A Blimp Factory?

[theantirobot]

How feasible is it to create a blimp manufacturing company to build a fleet of Ron Paul blimps? I want more blimps.

[torchbearer]

How feasible is it to create a blimp manufacturing company to build a fleet of Ron Paul blimps? I want more blimps.

Find out what is required.

[Kalash]

HAHAHAHHAHAHAA!!!!

Yeah...

I was kinda looking.

They're... EXPENSIVE. To buy.
Manufacturing them - making the plant to do so - can't be cheap.
And it's still a couple hundred thousand dollars PER BLIMP PER MONTH to operate.

We'd bankrupt the supporters FAST if we had a whole fleet.

[theantirobot]

How expensive could they be? One blimp factory couldn't cost that much, with all the modern technology we have now. I'm really enjoying the thought of seeing a fleet of Ron Paul blimps above my city.

[ItsTime]

I buy my blimps from China :eek: to bad they are made of lead :mad:


How expensive could they be? One blimp factory couldn't cost that much, with all the modern technology we have now. I'm really enjoying the thought of seeing a fleet of Ron Paul blimps above my city.

[torchbearer]

I buy my blimps from China :eek: to bad they are made of lead :mad:

Lead Zeppelins?

[ItDoesNotStopWithRonPaul]

You blimp people are nuts

[dcatman]

Lead Zeppelins?

Now that's funny right there!

[torchbearer]

You blimp people are nuts

They say that about Ron Paul supporters. Are the people who made blimps nuts too? I think so. But its beautiful and powerful symbol... as long as it doesn't burst into flames.

[Kalash]

They say that about Ron Paul supporters. Are the people who made blimps nuts too? I think so. But its beautiful and powerful symbol... as long as it doesn't burst into flames.

That's the reason they cost so much...


They stopped using Hydrogen (relatively easy to contain - it was a BIG atom...)

Now we're using Helium.

While it will let us all sound like mice for a while...


It won't burn.


But...
Helium balloons...

They only float for how long?
Because the helium atom is SMALL and it "sneaks out" of the balloon through "microscopic holes" in the fabric of the balloon.


So you need something that can hold in helium.
And I don't think anything that does it can be cheap.

Think about how much of it you need though....

It's a LOT.

The one we're getting is 1/2 the size of a football field?

Alright... double that (it has 2 sides...)

You'd need helium containing fabric the length of a football field - as wid as... you want to make it tall. Say... the width of a football field?


Where do you find something like that?
Find the special equipment to piece it together seamlessly - so it doesn't leak...

Attach a "bucket" to your balloon without puncturing it...



Sure - in theory it's possible - and using modern tech. it SHOULD be fairly cheap.

I'd even go for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen (through electrolysis) and using the hydrogen to fill the balloon...
But then you have fire risks, etc....


You also have to buy the helium (and I think that's where the bulk of the cost - monthly operating expenses - comes in).

http://www.terribly-happy.com/journal-3-18-03.html
7 million to BUY a blimp...
And operating costs - 22 people FULL TIME - to keep it in operation...
Plus the helium.

If they cost that much just to buy...
The manufacturing plant can't be cheap.

[torchbearer]

That's the reason they cost so much...


They stopped using Hydrogen (relatively easy to contain - it was a BIG atom...)

Now we're using Helium.

While it will let us all sound like mice for a while...


It won't burn.


But...
Helium balloons...

They only float for how long?
Because the helium atom is SMALL and it "sneaks out" of the balloon through "microscopic holes" in the fabric of the balloon.


So you need something that can hold in helium.
And I don't think anything that does it can be cheap.

Think about how much of it you need though....

It's a LOT.

The one we're getting is 1/2 the size of a football field?

Alright... double that (it has 2 sides...)

You'd need helium containing fabric the length of a football field - as wid as... you want to make it tall. Say... the width of a football field?


Where do you find something like that?
Find the special equipment to piece it together seamlessly - so it doesn't leak...

Attach a "bucket" to your balloon without puncturing it...



Sure - in theory it's possible - and using modern tech. it SHOULD be fairly cheap.

I'd even go for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen (through electrolysis) and using the hydrogen to fill the balloon...
But then you have fire risks, etc....


You also have to buy the helium (and I think that's where the bulk of the cost - monthly operating expenses - comes in).

http://www.terribly-happy.com/journal-3-18-03.html
7 million to BUY a blimp...
And operating costs - 22 people FULL TIME - to keep it in operation...
Plus the helium.

