Curiouser and Curiouser! on airships http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic airships Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb You gotta have a dream Fri, 23 Sep 2005 13:58:11 +0100 <p>I've always been a bit of a dreamer... well, check that, a lot of a dreamer. It was a frequent comment of teachers when I was a young 'un. Anybody's whose spent more than half a bottle of wine with me has probably heard about <em>The Pyramid</em>. That's an<blockquote>if I was fabulously wealthy I would...</blockquote>dream I've had for at least five or six years but I won't go into that here. Today I add a new dream: <strong>I want to start a commercial Airship company</strong>.</p> <p>If you've been listening to Radio 4 in the mornings you've probably heard about new reports which reflect a growing concern about the environmental effects of mass jet travel. The news isn't good. In my ignorance bringing air travel into Carbon trading programmes sounds like an excellent idea because, although it willl push up the cost (since I don't think all other industries are going to go Carbon neutral just so EasyJet can pollute at will), it will also put more pressure on airlines, and hence manufacturers, to innovate and come up with less polluting solutions.</p> <p>I'm not sure it's true but my guess is that an airship needs less powerful engines since it is already buoyant. I think also that if you aren't in such a rush you can use less powerful, but more efficient engines. I'm guessing but I think airships could be a more environmentally friendly way to travel.</p> <p>But what really drives this dream is a vision of looking down on Manhattan from my stateroom as we glide in to dock (think wood panelling, velvet upholstery, and a cuban cigar).</p> <p>And no <a href="http://paolo.evectors.it/">Paolo</a>, my flagship won't be called the <em>Led Zeppelin</em>!</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002929.html Give me a lift Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:24:04 +0100 <p>Could someone with a working knowledge of German please take a look at the <a href="http://www.cargolifter.com/">CargoLifter</a> website and tell me what's up in the state of the art in modern airships?</a> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00003014.html