=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 4

It's been quite a while since we have last posted an episode of Paul Boldts novel =FUTURE>FLIGHT. This was mainly because there was so much going on that we just could not get it through our series of tubes all the way to the blog. But today the 4th instalment finally made it to the front page, the saga continues. You have not read parts 1 to 3? Well, no problem here they are:
=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 1
=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 2
=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 3

=FUTURE>FLIGHT

Installment Four: Renaissance
©2007 by Paul Boldt

I clicked on information about the Boldt Airship Company, or as the advertising went, “They’re BAC(k)”. Some of the info was about how this type of transportation came back into existence, after a long hiatus in mothballs. Nobody had been successful in creating a large commercial airship program for the longest time. Some even argued that DELAG, (DEutsche Luftschiffahrts Aktien Gesellschaft), the German Zeppelin Airshiplines wasn’t even considered independently financially successful as it had to be government backed in its early development of early zeppelins. But if you look at it, seemed like every type of transportation down the years had been government backed, from the early sailing ships from Columbus’ time, the railroads that conquered various parts of the globe, (some unsuccessfully like the ill fated railway that tried to traverse the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, initially beaten back by the native Indians, till the foreign government backed rail company electrified the rails, killing Indians to teach them a lesson. This rail line was eventually stopped dead in its tracks after actually operating for a number years, by a revengeful mother nature. Heavier than air, had major government back from it’s inception throughout its rapid development through the war years and even to this day with multi-company bailouts.

B.A.C. was no exception. Government backing initially came about with the deployment of the Military Disaster Relief Enforcements Program (MD.Rep or aka Dr.Rep), designed many years after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which brought together commercial, military, and humanitarian interests for a faster (leased) government relief turnaround for natural catastrophe victims in the US and around the globe, as well as a band aid if ever a nuclear devastation were to occur.

No direct financial backing was given initially, but in exchange for free lease of land for 30 years (well a $1.00 changed hands- at least on paper), and some infrastructure just east but still within Miramar MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego , CA. USA) an exchange of an airship for a set period of time each year to be used in military integration exercises, along with the 13th airship being built that would be manufactured to military specs and leased by the military.

The military exercises tried everything from strapping five previously retired MV-22 Osspreys along the rigid airship’s upper haul for stress and lifting capacity experiments, to three monster Ch-53E Super Stallions that could lift a capacity of 16 tons each without being supported by an airship, but with their weight being supported by the lift of the airship, they could almost double the amount lifted!

The new airship harbor and manufacturing plant at Miramar is at the north end of the previous military training grounds of Camp Elliot. Canyons at Camp Elliot created a perfect cradle for the partially open top airship hangar.

The weather in San Diego, California created one of the best places for to build without a fully covered hangar. Average year round temperature of 70 F degrees/ 21 C , with a yearly rainfall of only 9.45 inches/ 24cm, most of the rain in the months of Dec/Jan/Feb when all of the construction of the outer hull was already completed.

I clicked on the live link to the camera on the bottom of the helicopter showing the airship coming into view just as millions of schoolchildren and adults all over the world were also watching the live cam, as the frenzy of passenger carrying airships traversing the sky was still as new and fresh as the first Space Shuttle missions once were… (Another government backed transportation and exploration program --commercial interest coming into play now with the first moon base being habited).

... to be continued

=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 3

The time has come for the third installment of =Future>Flight. Paul Boldt sent us the next part of his story, if you have missed the previous episodes read them here:
=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 1
=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 2

=FUTURE>FLIGHT

Installment Three: From Shore to Ship.