If they cost that much just to buy...
The manufacturing plant can't be cheap.

Interesting info! Solar power electrolysis of water would be the most efficient way to fuel. But more risky on the flammable side.
Or helium, and the expensive material you would need to contain it.
Perhaps you could use hot air?

[Kalash]

Interesting info! Solar power electrolysis of water would be the most efficient way to fuel. But more risky on the flammable side.
Or helium, and the expensive material you would need to contain it.
Perhaps you could use hot air?


Hot air would have to be open on the bottom and have a controllable flap on the top...


You could use solar electrolysis for the hydrogen creation to burn to heat the air - though I have NO IDEA about the implications of how good/bad that idea would be....


Hot air balloons are MUCH MUCH cheaper than blimps.

Attaching some sort of steering device (i.e. FAN) to a hot air balloon tends to be fairly tricky...

as you're using only hot air to lift, you cannot lift too much...


The engine would probably be about your payload... (i.e. no extra passengers)



Just a standard hot air balloon?

Sure - we could do a couple handfuls of those for $500K or so.
(Guess.)

It's cheaper fabric, no engine...
And no expensive lifting agent (helium/hydrogen).

[piotr1]

Hot air balloons are MUCH MUCH cheaper than blimps.


YESS!!! and we could drop slim jims from the air onto unsuspecting towns!!!! :D

[Kalash]

YESS!!! and we could drop slim jims from the air onto unsuspecting towns!!!! :D


They'd see you coming and suspect you.

You have 0 maneuverability in a hot air balloon.

And a relatively small basket (topping out around 8-10 people - MINUS flier weight =P)


Here's a link to a balloon making company.

www.fireflyballoons.net

I'm still looking for prices...

[torchbearer]

I dated a girl who owned a hot air balloon, not sure she'd answer my email much less lend me her balloon. ;) Would be cool though.

[Kalash]

http://www.bized.co.uk/virtual/cb/breakdown/breakdown1.htm

About $25,000 - assuming the price is close to the price in 2000.

I think we should call that other company and see about getting the BIG ONES and getting some kind of bulk discount =D

One per state?
Or... one per meetupgroup?
=P

[LeopardPM]

ever since I heard about the main Blimp idea, my mind has been racing... "We NEED to have ALOT of these type of things around the country!"... and so I have been researching both hot air balloons (and even a hot air blimp!) and the helium filled blimps. I was wondering about smaller projects that local meetups could do. So far what I have found is that it is VERY possible to BUILD our own balloons, seeing as labor is something we are not exactly short on. The materials for hot air are relatively cheap and things don't have to be 'perfect' (though, obviously, the better constructed, the better flight characteristics and less expense on fuel. Most times I have seen are 100 - 300 manhours, and the tasks are easily divided among multiple people so getting 30 people to put in 10 - 12 hours over a weekend or two might get it done. If you are interested, it would help to get together an information packet which can help out any Meetup that would like to check it out and not 're-invent the wheel' doing the research and stuff. It appears that almost all larger cities (300k+ pop) have decent sized ballooning groups where they are pretty adept at building and maintaining balloons. This is also where you would find a pilot (they must be LICENSED! in hot air ballooning). Getting or paying a few knowledgable folks in the construction phase would be a boon.

just some ideas...

oh yeah, for you 'problem solvers' who would like to play with some figures, here are some numbers to use:

Lift generated per cubic foot:
Hot Air (heated 138 degrees above ambient) = .25 oz
Helium = 1 oz

Still figuring out type of material to use, it appears they use all sorts of different things, from old surplus military parachutes to various fabrics which are then spray coated... pretty amazing stuff.

[tangent4ronpaul]

They cost 2 - 8 Million each!

here is a set of photo's of a blimp being built:
http://www.goodyearblimp.com/basics/building/building.html

here is a FAQ page about Blimp construction:
http://www.goodyearblimp.com/faqs/faqs_construction.html

-n

[Edward]

How about a fleet of the remote controlled mini-blimps that fly around basketball arenas?

http://www.galaxyrpv.com/images/blimp_pics/Mavs_blimp_14.jpg

http://rsl.engr.scu.edu/NewWeb/images/broncoblimpatgame.jpg

[hillertexas]

I too have blimp fever

I might be coming down with some hot air ballon sniffles though :)