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Aircraft

Aeros completes construction of Aeroscraft demonstrator

By Darren Quick
January 03, 2013
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Aeros has completed construction of its Aeroscraft airship proof-of-design sub-scale prototype
The competed Aeroscraft Aeroscraft airship proof-of-design sub-scale prototype
Aeros has completed construction of its Aeroscraft airship proof-of-design sub-scale prototype
The competed Aeroscraft Aeroscraft airship proof-of-design sub-scale prototype is 79 meters (206 ft) long
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California-based Aeros Corporation has completed construction of its Aeroscraft airship proof-of-design sub-scale prototype. The 79-meter (260-ft) long aircraft will demonstrate the vertical take-off and landing and point to point delivery capabilities of the platform, paving the way for a planned full-scale craft that will be almost twice as long and carry payloads of up to 66 tons.

“The vehicle construction is complete and this is truly the beginning of a vertical global transportation solution for perhaps the next 100 years,” said Aeros CEO Igor Pasternak after the final configuration and vehicle systems integration functionality testing was completed.

Calling it “the world’s first rigid variable buoyancy air vehicle,” Aeros hopes the Aeroscraft will revolutionize global cargo transport for commercial and military sectors with its ability to load and unload cargo without re-ballasting or ground infrastructure and deliver cargo point to point more economically and with less emissions than existing methods.

Video of the completed Aeroscraft’s first (ground) movement can be viewed below, but we’re looking forward to video of its first flight in the not too distant future.

Source: Aeros

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AircraftVTOLAircraftAerosAeroscraft
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Darren Quick
Darren's love of technology started in primary school with a Nintendo Game & Watch Donkey Kong (still functioning) and a Commodore VIC 20 computer (not still functioning). In high school he upgraded to a 286 PC, and he's been following Moore's law ever since. This love of technology continues as Managing Editor of New Atlas.
18 comments
yrag
I really hope all goes well. If it does it could be a new era in air transportation, but if it fails, I think that will be the end of the consideration of airships. People have been irrationally leery of them ever since the Hindenburg.
TheSplund
Who else thought "Thunderbirds are go!" when they saw the first picture?
Stephen Funck
This is restricted to specialty uses. For a better alternative for low cost heavy lift with broad applicability see concordlift.com . No issues have been identified that show it to be impractical or unworkable.
Toffe Kaa
Well it wasn't really the Hindenburg that killed them off, it was due to the fact that after WW2 there where very good airports all over the world and lots of companies that knew about big air plane manufacturing. But with the coming monomolecular sheet materials and other super materials airships can be a big thing again. Even a cloud city wouldn't be impossible.
jerryd
I'd bet it won't last 1 yr in service as winds will crash it just like all the previous ones.
As a sailor, aerodynamics designer I understand winds, weather very well and no way a vessel like this won't get manhandled by the wind before long.
Robin McCabe
Your concord lift requires special handling of freight, and the ultra-large version would require specially designed landing fields.
Areos is designed to deliver or pick-up loads without landing.
The total cost/efficiency end to end for delivery of freight is much higher with Areos.
Grunchy
I think this has potential to be a good fair-weather craft. I love the idea of dirigibles so I am automatically supportive, I just wonder where the thrust comes from and how the variable buoyancy actually works. The Aeroscraft has big wings / stabilizers, but those features will have zero effectiveness at zero airspeed. That's the point of this craft isn't it, the ability to hover and deposit a big payload? I still think Zeppelin NT, with its vectored thrust and net-negative buoyancy, makes more sense.
Derek Howe
@ jerryd - I agree that wind poses a big problem for this craft, but as long as you test it thoroughly, so you know what the maximum safe wind speed it, and then never fly in anything above that number, you should be fine.
I look forward to seeing this pig fly!
Stephen Funck
Concordlift can land on short fields, very slow stall and cruise speed. Uses standard shipping containers and no more than existing big fork lifts.
J. James
jerryd, don't you think that aeros knows weather was an issue to big airships from 80, 90, 100 years ago? Bad weather on earth hasn't gotten much worse in that time, but airship technology has improved dramatically. This airship is heavier than air, can control its bouyancy, has a much greater power ratio, posesses vectored thrust, and has 1/4 the "sail area" of a conventional airship of a similar volume. Airships ran into problems when the winds exceeded their top speed- just look at the YouTube video of the little Goodyear advertising blimp fighting against a hurricane and being pushed backwards. But that airship had a top speed of about 55 miles per hour. This one has a top speed of 140. Not to mention it has the range, speed, and weather-radar capabilities to read and escape from the worst parts of a storm.
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