Helicopter (let alone airship?) rides don’t agree at all with my stomach, so I popped a Dramamine as I was downloading the info on my watch previously. Now, as I exited to the top floor for the helipad, I walked down the hall to one of the kiosks and putting my wrist under the reader I let it scan the info from my watch. The video monitor identified the attendant on the other side of the screen as Trulee from Guam. “How are you doing your afternoon, Mr. Arday?” her voice slightly rolling the r in my name. Her software enhanced makeup keep changing the colors of the eye shadow around her eyes, giving a slightly hypnotic attention draw to her beautiful blues. “I’ve had better days, Trulee”. “Sorry to hear that Mr. Arday, I see that you don’t have any special dietary needs for the upcoming airship flight to the Bahamas, has that changed? “No”. Do you have any special requests or travel arrangements you’d like me to book for you, Sir?”, “No, not right now, thanks”. “Well, have a great flight on board the Stratus, and please watch the virtual attendant presentation that I’ve just downloaded to your infoband within the next hour. Thank you Mr. Arday, bye, bye”. And she was gone with a wink of an eye.

Looking out toward the helicopter my intestines started to knot. As I walked toward the thing with five little popsickle sticks that rotated around at high speeds hopefully to fly us from high on top the rooftop to on top of a moving vehicle floating around the skies. Luckily, I was moving to the middle of the roof and not towards the edge.

I slide into the furthest seat in the back the hell-copter, one without a direct window view. I slipped on my virtual visor and settled back and watched the mandatory safety viewing that you either have to be there in person aboard the airline to watch, i.e. this is a safety buckle latch (like a seat belt at an impact at 400+ mph on a jet airline is supposed to save you, or your air masks will fall out of the ceiling (like that is going to happen when all the electronics are on fire in the cockpit).

At least I never saw this presentation, as it was to be my first airship ride. The presentation was introduced by an animatronic (cg robot) who the company lovingly named Sao Elmo, which could speak any language on the planet, I switched on Afrikans just to see if sounded like Dutch, it did. I switched the program back to English. Elmo reinstated the fact that I knew, that these airships flew with helium as opposed to hydrogen (which didn’t help the Hindenburg, except with better lift). The presentation first showed the whole airship model being rotated 360 degrees, showing its sleek design, the robot giving the virtual tour first showed which was the front of the airship and then what the rear looked like.

Zoom views gave the major entrances, and the program even gave me a personalized viewing of the entrance I’d be going into, the helipad which was on top of the airship less than a third of the way back from the bow of the airship. Elmo explained how the airship would be slowing slightly to create less turbulence. The virtual helicopter aligned and touched the landing pad, and was instantly electromagnetically secured. Bay doors opened up and swallowed the 20 person helicopter that always rode piggyback throughout all the flights, picking up and dropping off innermedairies.

After the helicopter was lowered down into the bay, the bay doors would close, making the airship streamlined again, then we could get out. We would then travel down on a 25 degree slope on a transport trolley to the passenger level. Elmo showed me all the way to the single cab room I’d be riding in, even though my watch could also guide me to the room after I actually arrived. Impressively, all the sleeping cabins had windows. I felt the actual helicopter that I was now actually flying in lurch into the air off of the rooftop out across the city below. Errgh.

My presentation went on about how safe these new airships are and gave info on evacuation into the parachuting life pods at the bottom of the ship, that were life boats that could seat 30 people in each, and would float on water, and even had emergency supplies and water. The mandatory portion for viewing was completed. I started to view the rest of the infosite.

(Next Installment to follow: IV Renaissance)

Some movies never get done aka (Zeppelin vs Pterodactyls)

So this has been floating around the last few weeks in the blogosphere and I just want to mention it shortly. In the 1970s a Movie Company called Hammer Film was planing on putting out a movie about a Zeppelin stranded in a Lost World, where it had to fight dinosaurs. The Movie should have been called Zeppelin vs Pterodactyls. I don't know where I first had read about it but Airminded was one of the first I remember. Unfortunately movies that do not get made are not much of a help I guess. So why not looking at some movies that are actually available. The AIRSHIP Website has a nice page listing quite a few Airship - Feature Films, of which i have probably watched a maximum of one or two, but if you are looking into which movies to rent or get for the next video night that list might be a good start.
If you are more interested in upcoming films, to plan your trips to the movie theater, checkout "Stardust" or "The Golden Compass". Actually i have some video footage of His Dark Materials that I would like to share.
The first Video is a teaser Trailer I found on YouTube:

The second one is a very high quality Trailer that I am just going to link to since I don't want that people have to download huge amounts of data. It shows the Airship which can be seen in the movie a lot better than in the YouTube Video.
So go to this page to check the Theatrical Trailer
Again comes my question for discussion in the Comments, do you think the fictional airships pictured in those movies could actually fly? What would they need to fly, how much bigger would they have to be in the real world, what would have to be changed. Share your opinions with us in the comments.

