Friday Reads – 28 May 2021

1. Airlander (?)
   One hopes that this time, they will succeed, but, as far as I can see, all the vested interests are against them,
   Perhaps the “Low-C-footprint” angle will be their key advantage?

   Grande Lignes de France
   Makes a contrast to ours, doesn’t it?

2. French Nuit Trans had faded from my conciousness, anyone know if they are still sleepers?

   Airlander service from ‘City’ centres seems unlikely though coastal ‘hoverport’ style terminals are possible.
   It’s an alternative for noise or runway restricted airports like Biggin Hill.
   My preferred use case would be short air safari cruises, savannah, whale watching, arctic.
   Seasonal island services Wight/Scilly/Lundy/Alderney/Sark.

   Camden central turnback is clever using the existing rear face (3) accessible from both tracks but why is it in a freight case? If anything the deterioration and weakness of the northern way undermines it’s suitability for the weight of through freight which could hold at Primrose Hill until a through path on the second road is clear.

3. Airlander’s biggest problem, at least in UK and Europe, will be finding landing places. Unless you are going to take over part of Hyde Park,for example, (I think not) where in central London would you find the space to land an airship safely? This is also the killer problem for the dozens of proposals for air taxis. The other problem they face is that most of the very short air services in Europe, unless they are crossing significant stretches of water, are about feeders into airport hubs and airliner wouldn’t be able to compete on these routes, at least, not on speed.

4. @quinlet

   Airlander and other airships are short take off and landing (STOL), so can use existing airports, and would be ideal for London City Airport for instance, as it is quieter than aircraft. Furthermore, the actual take off and landing area required is not much larger than the ship herself. As the Airlander currently does not have wheels – it has a shallow ascent and decent path for a one touch landing with not rolling. So a landing pad near a river, lake, or sea would be suitable.

5. @LBM would it be feasible to land them on water?

6. Miniatur Wunderland is as good as it looks. Lucky enough to have a family member living in Hamburg whose sons are train mad so I’ve been oh what, seven times and I still haven’t seen the half of it.
   There’s a fantastic Guiness World Record attempt for the highest number of classical music pieces played on glasses by a model train ~ yes, really ~ which is what they’ve been up to during the pandemic.
   If ever you’re in Hamburg, be sure to have booked the behind the scenes tour ( in many different language groups) and you’ll get to pilot a cruise liner on the real water and see how the sheer magic of the planes landing is done. And the odd kilometer or several of trains and scenery too!

7. @JP

   Hamburg is also home to the Internationales Maritimes Museum, with thousands of ship models, some interactive displays, dioramas. In fact, it seems like a maritime version of Miniatur Wonderland.

8. @Peewee Airlander 10 is currently equipped with a set of pneumatic skids to allow her to land and take off from a wide variety of terrain, water. I believe that the ‘pneumatic’ part means the the skids can be inflated or deflated according to the type of terrain to be landed upon.

9. re Airlander “it has a shallow ascent and decent path”
   This would make it unable to use London City under current rules, as this has an unusually steep glideslope. All aircraft must approach at 5.5degrees (normal airports is 3 degrees). Reasons are noise abatement and avoiding the skyscraper cluster on the Isle of Dogs

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