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

[robnadam at optusnet.com.au]

Congratulations Dan and Mike and all the team.  Looks like it was a successful test.  Well done to all.

I especially love the fact that you have called the Airship, Alberto. A great tribute to a true pioneer of the airship.  A nice touch indeed.

Cheers

Adam  


> Dan Nachbar <private e-mail address> wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 
> -
> "Balloon-makers" is archived at http://www.hombc.org/balloon-makers/
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