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  • #1

    Air Battleship

    This is not a joke at all - although many may find it such :)

    Looking about I noticed that apart from a few highly speculative commercial ventures or other such drearily mundane applications, lighter than air craft are being ignored.

    Being a huge fan of speculative new super BB's (you know who the rest of you are) here is a little thought experiment ...

    If you double the length of an airship the volume is cubed. And so is the lift. As such, if you build the damn thing big enough its "skin" could be double thickness Chobham. We are talking 2km +. Why in theory not bigger? If a BB off the
    coast can quail a nation just think what that shadow in the sky could do? Given the cost of B2s they could be bloody cheap. Not to mention loiter time. Spectre Gunship exit stage left.
    Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.
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  • #2
    I could see Airships being a Strategic weapon that delivers JASSM's and Tomahawks. But as a tacticle weapon I think Airships a no no.

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    • #3
      plus helium is really expensive. imagine filling a 2km zeppelin. also, wouldnt it be pretty easy to shoot down? i couldnt see it doing anyhting but missile support
      "I'm against picketting, but i dont know how to show it"

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      • #4
        Originally posted by griftadan
        plus helium is really expensive. imagine filling a 2km zeppelin. also, wouldnt it be pretty easy to shoot down? i couldnt see it doing anyhting but missile support
        True, it is expensive, but only in comparison to other comercially availible gasses. I'll try and find out the cost per cubic meter. Interesting point. Having said that, vacuum cells could always be a possibility.

        Would it be easy to shoot down? Don't forget I'm suggesting something 2km long
        so that the outer skin is as thick as that of an MBT. Plus you could stud it with Phalanx systems. The interior lifting cells would only suffer attrition. Thousands of individual cells. Loosing a percentage of them could be compensated for by dropping ballast, unlike the catastrophic failure resulting from a hit on an heavier than air frame.
        Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by The Chap
          True, it is expensive, but only in comparison to other comercially availible gasses. I'll try and find out the cost per cubic meter. Interesting point. Having said that, vacuum cells could always be a possibility.

          Would it be easy to shoot down? Don't forget I'm suggesting something 2km long
          so that the outer skin is as thick as that of an MBT. Plus you could stud it with Phalanx systems. The interior lifting cells would only suffer attrition. Thousands of individual cells. Loosing a percentage of them could be compensated for by dropping ballast, unlike the catastrophic failure resulting from a hit on an heavier than air frame.
          oh i didnt see that part. and the thousands of cellse would be a good idea, kinda liked the titanic, but hopefully desiged a little better. what do you see its uses as? it oculd probably launch missiles and serve as an enormous radar/observation station, but other than that i dont see what else it oculd do. maybe transportation for tanks and troops?
          "I'm against picketting, but i dont know how to show it"

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          • #6
            Originally posted by griftadan
            oh i didnt see that part. and the thousands of cellse would be a good idea, kinda liked the titanic, but hopefully desiged a little better. what do you see its uses as? it oculd probably launch missiles and serve as an enormous radar/observation station, but other than that i dont see what else it oculd do. maybe transportation for tanks and troops?
            The US are apparently looking in to a super trasnsport. The idea here, although a little "out of the box" would be for a loitering airial battleship to deny not only ground but airspace over extended periods. :)
            Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

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            • #7
              Take a look at this..

              http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...aft/skycat.htm

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              • #8
                Yeah the thing could have tank armour, but manpack missiles can punch through that. Imagine what a large, high payload SAM could do to it. And since this Air Battleship would be so slow and huge, you could probably hit it with artillery. PHALANX couldn't defend against that.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by -{SpoonmaN}-
                  Yeah the thing could have tank armour, but manpack missiles can punch through that. Imagine what a large, high payload SAM could do to it. And since this Air Battleship would be so slow and huge, you could probably hit it with artillery. PHALANX couldn't defend against that.
                  Russians scientists were thinking about airbattleships and even carriers back in 1970-es. I don't have a link but science fiction project assumed that this air battleship/carrier would use nuclear powered fans and protected with tactical lazers.

                  However later it was concluded that such a large and slow target will be still too vulnerable.

                  It was decided to work over an aircraft projects with large wight capabilities of around 5,000 tons. One of the uses of such aircaft were making it a small carrier for up to 5 smaller aircrafts....

                  the first project were "Ecranoplan" that is WIG concept. Then the plan assumed building large amphibian plane Be-2500 and Be-5000. The first part was in progress when SU collapsed. So far only 400tons capable WIGs were build. In the west those were called Caspian Monsters......

                  why amphibian? Russian engineers believed that there is a natural limit to how much weight can born by a wheel of a land based aircraft..... so they thought that making the large capacity aircrafts amphibian would solve the problem

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                  • #10
                    [QUOTE=Garry]Russians scientists were thinking about airbattleships and even carriers back in 1970-es. I don't have a link but science fiction project assumed

                    JDW has an update on the US transport concept. A C Clarke & most specifically M Moorecock in SF.
                    Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

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                    • #11
                      this is how Be-2500 and Be-5000 projects look like

                      http://www.beriev.com/images/Be-2500big.jpg
                      http://www.testpilot.ru/russia/berie...img/be5000.jpg

                      now the project belongs to Irkut Corporation - the one which has designed and manufactured Su-30 MKI and Be-200.... so these guys are capable if enough funding is provided

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Garry
                        this is how Be-2500 and Be-5000 projects look like

                        http://www.beriev.com/images/Be-2500big.jpg
                        http://www.testpilot.ru/russia/berie...img/be5000.jpg

                        now the project belongs to Irkut Corporation - the one which has designed and manufactured Su-30 MKI and Be-200.... so these guys are capable if enough funding is provided
                        Ahh ... those carzy Russians ...
                        Thanks! :)
                        Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          tweaked Giant airplane solution

                          i think that a large airplane like a jumbo jet with 4 floors fitted with missile interceptors* and gun turets and missile launchers would be possible.


                          floor 1 wouldnt realy be a floor it would be for storage for food and supplied
                          floor 2would be the place where the crew sleeps and eats
                          floor 3 would be where the crew works at thier stations
                          floor 4 would open up at the top to allow fighter jets and helicopters that it may be carrying to fly out

                          the air force is working on laser* missle interceptors i think so those an air battleship would be even more possible in the future

                          it would be like a flying fortress

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                          • #14
                            there was a game "Crimson Skies"

                            an air battle simulation-like







                            it was very funny, and very interesting fligt dynamics i think...
                            Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by The Chap View Post
                              Ahh ... those carzy Russians ...
                              Thanks! :)
                              They are not always on the toilet, my good man!:))
                              Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.

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