The Green Airship That Will Never Be Made, But Looks Cool Anyways |
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| By Michael d'Estries in Energy, Green Building, Solar | March 17, 2008 | |
The problem with beautiful computer-modeled concepts is that 99% of them will never see the light of day. Sure, some ideas from concepts eventually make it into future products, but the AirshipOne is so cool as a complete package that anything sacrificed would just be a bummer. Hence, my zero faith we will ever see it for real — but damn, that’s a beautiful flying machine. Here are the details:
The AirShipOne is a solar powered hybrid between a semi-rigid airship and an airplane and can comfortably accommodate 25 passengers in its double-deck passenger compartment. The airship’s aluminum-grade skeleton is a semi-rigid structure and has carbon fiber paneling and high-strength fabric to camouflage the skeleton. The vectored ducted fans enable the ship to hover or cruise around 120mph effortlessly.
I especially like the horizontal rotors for vertical takeoff. The top speed certainly won’t get you from A-B as fast as commercial flight, but for those looking for rather leisurely trip over the landscape — with ample leg room to boot — this certainly seems like a nice option. You can check out a video and more pics over at Born Rich.
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