[balloon-makers] a new hot air quasi-rigid airship takes flight

[David Tanzer & Lori Bottom]

I considered it a special privilege to be invited to witness the first free
flight of Alberto.  Dan and Mike have done an extraordinary job.  It can
certainly be said that they are not afraid of a project!  There are all
sorts of unique and interesting details in the design and construction of
this airship, but the simplicity and elegance of the basic tenets of the
design are wonderful.  I can also confirm that the airship flew extremely
well, motoring upwind without difficulty and making a 360 with no trouble.
There's a lot to do, of course, but the concept has clearly been proven, so
I expect to see all sorts of interesting development occur now.

I'll also share a couple of amusing bits from Friday, for those that may be
interested.  The testing is conducted from a nice, large farm field located
not far from Dan's home.  Dan has some "Cover-It" garages erected to store
lots of support items and other supplies necessary for the airship.  Among
those items is an industrial Juki sewing machine mounted on its table which,
in turn, is on a dolly that can be rolled around the field.  Toward the end
of the day I looked up from whatever job I was doing, and there was Dan
sitting out in the middle of the field at his sewing machine, which was
powered by a nice, quiet Honda generator, repairing a rip in the tent that
protects the airship while it's sleeping.  As Dan quipped afterward, "he was
genuinely making field repairs."  The other thing that I found endearing
about the airship was the novel use of everyday bits and pieces procured
from all sorts of places.  At one point I was standing next to the car
looking at the arrangement Dan and Mike have to allow the keel rib to be
inserted or removed from the envelope.  This apparatus consists of a couple
of hard rubber wheels of the type you might buy at Home Depot mounted on a
simple axle.  However, there were two nicely finished discs on either side
of these wheels placed in order to prevent the keel rib from rolling off the
rubber wheels.  I was staring at these discs wondering how Dan and Mike had
made them when one of the other, more experienced, crew members happened by.
He looked at me and knew exactly what I was trying to figure out.  He then
uttered just two words and walked away.  "Frying pans."

Congratulations, Dan and Mike!  Years ago, I really did think it would fly,
and it was great to be present to see that happen.

Regards,

David Tanzer
Charlotte, VT

-----Original Message-----
From: private e-mail address
[mailto:private e-mail address] On Behalf Of Dan Nachbar
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 3:19 PM
To: Balloon-Builders Makers
Subject: [balloon-makers] a new hot air quasi-rigid airship takes flight

At 13:40Z on Friday Oct 27 in Amherst, MA, the Airship Alberto,
a new type of hot air airship, lifted off on its first free flight.
Your humble correspondent was at the controls.  I have been
developing this aircraft on a full-time basis for the past 5 years.
It was a great pleasure to be aloft at last.

After making a few short hops, I turned the ship over to
my co-builder Mike Kuehlmuss. Mike also made a series
of short hops and then executed a nice 360 turn.  In all,
we flew for 20 minutes before the increasing wind made
further testing that morning too risky.

Some pictures and a short video of the first flight
are available on the project website at --

http://www.personalblimp.com/images.html

The ship handled wonderfully, if I do say so myself.  Its design
is a significant departure from previous hot air airships which
have been nearly impossible to steer at low airspeeds.

The envelope of our design is a tension membrane structure with
aluminum ribs that run along sleeves in the fabric. This creates
a structure that can be opened for use and closed for storage in
much the same way that an umbrella is opened/closed.

An important advantage of this structure is that it readily
supports a swiveling engine/prop mounted on the tail of the ship.
The ship can then be steered in much the same manner as a
small motor boat. (The video on the website shows just such a turn.)
And while this configuration is hardly new, others have had steerable
tail-props before, ours is the first hot air airship to do so.
It is this new combination that is the key feature.

The ship is deflated and stored under a tent between flights.
When Winter moves in, we'll pack it up (and maybe head South.)
Flight testing will continue here in Massachusetts until the
snow gets too deep.

Clearly, challenges remain.  In particular, although we are pleased
with its behavior at low airspeeds, higher airspeeds will be very
desirable for many applications of interest.  We also need to get
the "nuisance level" down (Currently it takes a fair bit of
set-up/cleanup for each flight.)  But our approach has been to
take baby-steps along the development path.  Last Friday was
an important one.

I would like to thank David Tanzer for flying down and working his
tail off on the ground crew for the first flight.  I'd also like to
thank Don Piccard and Paul Stumpf for the support and counsel at
various points in the project.

Dan Nachbar

PS - We've been keeping this project low profile until we were flying.
Too many airship projects have squandered their credibility on premature
publicity and press coverage.  I'd like to thank those of you where
were aware of what we were up to and helped keep the same thing from
happening to us. As they say in the news business, "the lid is now off",
and you should feel free to use and share your knowledge of this
project as you see fit.  I expect that there will be a fair bit of
press "buzz" in the near future. Thank you for your discretion to date.

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"Balloon-makers" is archived at http://www.hombc.org/balloon-makers/