Inside Aeroscraft, the future of luxury airships (pictures)
A hybrid airship coming soon may be the future of luxury travel. It’s an airborne hotel with large staterooms, dining areas, theaters, and casinos. The Aeroscraft is being planned by Worldwide Aeros Corporation and is the result of 25 years of work. It’s descended from the canceled DARPA WALRUS Hybrid Ultra Large Aircraft (HULA) airship, a transport vehicle that aimed to carry as much as 500 tons of cargo but was cancelled in 2010. Aeros says the Aeroscraft family’s smallest member — the rigid-structure, 180 passenger, 20-ton capacity ML866 — will be 310 feet in length, have a top speed of 120 knots, and a flight ceiling of around 12000 feet. The company also plans two larger versions, the 60-ton capacity ML868 and the 500-ton capacity ML86X.Aeroscraft also sees its vehicles as capable of providing large-scale deliveries to remote locations. Here, an artist’s rendering shows the Aeroscraft delivering wind turbines. Aeroscraft’s unique Rigid Variable Buoyancy Air Vehicle system has an Internal Ballast Control designed to allow it to offload cargo without using ballast. With a rigid structure, the Aeroscraft can control lift at all stages with its Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) capabilities and carry its maximum payload while hovering — and it needs no hangar facility or specialized ports, making it friendly to all kinds of transportation services.For the first time in history, an aircraft will be designed to control and adjust buoyant and dynamic lift, creating <b>…</b>
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