First rigid airship since the Hindenburg cleared for outdoor flight trials

Megairbus?

I'm guessing the fuel consumption for one of these things is low, even with the internal pumps. The materials look pretty standard, and since most of the size of the thing is gas, they would be relatively cheap to mass-produce.

This could really turn a profit.

Overnight sleeper flights, similar to the sleeper bus that Megabus is trialling at the moment, only in one of these things! Might even be cheaper than the Megabus. No traffic concerns, an as-the-crow-flies route, and most of the energy is used on forward momentum.

Since it seems to be a form of VTOL, you could stick the stations on the tops of hills and buildings in urban areas, away from the airports themselves.

Something new

Isn't there a bit of a risk that if you attempt an analysis based on "this is how freight and passengers currently move around the world using method X,Y and Z so new method Q will only be able to take r% of the traffic" then you are not taking into account new traffic generation? The last couple of decades have shown that, yes, some new technogies really are just solutions looking for needs (and disappear shortly thereafter) but that in some cases it turns out there was a hidden need that just wasn't serviced by X,Y or Z but for which Q is just perfect. I don't have any ideas what that might be in this case but, for example, everyone who analysed the mobile phone market 10 years ago and said "I've analysed current phone usage and there is no demand for a phone that is too big to fit in your pocket and, seriously, why would it need a camera?" is probably feeling pretty silly now.

Rather than dump helium to land...

...why not use a compressor to push it back into its pressurised tanks. Or would that take to long?

Why compress helium...

when you can take in and compress air instead? Much more weight for a given pressure. If you add carbon dioxide from the exhaust, that would improve things further. So trap, compress, and chill exhaust gases.

Here's a thought

Perhaps they could be used to bring high bandwidth internet via long distance microwave connections to outback Australia. (There is already a microwave connection over 580 km between Adelaide in South Australia and Broken Hill in New South Wales, using towers.) In that scenario they would be fully automated to remain at specific latitudes and longitudes, with height maintained through the use of COSH.

Engine Lift

The bit about if an engine is used to provide extra lift, if it fails it will have a softer landing?

If an engine fails then when it does crash can't it be put nose first to act as a large crumple zone?

New Materials since 1939

We can use a lot of new materials developed since the last rigids. Carbon fibre composites replacing aluminium alloys, synthetics replacing cow intestines in gasbags, kevlar replacing steel wires; there are so many better choices.

And sometimes the engineers of that era just got it right. What might Barnes Wallis have done with our tools?

How big can they go?

Sod the practical applications - can they build Castle Wulfenbach?

And the award for most UFO reports for a non extraterrestrial air vehicle go to.....

Although hinted at by a few other commentards, I think leisure trips (air cruises) could be the greatest money spinner for this. It has just about everything going for it. Quiet smooth travel, lots of room, stunning views, and can comfortably go where absolutely no other form of transport can.

I'd never entertain the idea of a sea cruise, but I'd certainly pony up for a week over Europe.

Airships

Are rather nice. I like.

I am quite sure I have seen an old Soviet rigid (or a semi-) in the air when I was a kid and I thought it looked awesome.

To pass time while we are waiting for the test results of the COSH ship I would recommend listening to the magnificent "Curly's Airships" by Judge Smith:

Walking her out

Curly takes us up

The whole songstory is about the R.101 disaster but these 2 tracks are about the R.33

There isn't much more on the internet - get a CD from Amazon while they are still in stock...

Small note: LZ129 "Hindenburg" was not the last Zeppelin, just the last in commercial service. LZ130 did fly after it

Ironic how an ideal job would be...

collecting Airbus parts from around Europe, and dropping them off at the factory in France. Doesn't the current Airbus wings have to do a barge-boat-truck trip from Wales to Toulouse?

Vertical take off and landing from hanger door to hanger door with minimal packing would save lots of hours and £££.

It's not the First - there was Airship Ventures

For about four years, Airship Ventures ran a Zeppelin in the San Francisco Bay Area and occasionally took it on the road around the US. It was built in Germany, and while it was a lot smaller than the Hindenburg, it was a real dirigible. It used helium, and held a dozen passengers. It was based out of the old Moffett Field blimp hangers in Silicon Valley, and ran tours, usually flying at 500-1000 feet for an hour or two, and it was an amazing ride. It was also used for some local scientific research. In spite of the economic decline, there were still enough people to keep a Zeppelin flying around, though the 10x rise in the price of helium finally killed them.

There's a misunderstanding here.

Flotation is all about your mass versus the mass of the air you displace. If the air mass is greater, you float. If not, not.

Now the point of all the jiggery-pokery is not to lose any mass at all from the airship. it follows that you can compress, decompress or dance the conga, it won't change your flotation unless you displace more or less air in the process. So COSH must either change the displacement (by inflating or deflating bags) or the total mass (by taking on or releasing something, probably air).

Big bags

So if you only need to compress the gas to the bike tyre pressures to get the thing to work, just a have a big bag of helium with a sodding great mangle and roller at one end?

COSH - where's my calculator?

COSH seems similar to an idea i had about adding to full industrial size quad copters. Never calculated the feasibility. But the pressurized helium would be in rigid tanks and the envelope would be flexible and retractable. It would aid in take off, hovering and landing. Saving fuel in the most thirsty portions of a jaunt.

Bah!

If the crew has been named, why not name them? The photograph would seem to have provided a perfect opportunity to identify the crew properly.

High cruising speed?

If COSH offers the chance to choose your own height then you maybe have an airship that can cruise at 30,000 ft like a modern jet. Then you're above the weather and drag will be a fraction of what the Zeppelins experienced down at 3000 ft or less - so with good aerodynamics 250 kt cruising? And I guess loitering up there for a few days is no problem

Some of the technology already exists. German diesels from WW2 gave full power at 40000ft and had fuel comsumption still impressive today. And all this talk about tyres bursting - 19th century train brakes operated at 5 bar, truck tyres come in around 8 bar and don't even ask about aircraft hydraulics.