military to cough up £300 million it must be a pretty serious project. Thanks for your tax dollars our economy could do with it at the moment  

That seems like a really interesting way to... It burst into flames and it's falling, it's crashing! This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, the humanity...!

Quote from: "Will"That seems like a really interesting way to... It burst into flames and it's falling, it's crashing! This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, the humanity...!

Helium  

Now what's the speed of these things? I would imagine  this could change commercial travel as we know it if it's fast enough.

The thing that bugs me is that once our Helium's all gone, then what do we do? We only have a limited amount, and no way to make more.

Once our helium supplies get really scarce, the expense of operating one of these vehicles will like burning diamonds for lift.

I think a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none approach is going to be intrinsically expensive.  Seems a way for the US military industrial complex to keep its money printing presses running high volumes of dollars?

The future is more likely to be specialised solutions to difficult problems like this beauty here?  

[youtube:2l8joa98]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QZ1KzveIic[/youtube:2l8joa98]

Quote from: "Ultima22689"Now what's the speed of these things? I would imagine  this could change commercial travel as we know it if it's fast enough.

I doubt it'll get up to 100mph. But this is about endurance not speed. Imagine one of these fitted with a bunch of sensors circling over the battlefield 24/7 for weeks on end. It would be a truly amazing asset to patrol vast areas of sea or land. Think about the pirates operating off the horn of Africa. The coastal traffic could be monitored around the clock. One issue is the cost per hour to operate. Big jets cost a lot to keep in the air, something in the order of $40k/hour. If this can do it for $5k/h to $10k/h would make them very attractive for long term surveillance.

Quote from: "dloubet"The thing that bugs me is that once our Helium's all gone, then what do we do? We only have a limited amount, and no way to make more.

Once our helium supplies get really scarce, the expense of operating one of these vehicles will like burning diamonds for lift.

It's not like one can go out and make some more yet. Fusion reactors will produce some but we're a while away from that yet.

Quote from: "alienpresence"I think a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none approach is going to be intrinsically expensive.  Seems a way for the US military industrial complex to keep its money printing presses running high volumes of dollars?

The future is more likely to be specialised solutions to difficult problems like this beauty here?  

[youtube:3k2deihz]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QZ1KzveIic[/youtube:3k2deihz]

I'd love to see an energy flow map of that process. It look too much like a perpetual motion machine to me. I'm sure they have done the maths, I'd just like to see it! If it works it's very clever indeed.

This thing reminds me a lot of the Aereon lifting body (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AEREON_26) described in one of the great John McPhee's early books, The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed (http://www.johnmcphee.com/deltoid.htm) (1973).  I remember reading the book when it first came out, and being amazed that the project had never gotten anywhere, because it made so much sense. Before it's time, obviously.  Now it's about 40 years later, and maybe the concept will finally come into it's own...

 (https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ft0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcSXA4plvtEwLN3WGU8zES7FesJdq2bebPG5r-3bEoJik9iGegTWXQ&hash=f95bc4884d7c39e38aaa8cbdb9529992b4966848)       (https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ft3.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcTEGT7znwLiRJMwWhq5Nrzr_4M_ivuj_Zn8pORLthynkKPT1wssXw&hash=1a6523b46126b3344f691f01057c9b97cdc78877)

Quote from: "Tank"

Quote from: "alienpresence"I think a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none approach is going to be intrinsically expensive.  Seems a way for the US military industrial complex to keep its money printing presses running high volumes of dollars?

The future is more likely to be specialised solutions to difficult problems like this beauty here?  

[youtube:3ulslj55]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QZ1KzveIic[/youtube:3ulslj55]

I'd love to see an energy flow map of that process. It look too much like a perpetual motion machine to me. I'm sure they have done the maths, I'd just like to see it! If it works it's very clever indeed.

Each hop probably slows the earths rotational spin down a fraction.  Hope they don't become popular if they work?