Today's blimps use helium because it's lighter than air and nonflammable. But helium is
expensive to produce. A much cheaper alternative would be to use a vacuum— provided
a rigid yet lightweight airframe can be built. HoverTech's Dominic Florin explains how
such a craft might be possible.
The modern dirigible, or blimp, has never been considered a likely alternative to the
automobile. Afterall, they're slow, hard to maneuver, and you'd never find a parking
space big enough. But blimps don't have to take up a whole city block either.
One of the early pioneers of lighter-than-air craft was the Brazilian-born inventor
Alberto Santos-Dumont who built and flew the first
dirigible balloons in
Paris, France. Long before there was an air traffic control, Santos-Dumont would fly
along Paris boulevards at rooftop level, often landing in front of a fashionable
outdoor cafe for lunch. On one occasion he even flew an airship to his own apartment in
the center of Paris. His cigar-shaped dirigibles were filled with hydrogen and typically
no larger than a modern fourteen-wheeler. Their compact size was a result of lightweight
construction, the use of hydrogen gas, and the fact that Dumont was only 5'4"— and
always flew solo.
Today, helium is the gas of choice in blimps because it has 92.64% of the lifting power
of hydrogen, but is nonflammable. However, because helium must be extracted from natural
gas, it is expensive to produce. An alternative is to use a vacuum. Considered to be the
"holy grail" of air ship design, a vacuum blimp would be cheap to maintain, capable of
remaining aloft indefinitely, and could be quickly "deflated" thereby eliminating the need
for a large hanger.
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