=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 2

It's been a while since Paul Boldt sent us his first installment of =Future>Flight but today it's time for part 2. For those who missed part one go ahead and read it before reading part two, so that you are up to date.
Airshipworld: =FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 1
and now follows part two of our FurtureFi Story

=FUTURE>FLIGHT

Installment Two: Whale Stats
©2007 by Paul Boldt

The ship being: 300 meters long, 66 meters wide and had a height of 37.5 meters. With 282,150 cubic meters of biohelium capacity (helium mixed with a freefloating adjustable agent that regulated the helium temperature for optimum lift) the ship had a gross lift of 302 cubic tons less the ships weight of 180 cubic tons left a useful load of 122 cubic tons for fuel, passengers and crew, luggage, food and supplies. With the tanks topped off with biodiesel fuel she would fly 8062 kilometers at a cruising speed of 140 kph with a full load of passengers with their needed entourage for a total of 225 very exclusive people. Wink. For shorter flights, as this one would be, the amount of people or cargo carried could go up quite a bit as less fuel weight was needed thus increasing the amount of people carried.

Hitting the translation button automatically pulled the key figures from his speech and displayed for me the English conversions of:

Length: 984.252 feet
Width: 216.535 feet
Height: 123.031 feet
Helium: 9,994,033 Cubic Feet
Gross Lift: 665,577 lbs / 332.6938 short ton / 297.0696 long ton
Ships Weight: 396,832 lbs
Useful Load: 201,170 lbs
Range: 5010 miles
Cruising speed: 87 mph (it’s not about the speed it’s about the journey!< I added that part)

Since the ship would be hugging land (advertising revenues) the miles would be roughly 1500 miles each way. Thus with less fuel needed (2000 less miles to fly), the ship could carry an additional 80,720 lbs of cargo or additional people (not actually just 80,870lbs of people because the airships weight would increase due to including the weight of additional modular staterooms installed and food and drinks... don’t forget the libations!) This trip it’d be additional cargo revenues to the Bahamas, no additional living space needed.

The airship would be stopping (well circling in the air) down the coast in New Bern, NC while he (Ole’ Wiley) met with some Senators, and he said that I should try to get out to Topsail Island someday and find some fossilized shark teeth that can be found on the beaches there.

I think I kind of blew it when I said to him that this trip would probably be better than what I usually do when I fly the jet filled skies (translation: fly on a jet-airliner) and I toss back four scotches and strap in for a flight to Florida, and I sure hope the guy up in the driver's seat is making more money than your average entry-level New York immigrant limo driver, or even my own salary, and I'd even be willing to pay the extra thirty bucks per ticket if that what it would take.  Tack on a couple more bucks and make sure there are a few sky marshals flying incognito too.

It's not unreasonable; I'll pay it.  Just lay out the need for it and charge me for it without the gimmicks.  Well, maybe some extra peanuts would be nice.

He kind of looked at me, and then started talking to Lemming, VP of acquisitions. Well maybe I should have gotten into work early and made the regular boarding, would have saved me the extra G.

... to be continued

Well that's it. Did you enjoy the second part of =Future>Flight? If so leave a comment or send us an email. Let us know if we should continue feeding you bite sized pieces of airship fiction.

