Anyone know where I can buy airships? If they're sorta affordable, I wouldn't mind living in one. Can't see them being much more inconvenient to live in than say, a boat. Obviously, I've given this maybe 5 minutes of thought, so please do share opinions about inconveniences and cost of living. If large and fancy ones are crazy expensive, but tiny ones less so, just having one isn't too shoddy either.
I'm pretty sure the only kind any of us could afford would be a small blimp and that's hardly a good country or even commune. And if you meant and aircraft carrier, then those things are fucking millions of dollars, so good luck with that.
Alright, I just submitted these three panels to Anime Los Angeles. These are not the descriptions I submitted because I won't sugar coat things for you intelligent people.
1. "Initial Fact vs Fiction", where I pit the racing of Initial D against real world racing (drift, rallycross, rally, and touge) to see if it holds up. Here's a little preview: cup of water? Bullshit. Hovering the corner of your car over an open gutter? Bullshit. Multiple "best" lines through a corner? Bullshit. Dropping two wheels into a gutter to sling yourself around a corner? FUCKING bullshit.
2. "Monster Girl Quest: The Lecture" (18+). AKA, where Victor spends 20 minutes playing "Monster Girl Quest" MST3K-style, stopping riiiiiiiiight before anything erotic happens, riffs on the game, and then lectures the tricked otaku about greek mythology. He then informs the audience that the staffers will be waving an ultraviolet light over their hands as they leave. * Maniacal Laugh* I might ask Alex Leavitt to run this one with me, since he did a Erotic Manga panel at Anime Expo.
3."My Little Pony: Sound is Magic". This, but again.
Anyone know where I can buy airships? If they're sorta affordable, I wouldn't mind living in one. Can't see them being much more inconvenient to live in than say, a boat. Obviously, I've given this maybe 5 minutes of thought, so please do share opinions about inconveniences and cost of living. If large and fancy ones are crazy expensive, but tiny ones less so, just having one isn't too shoddy either.
The FAA (or your local equivalent) would probably like to have a few words with you.
For all intents and purposes, for personal transport, you're probably better off getting a pilot's license and a small plane. I doubt a blimp big enough to live in will be affordable at all, given the massive size it would need to hold enough helium to fly as well as all the FAA regulations regarding pilot training, aircraft maintenance and safety, etc.
I'm of the mind that hydrogen is okay for airships, as long as you're really careful.
Probably. I mean, hydrogen in airships died when the Hindenberg blew up, but a lot of that was supposedly the highly flammable material that made up the airship and less the hydrogen itself.
I'm not an engineer but my understanding of hydrogen is that it'll leak through a smaller hole than... well, basically anything else and is probably the single most flammable thing ever..?
I'm sure this isn't wholly accurate but it certainly doesn't seem like it's the sort of thing you want floating around in large quantities in semi-autonomous conveyances over large populated areas.
It leaks in streams of atoms. Not enough passes through to cause combustion; it's the same situation as trying to suck helium through a latex balloon. Atomically, some helium will get into your lungs, but not enough to do anything.
I'm not an engineer but my understanding of hydrogen is that it'll leak through a smaller hole than... well, basically anything else and is probably the single most flammable thing ever..?
WUB addressed the leaking issue, but the flammability issue is overblown to an extent. Because hydrogen is lighter than air, the flames tend to float upwards and away from the ground, as opposed to hydrocarbons like jet fuel and whatnot which tend to sink. Given that, as a gas, you'll have orders of magnitude fewer hydrogen molecules within a particular volume than those of a liquid hydrocarbon in the same volume, it's probably not any more dangerous than a jet fuel powered turbine helicopter flying over a population center -- provided that the envelope actually holding the hydrogen gas is suitable flame-retardant.
Also, chemistry bonus: hydrogen just turns into water when it burns, so you don't have to worry about catastrophic pollution as a result of an airship fire.
You could make a pretty excellent case for the economic and environmental feasibility of airborne cargo ships using hydrogen envelopes for buoyancy and beta-emitting radioisotopes as power for electric turbofans.
What you really need to do is make sure that the passenger compartment on the bottom of the airship is also a glider. That way if the balloon is on fire, you just detach and float to the ground as slowly as possible. Maybe even put some parachutes on that fucker.
Also, chemistry bonus: hydrogen just turns into water when it burns, so you don't have to worry about catastrophic pollution as a result of an airship fire.
Very true... Had this in the back of my mind (hey, I did start college as a chemical engineering major -- until organic chem kicked my ass), but I just didn't think of it as being relevant here.
