Airships, Blimps, anyone anyone

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32 replies · 17K views
mugaliens said:
Tell you what - let's prototype it after the GZ-20, the current model of Goodyear Blimps. It had a 45 ft diameter cylinder, with a length of 192 feet. It has two Continental IO-360 engines rated at 210 hp each, which give it a max velocity of 50 mph. That's a total of 314 kW, which gives us something to shoot for, solar panel-wise.

Let's de-rate it at bit, to just 300 kW, and a max velocity of 40 mph

Even if we were to cover the entire top half with solar cells, the effective area would only be approximately 2,700 square feet (rough estimate, only). Is that enough to generate 300 kW using modern solar cells?

Uh...what happened to working with a small prototype? I don't have the resources to build a full sized aircraft.
 
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Lancelot59 said:
Uh...what happened to working with a small prototype? I don't have the resources to build a full sized aircraft.

On paper! Just the calcs...
 
mugaliens said:
On paper! Just the calcs...

You had me worried there for a sec.