New airship carries commercial hopes.docVIP

Tuesday, 30 May, 2000, 13:35 GMT 14:35 UK New airship carries commercial hopes CargoLifter: Old idea, hi-tech design A new breed of hi-tech giant airships planned by a German company could be the heavy lift aircraft of the future. The CargoLifter is intended to carry payloads of up to 160 tonnes - about the weight of 27 full-grown African elephants - at a speed of 100 km/h 62 mph and a maximum height of 2,000 metres 6,500-feet non-stop over several thousand kilometres. Filled with 500,000 cubic metres 17.6 million cubic feet of non-flammable helium, the airship will be 260 metres 850-feet long and is designed to carry large loads to remote locations. According to the German company behind the airship the CargoLifter will not need a landing strip and will have more endurance than a conventional aircraft. Strong keel To enable the craft to carry heavy weights the manufacturers have come up with a new design. The large Zeppelins built early in the last century could carry big loads but they were themselves heavy. To keep them rigid they had a strong metal frame. It would have taken three Zeppelins the size of the CargoLifter to carry the same payload. The much smaller blimps currently in operation consist of a lighter aerodynamically shaped envelope that, like a balloon, is kept rigid by the pressure of the gas. The pilot, passengers, and engines are carried in a gondola mounted underneath. The CargoLifter is of a modified semi-rigid design. Like a blimp it has no frame, but to allow it to carry heavy weights the airship has a fixed keel which also houses the cargo bay, the flight deck, crews quarters and engines. Early promise Lighter-than-air transport considerably predates the aeroplane. The first balloons flew in the 18th century and by 1900 the Germans were producing rigid airships capable of carrying considerable loads over long distances. Early Zeppelin - weight penalty Built by Luftschiffsbau-Zeppelin, they consisted of a cigar-shaped, tru