Google's Founder has a new toy

This airship won't be going to orbit

The FAA has granted a license. The Devil you say?! The FAA grants licenses now? You could knock me over with a feather.

These kind of airships could be interesting, but the FAA is putting it on a really short leash. Maybe they can do something interesting if the government will let them. We'll see.

As far as Airshps going to orbit, it has been awhile since I checked out JP Aerospace. He has some different ideas than the Google guy, and whole lot less money.

Update a few hours later...



John Powell of JP Aerospace may never get to space with his idea of using airships, but he definitely has a plan.





11/7/23: Update to post of 11/5/23:

This could be a new post, but it sorta relates to JP Aerospace's airship to orbit, so here goes. It's a thought that just occurred to me. John Powell wants to use this idea for thrust for his airships. But what if this were used to get up to speed so that a scramjet could provide the rest of the thrust to orbit?

Scramjets don't work until you get to hypersonic speeds. Something needs to get it moving fast enough so that it can start up. There's some work being done on hypersonic planes, and the speed limit could be close to orbital velocity. The significance of this would be that the scramjets are air breathing. Therefore, you wouldn't need to carry the oxygen onboard. This could be a significant development.

John Powell's MHD engine is pretty efficient on its own. Combining it with a scramjet could result in a rather interesting combination. Perhaps it could be used to launch the scramjet, which would get to orbit on its own. There are problems with airships, but a scramjet might make possible the use of a small spacecraft to get to orbit. The efficiency of the MHD on an airship with a scramjet would require a lot less fuel, and thus the spacecraft could be made much smaller. Something to think about.



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