Google co-founder Sergey Brin (Sergey Brin) has a great goal. He invested millions of dollars to build the world’s largest and most environmentally friendly airship. In March last year, he finally reaped the benefits.
After six years of development, his secret airship company LTA Research and Exploration finally took the first step: selling an 18-meter long, 12-engine all-electric airship called Airship 3.0.
Guess what the price is? According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) filing documents obtained by IEEE Spectrum, the value of this airship is only $18.70.
In fact, this deal was not Brin to cash in on the airship he invested in, but a very crucial step in the development of the airship. Federal Aviation Administration records show that the buyer of Airship 3.0 is Nicolas Garafolo, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Akron, Ohio.
After leaving the university, Professor Garafolo led LTA’s Akron research team, which included undergraduates, graduate students and many alumni from the UA School of Engineering. The airship was purchased at a nominal price of US$18.70, probably as a tribute to the time when the UA School of Engineering was founded in 1870.
Airship 3.0 is actually the second prototype of LTA Akron. The first airship was registered in September 2018. It is also a 12-engine powered electric airship, but it is only 15 meters long, which is slightly longer than the usual American school bus. Earlier this year, the airship was tested in Akron (Akron). Akron was the base where the U.S. Navy built giant airships in the 1930s, and this place is still the location of the world’s largest active airship hangar. According to a public email, LTA also intends to lease this hangar.
But Brin not only wants to regain his former glory, he also wants to surpass the past. Patents, official records and work lists all show that LTA’s new airship will be safer and smarter than the bumpy and dangerous airships of the past, and it will also be more conducive to the sustainable development of the environment.
The picture shows the patent picture of LTA, which includes close-up details of the modular structure.
The biggest problem encountered when designing an airship is how to make the airship float. Hydrogen is cheap and abundant in reserves. It is the lightest gas in the universe, but it is also extremely combustible and difficult to control. Helium is the second lightest gas by mass. It is a safe inert gas, but it is expensive and increasingly scarce. Since the Hindenburg disaster, almost all new airships have chosen helium as the gas lift gas.
What is more special is that LTA’s airship will be loaded with two gases at the same time. Helium provides lift for the airship, while hydrogen is used to power its electric motors. At present, the quality of lithium batteries used in electric vehicles is too heavy. If they are applied to airships that specialize in delivering humanitarian aid to remote areas affected by disasters, it is not applicable. The hydrogen fuel cell can not only provide reliable power for airships, but also perform remote missions.
The patent application issued last year pointed out that LTA is also rethinking how to manufacture super-large airships. Traditionally, when building rigid structures, airships remain stationary, and their rigid structures are used to fix and shape the air film. This requires workers to climb to high places, and risks and delays will increase.
Picture: LTA Research and Exploration
The LTA company’s patent covers a “roller coaster” structure, which allows a completed airship to rotate around the central axis during the construction process, so that workers can stay on the ground safely. The patent application also describes a method for 3D printing airship components using strong and light carbon fibers.
LTA’s official website stated that they are building a series of aircraft that do not produce a carbon footprint during operation to “significantly reduce the total carbon footprint of the global aviation industry” . When manufacturing, it is necessary to use renewable electricity to produce hydrogen, and to produce various aircraft to meet the needs of passenger and cargo transportation. Documents submitted by LTA indicate that the first full-size airship, Pathfinder 1 (Pathfinder 1), may be ready to take off from LTA headquarters in Moffett Field, Silicon Valley. Federal Aviation Administration records show that the “Pathfinder” is driven by 12 electric motors and can carry 14 people, so that its size is comparable to the size of the only passenger airship Zeppelin NT. The airship serves sightseeing tours in Germany and Switzerland.
In fact, LTA’s first airship can even be modified based on Zeppelin NT, and the improved use of electric propulsion . In the past few years, LTA has obtained a large number of imported goods from Zeppelin rigid airships, including fins, rudders and equipment used in cabin pods.
In January of this year, LTA drove an old airship usually used for advertising at Moffett Field, possibly to test flight systems.
Unlike the fixed-wing aircraft or vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL) used for testing, it can be tested and flown quietly in remote airports. It was well known when “Pathfinder 1” left Moffett Field.
In January of this year, LTA took off from there in a small unmarked airship usually used for aerial advertising. Even if observers only saw the airship that might be used to test the LTA flight system, they were still talking about it.
The birth of “Pathfinder 1” turned out to completely show that Sergey Brin’s dream of airship revival is by no means empty words.
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