You could make a pretty excellent case for the economic and environmental feasibility of airborne cargo ships using hydrogen envelopes for buoyancy and beta-emitting radioisotopes as power for electric turbofans.
Beta particles? Those are basically electrons (or perhaps positrons too?), right? Again, my chem is rusty. Hmm, if we can get the scare factor of "ooooh, radioisotopes" out of people's heads, I could see this working as well. It's not like beta particles are hard to shield against. Maybe not quite as easy as alphas (doesn't paper block most alpha particles?), but it's not like you need 12 inches of lead to block them either. Are polymers good against beta particles as well, or do they only work against alphas?
Beta particles are high-speed electrons and positrons. You can block them with aluminum plate, so a high-density polymer would probably be a fine shield; however, you're going to want metal shielding because of the heat a radioisotope generator requires.
Curiosity is expected to run for 20+ years on its uranium radioisotope battery.
Also, chemistry bonus: hydrogen just turns into water when it burns, so you don't have to worry about catastrophic pollution as a result of an airship fire.
What about incidental combustion of surrounding compounds and inefficient/incomplete burning? Burning natural gas should only produce carbonated water...?
There is no incomplete combustion of hydrogen. Two atoms conjugate to oxygen and form water. Failing that, you have free diatomic hydrogen, which will fly into the atmosphere and naturally conjugate to form water anyway. No other possibilities exist.
EDIT: Also, burning natural gas doesn't produce carbonated water, but water vapor and carbon dioxide. Most methane burning happens at 100% efficiency, which is why the flames on your stove are bright blue and not orange. Natural gas is the cleanest petrofuel we have.
I guess I was thinking more about incomplete burning of whatever shit happens to be around/next to the hydrogen fueled flameball that your airship has become. :-)
I guess I was thinking more about incomplete burning of whatever shit happens to be around/next to the hydrogen fueled flameball that your airship has become. :-)
But it won't become that. The Hindenburg exploded in flame because they used a petroleum based dope for the fabric coating the gas skeleton. It caught fire because of tremendously shitty engineering, not hydrogen.
I don't foresee a problem. Consider that the modern airplane is a dense ball of metal fueled with human bodies, travelling at 300+ MPH, with a cargo of literally tons of explosive jet fuel, and turbines moving at tens of thousands of RPMs.
All travel is risky. If you don't use a flammable dope, even a hydrogen airship is much safer than the average passenger jet.
You don't foresee a problem with getting the public to accept hydrogen dirigibles with the Hindenburg example floating around, however irrelevant it is? Take a look at the presidential election coverage/discussion in this country and then get back to me about the ease with which you're going to sell this.
Comments
1. "Initial
2. "Monster Girl Quest: The Lecture" (18+). AKA, where Victor spends 20 minutes playing "Monster Girl Quest" MST3K-style, stopping riiiiiiiiight before anything erotic happens, riffs on the game, and then lectures the tricked otaku about greek mythology. He then informs the audience that the staffers will be waving an ultraviolet light over their hands as they leave. * Maniacal Laugh* I might ask Alex Leavitt to run this one with me, since he did a Erotic Manga panel at Anime Expo.
3."My Little Pony: Sound is Magic". This, but again.
Thoughts on any more panels I should submit?
For all intents and purposes, for personal transport, you're probably better off getting a pilot's license and a small plane. I doubt a blimp big enough to live in will be affordable at all, given the massive size it would need to hold enough helium to fly as well as all the FAA regulations regarding pilot training, aircraft maintenance and safety, etc.
I'm of the mind that hydrogen is okay for airships, as long as you're really careful.
I'm sure this isn't wholly accurate but it certainly doesn't seem like it's the sort of thing you want floating around in large quantities in semi-autonomous conveyances over large populated areas.
You could make a pretty excellent case for the economic and environmental feasibility of airborne cargo ships using hydrogen envelopes for buoyancy and beta-emitting radioisotopes as power for electric turbofans.
Curiosity is expected to run for 20+ years on its uranium radioisotope battery.
EDIT: Also, burning natural gas doesn't produce carbonated water, but water vapor and carbon dioxide. Most methane burning happens at 100% efficiency, which is why the flames on your stove are bright blue and not orange. Natural gas is the cleanest petrofuel we have.
Good luck on that PR campaign.
All travel is risky. If you don't use a flammable dope, even a hydrogen airship is much safer than the average passenger jet.