Festo AirJelly

[blimpship]

Thanks for the post about the Festo AirJelly Andreas, this thing looks like something out of War of the Worlds!

I do wonder if there is actually any practical need for a design like this?

The Air-Ray has a huge internal volume and clearly has design benefits for cargo space and/or lift gas, whilst the AirFish has an innovative propulsion system. The AirJelly on the other hand is simply over engineered.

21st Century Airships have been producing spherical airships for a while now, without the need for the long legs. Don't get me wrong, it's always good to see new designs, but I just don't see the point behind this one!

[Andreas G]

Well the point of the AirJelly is to show of the engineering
capabilities of Festo, it's a demonstrator with a unique peristaltic
propulsion system not seen before in an aircraft. And maybe there can be
some inspiration for the Airship Community through this. The FinRay
Effect that the tentacles use could possibly be used in airships. But
yes the AirJelly as it is might be impractical but man does it ever look
cool.

Regards

Andreas

Editor of Airshipworld
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blimpship wrote:

> Thanks for the post about the Festo AirJelly Andreas, this thing looks like
> something out of War of the Worlds!
>
> I do wonder if there is actually any practical need for a design like this?
>
> The Air-Ray has a huge internal volume and clearly has design benefits for
> cargo space and/or lift gas, whilst the AirFish has an innovative propulsion
> system. The AirJelly on the other hand is simply over engineered.
>
> 21st Century Airships have been producing spherical airships for a while
> now, without the need for the long legs. Don't get me wrong, it's always
> good to see new designs, but I just don't see the point behind this one!
>
> -----
> the past, present and future of airships :  http://www.blimpship.com
> blimpship.com

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[brunians]

Duncan Rice writes:

> 21st Century Airships have been producing spherical airships for a while
> now, without the need for the long legs. Don't get me wrong, it's always
> good to see new designs, but I just don't see the point behind this one!

If you see the point behind spherical airships, please do share.



.




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[blimpship]

If you see the point behind spherical airships, please do share.

 

I'm no expert but I believe that the sphere is less affected by wind direction than a traditionally shaped airship, at least thats what what the website says. 21st Century Airships claim that their airships hold airship altitude records, can land and take off from water and I'm sure I read that they can withstand a 90 knot ground wind (although I can't find that now) and because they can be securely tethered on the ground, there is a much lower ground footprint required.

 

In terms of advertising there are some unique designs on their test vehicles such as the football (soccer) and a baseball design. Less wind effect would provide a more stable camera platform too.

 

Of course the design does not allow for much in terms of a gondola so there's not likely to be a large spherical passenger version, but there does seem to be a number of roles that a spherical airship can fill well.

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[brunians]

Duncan, have you ever noticed that things that fly (or swim, for that
matter) under their own power are shaped basically one way - like a fish,
or a dirigible, while things that drift with the wind or the current are
shaped basically another way - like a jellyfish or a balloon?

Have you ever wondered why things are this way?


.

>> If you see the point behind spherical airships, please do share.
>>
>
> I'm no expert but I believe that the sphere is less affected by wind
> direction than a traditionally shaped airship, at least thats what what
> the
> website says. 21st Century Airships claim that their airships hold airship
> altitude records, can land and take off from water and I'm sure I read
> that
> they can withstand a 90 knot ground wind (although I can't find that now)
> and because they can be securely tethered on the ground, there is a much
> lower ground footprint required.
>
> In terms of advertising there are some unique designs on their test
> vehicles
> such as the football (soccer) and a baseball design. Less wind effect
> would
> provide a more stable camera platform too.
>
> Of course the design does not allow for much in terms of a gondola so
> there's not likely to be a large spherical passenger version, but there
> does
> seem to be a number of roles that a spherical airship can fill well.
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> The-List mailing list
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> http://airshipworld.info/mailman/listinfo/the-list_airshipworld.info
>

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[blimpship]

Duncan, have you ever noticed that things that fly (or swim, for that
matter) under their own power are shaped basically one way - like a fish,
or a dirigible, while things that drift with the wind or the current are
shaped basically another way - like a jellyfish or a balloon?

Have you ever wondered why things are this way?

I wonder why a rugby ball (or US football) needs to spin in order to travel fast or any distance - whilst ball sports that require speed and accuracy like cricket, baseball, football and tennis use a spherical ball.

 

I wonder if a sphere that has propulsion would require less power to maintain altitude and direction than a traditionally shaped airship that needs more power to fight against the wind.

 

I wonder why the sky is blue and grass is green... I wonder...!!!

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[TURTLEAIRSHIPS]

The 21Century craft stem from the Magnus design...which was unique in that it had a central shaft running through it, upon which the body of the craft was supposed to spin.  This spinning of the envelope was supposed to generate lift.  It appears that idea has been abandoned;at least, I've seen no gondola on their later craft that have a gondola that is not directly attached to their envelope.

Of course, a sphere holds the greatest amount of volume with the least amount of surface area.    A spherical envelope may be more stable in winds than a traditional elongated envelope.  At the same time, the increase in size needed to MATCH a traditional design of the same volume may be a problem in and of itself, as it presents a larger surface area to winds.

It is difficult to move a sphere through the air.  A spherical airship needs MORE power to thrust it forward (again, with comparable volumes) then does a traditional design.  Movement of either, up or down (altitude) has no bearing on their relative shapes.  

FestoJelly is a very nice bit of artwork though.