Solar Airship One: the European attempt to fly around the world using solar powered airship

Airships! they are often beloved by the alternate history writers and often dreamt of by those near to aviation. People love the idea of the aircraft floating and flying in what seems like a graceful, beautiful form of flight, seemingly effortless and almost scifi in its imagined nature. Those familiar with aviation history often sigh or shrug given the problems of the past, the airships lost, and the inherent vulnerability to inclement weather. It does not stop people from dreaming though and today, the dreamers are French.

Solar Airship One is an attempt to fly around the world using solar power for propulsion in a lighter than air, helium filled, rigid airship. The airship itself is about the size of a football field. The flight will be at an average 45 knots (52 mph or 83 km/h). The flight will go around the equator, more or less, and is expected to take 20 days. The flight is expected in 2026.

The team is officially Euro Airship, but seemingly the main folks behind it are Bertrand Piccard, Michel Tognini and Dorine Bourneton, a disabled acrobatic pilot. Piccard has done a number of aero related projects, including Solar Impulse.

They released a teaser trailer in french.



I find these sorts of aviation projects interesting. However, I'm in the extreme skeptic POV for airships. They have been tried and much of the time, well, lost. The Akron and Macon being two of the most famous. That said, I would be delighted to be wrong and see these folks successful and something more come of the technology than just the one off stunt.

newatlas.com...

I wish them success! Let not forget helium and airships ( Blimps ) have a history of incident's like the Hindenburg. I'd hate to see tragic happen over the Ocean in a time when technology can't locate that Malaysia Airliner that went down 👇 Where is that Airplane?

a reply to: anzha

a reply to: Thunderkiss75

Hydrogen.


The Hindenberg used Hydrogen, which is highly combustible, instead of Helium, which is non-combustible.


Hydrogen provides a better volume-to-lift ratio, and is more abundant (and less expensive) than helium; but then there is the flammability factor to consider.


Using Hydrogen to provide the main lift for your craft could also allow you to "bleed off" excess Hydrogen for use in fuel cells to produce electric power to motors and other flight systems, reducing the need for heavy battery packs.


Personally, I would design an airship using a "hybrid" Hydrogen/Helium system:

Use Hydrogen as the primary lift gas, but envelope the Hydrogen containing lift cells in Helium-filled "safety cells" to reduce the chance of fire. Then employ fire-proof/resistant materials for both internal gas cells and external aerodynamic surfaces.

Is the captain gonna be Jean Passepartout???

a reply to: anzha

It certainly has many advantages especially if we can believe that without needing runways/infrastructure the associated costs should be at an excellent price point for varying customers.

Busting out the ol' calculator, it seems the Euro Airship team is expecting an average speed a little over 83 km/h (52 mph) – so yes, less than a tenth the speed of the average fossil-burning airliner. But airships do have some key advantages – you can stop and start at more or less any point you like without needing a runway, for example.

Indeed, while projects like the AirYacht and the bootylicious Airlander aim to resurrect the airship as a form of luxury passenger travel, others believe that hydrogen-filled airships are the future of zero-emissions cargo movement, carrying 8-10 times the payload of a cargo plane, at a quarter of the price, and up to 10 times the speed of a cargo ship.

newatlas.com...

I am just wondering about it's maximum weight with maximum cargo and if they have parachutes or could have parachutes installed just in case the unimagined disaster happens.

a reply to: Mantiss2021

I read years ago that it was actually the doped canvas that was the main fire risk with old hydrogen airships.

China try'd this! that ended badly.
Air space!!!

Have a balloon of Hydrogen inside a balloon of Helium.
helps stop Hydrogen leaks!

It is a LOT safer now.
and we know a lot more about static electricity.

a reply to: Mantiss2021

It was not the hydrogen that was the problem. The skin was coated with a version of thermite or solid rocket fuel depending on the exact mix.

I wish them luck. It is inspired by classic Zeplin design that proved so succeasful for it's time and with all drawbacks of that time.

It is only a publicity stunt. It will never be a viable cargo or passenger vehicle because of the cost. Might possibly be a cruise liner for the super rich though.

Most of the past airship disasters can be avoided today by better weather forecasts and communication but we still loose aircraft and even surface ships by not heeding forecasts.