=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 1

Paul Boldt has been writing a what he calls FurtureFi Story and he thought why not share it with the community. He sent me the first page, and I decided to publish it, please read it and leave your comments, do you want more or would you prefere not? Do you want to leave feedback for paul, please send us an Email.
Please be aware that any views expressed in the story are the views and opinions of the author, and we just publish it as an independent source. So here is the first teaser page of his story, enjoy:

=FUTURE>FLIGHT


A FutureFi story by: Paul Boldt


From Air to Airternity


Any references to persons living and or fictional is solely from the mind of Minolta and all identities herein may or may not reflect certain aspects of those living so take that as you will and any and all sarcasm and wit to be displayed only to those who can handle criticism constructively, and certain instances of writings on the
airship list will be copied and pasted as deemed desirable, so if you don't want it quoted don't write it in the first place! Plus any below average marks given for my poor English prose can be directly directed at my early childhood negligence and disinterest at studying the aforementioned subject.


Chapter One: An Early bird wouldn't swirm.


Monday, I was late for work, which was usual after a hard long weekend of clubbing it all around Manhattan. Usually it would have been down to Atlantic City to shoot the dice, bang!, batoboom batabing, but I had just found a new woman who was directing my direction in her direction, if you directly know what I mean. I had actually wanted to get in early to get a jump on the day, as it was to be an interesting next few days, which the interesting part was to start at 3PM, with the lift off of the company charted Airship. (Oh, by the way, the aforementioned newfound interests name is Ceya).

The boys in the top floor at the place I work like to show the world that they are pulling in the money correctly, their global investments and partnerships reaches into the billions, so what's eight and a half million dollars to charter a blimp bag for a week? Entertain cliental, give the office a few days rest, while keeping them working with the full internet connectivity aboard the ship.

The buzz around the office was one of the top managers was afraid to fly cause he didn't want to go down in flames like the Hindenburg, but the bean crunchers in accounting worked with legal and gave the green thumbs up, they even had to give top management a fifteen minute presentation (that took 3 weeks to research and write for another $300,000!! they got some of the information and misinformation on some
obscure internet airship list).

Mid morning was swamped; lunch was a V8, as I was planning to have my meal on board, which was heard to be as good as the New Astoria Megahotel. My head was buried inside my computer screen with two phones one on each ear, one to some coke infused night owls in Shanghai, and the other to my shift change associate in Guam, who was just telling me how jealous she was that I was going to be flying….

I first looked at the clocks on the wall, located the one for NY, holy shitake mushroom batman it was 3:17pm, I looked out the window overlooking the river, and in the background I see the Statue of Liberty, and in the foreground I see the mammoth ship already lifting off! No wonder I could finally get some work done the whole place was empty around me. I vaguely remembered an email note, that said if you were tied up with important client meeting or just had to delay, you could pay an extra $1000 and catch a helicopter ride on the top of the airship within 2 hours of take off, as the ship would still be buzzing around Manhattan, displaying full fuselage advertising for the company (additional money on top of the charter fee).

I typed on my credit account info and billed for the heli-ride, downloaded the ticket info to my watch, and bee lined it (whatever that means) to the roof. Probably lucky that I missed the actual take off as none other than Wiley E. Bill himself was stepping on the elevator 4 floors above where I got on. Rumor was he had figures upon figures down to the toenail on just about everything that could make the firm reach it's trillion dollar goal, proven by the facts; a) he knew my name, as his secretary had just told him, via his download feed, who had just purchased late tickets, and who would be riding on the elevator, the download giving him vast amounts of data to dissect, b) he rattled off on my account I was to be closing on board the airship with the Czech contacts, c) he quoted the friggen dimensions and stats of the whale we'd be landing on in 27 minutes time which are as follows:......

TO BE CONTINUED

Now what? You might ask, well I guess you will have to wait, for the next installment. So my question to all who read the whole piece: Do you want more? Or would you rather have less fiction and more facts on the Blog? Leave a comment or send an Email to airshipworld@gmail.com. We really need your opinions. If you also happen have something like that and would like it published here, please go ahead and send it to us.