Made you look

Well give this guy a large blimp and wish him a lot of succes................

OK, cool

BaccaYarro I am wondering what type of solar panels you use. Because cells like CadTel can work fantastic both in direct sunlight and with indirect blue light. Japanese tests show 20% efficiency under blue light. These panels can be screen printed, are very flexible, High output (not to mention manufactured yourself at a very cheap cost) Preferred method is the Japanese method with some DIY cheaper alternative replacements. Msg Me if you want patents and methods. For a while my neighbor worked for Next Era power (fp&l to those that live in Florida) as the head of the solar division. He had a few of their panels that they use in their solar arrays. 4ft x 1.7ft panels produce 550w, 55v 10A and cost 200 to manufacture or 500 if purchased from a 3rd party manufacturer made to specification. What a great Idea I hope you take it even further!

Once Asleep Somehow I missed this post, and I don't know if you are still around. So far I have restricted myself to off-the-shelf solar cells, but I am intrigued by the ones you are talking about. Can you tell me more about how they are made, or how I could go about testing them?

The British and the Russians had similar projects back in the 70ies and 80ies, their airships were disc-shaped and used heated gases instead of ballast. The aerodynamics of the ship were a kind of better that way than that of a cigar-shaped one (I guess by side-wind), and the volume anyway. (you can also google "ala-40")

Yes, absolutely. I keep trying to make them with greater thrust and better able to handle the winds. But it is a big challenge.

what else is on Look up his patent application.

To much lift is also kinda bad, you just want to have enough lift to make it hover on the same height

@@moritzk3004 more lift = more payload or stronger motors. When it cools the craft would sink, requiring more battery capacity. It's an interesting idea but the margins would be slim or none

@@johnmartensen4278 more lift would mean a constant up or down force which would need to be countered by an active propulsion system, which would mean more needed weight Sunlight and heat aren't constant means you cant tune your lift gained from it

BaccaYarro it could also be used for war spying they could paint it and make it look like a cloud in the sky

I agree if no people on it hydrogen would be much lighter and cheaper to obtain. Also its not as bad as long as you keep everything low voltage so no sparks.

But Helium is not accessible. Every operator will need to get a constant supply of Helium. Hard.

Jaybird they did that in a book called Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz

Surprised Hydrogen Helium mixes aren't used that are safe and more effective other than maybe leaking through the membrane.

SALVATION!

Thanks!

thats just what i was thinking!

This particular drone has a useful payload of about 2 kg. Not much, to be sure. It could be scaled, and the capacity would increase exponentially. I'm currently using standard PWM recievers to control it, with a range of about one mile. However, the ultimate goal is a fully autonomous vehicle with essentially unlimited range. The big thing currently stopping me from doing that is regulatory, not technological. The FAA does not currently allow the operation of drones beyond line of sight. They keep saying they will change this, but no word yet. Until then, this project is effectively on hold. Power output from the solar array used here is about 30 watts, although since then I have started using much more powerful solar cells. Last time I did speed tests, it was moving at about 44 kph. Cameras and imaging systems would be a good fit for this.

This is such an awesome thing just to even watch fly- or maybe float-, never mind the high endurance and quiet operation! It is really disappointing that you can't legally continue flying this aircraft due to the FAA nonsense... How well has it (or your latest version) handled the wind?

Ok boomer 👌😝👌

Yeah, that is interesting. The blimp pictured here is pretty old, since then I experimented with making a transparent envelope that acted as a lens similar to what you are talking about. That was an interesting experiment, but had some problems. The biggest is the heat involved. Heat is a big problem for any airship. Any differential between the temperature of the gas inside the envelope and the gas outside the envelope will cause massive changes in lift, which are difficult to compensate for. Then it gets even worse when the heat changes rapidly (for example if the sun goes behind a cloud). A solar blimp will naturally have worse heat problems than a regular blimp, and one that uses a lens with concentrated solar energy is even worse. Those solar cells get really hot. In the transparent blimp they were melting the structures they were attached to, so you can imagine what it was doing to the lift!

baldieman64 Truth be told a conventional drone would probably serve the purpose of attacking targets better than a blimp. Because its speed would be greater and it's size smaller. One exception would be if you desire the ability to linger for longer than the batteries would allow, although you would need the solar cells for that.

Well, this was filmed at about 5000 feet. I would predict it could go to about 10000 without much trouble. Much higher would require a larger envelope, but its certainly possible. I actually made one that could fly at 30,000 feet a few years ago, then I found out it would be illegal to test it. :) Airships actually like the cold. Colder air is denser, and so you gain more lift by displacing it. The big problem would be wind. This model could fight light-medium winds with enough cells. But high winds would be a problem. So, a storm would ground it. But if someone just got lost or something, yeah this would be ideal.

BaccaYarro Why would 30, 000 ft be illegal???

In the US there are some rather draconic rules governing drones. Currently it is not legal to operate a drone outside of line-of-sight. They say they will be changing these rules this year.

Cool thanks :)

Shahriyyah Springwork LOL no...

Probably 30-40 dollars

IE. 40 *70 =2800 rs nice

GameTrue 22 lol why would you think it’s that cheap?

No, this one does not have internal structures. Although since then I have started working on one that does.

@@BaccaYarro Oh okay, so it is a Zeppelin-looking blimp?

Ender_Pro Heh, good idea!

Heh, I could tell you stories... I used to do gliders as well as a few powered planes. One thing about them is that no matter what happened, the model would eventually come back down. When I started on blimps I quickly realized that is not necessarily true. I wouldn't say wind in and of itself is the problem. It's more when something goes wrong with the controls. Power loss, control loss for one reason or another. It is a prototype after all, bad things happen. And when they do it can be very... interesting. I've had to chase down a blimp more than once when it started to get away.

Hah, no definately not one of mine. I still have them all.

To lift 100 kg payload you'll need approx. 100 cubic meters of helium only for that payload that's a cube with side 4,65 m or a sphere with diameter 5,7 m. One could also use heated air, or even steam (a water molecule is lighter than a molecule of oxygen or nitrogen) provided the thermal isolation of the airship is thick enough to keep thermal leakage low.

It's similar to how Boeing can seek and obtain hundreds of patents for the 787 aircraft, in spite of the fact that jet powered passenger aircraft have existed for at least 60 years. Basically, while it is true that you can't patent that type of aircraft, since it has been done before, you can patent all the systems and methods that go into making it work, and the things that make it unique.

@@BaccaYarro I looked for the patent using the online US patent and trademark registry under your name and couldn't find any information on your patent claim. Even if it was filed using a company name your name should have came up in the search as owner. Sometimes it takes 6 months for a patent to appear in rare cases. When did you file your patent?

Nevermind Mark, I found a group of patents under your name. Thanks for all the reading. Good luck in your adventures.