Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer

Airships are the first craft that realized mankind’s dream of controlled, powered flight but have been a forsaken method of air transportation since the invention of heavy-than-air aircraft. However, environmental concerns have urged humanity to think once again over the possibility of deploying these...

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Main Authors: Bheekhun, Nadiir, Abu Talib, Abd Rahim, Cardenas, Fortunato
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Science Publishing Corporation 2018
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/74320/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/74320/1/Towards%20a%20sustainable%20aerogel%20airship.pdf
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author Bheekhun, Nadiir
Abu Talib, Abd Rahim
Cardenas, Fortunato
author_facet Bheekhun, Nadiir
Abu Talib, Abd Rahim
Cardenas, Fortunato
author_sort Bheekhun, Nadiir
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Airships are the first craft that realized mankind’s dream of controlled, powered flight but have been a forsaken method of air transportation since the invention of heavy-than-air aircraft. However, environmental concerns have urged humanity to think once again over the possibility of deploying these lighter-than-air ships. This paper describes an on-going project thereby a nature-inspired airship, namely Huvr Trek is being designed to address current airborne technological, economical and ecological gaps. It uses the world’s best thermal insulator and second lightest material, silica aerogel for inhibiting heat transfer within the balloon for efficient lift as well as in a prototype liquid-fuelled ramjet for propulsion. The airship uses carbon aerogels also as super capacitors for energy storage. Proposed applications of the aerogel airship are and implementations into advertising and tourism, surveillance, environmental monitoring, planetary exploration, cargo transportation, stratospheric observation, medical equipment carrier and telecommunication relay.
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spelling upm-743202020-03-27T08:01:17Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/74320/ Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer Bheekhun, Nadiir Abu Talib, Abd Rahim Cardenas, Fortunato Airships are the first craft that realized mankind’s dream of controlled, powered flight but have been a forsaken method of air transportation since the invention of heavy-than-air aircraft. However, environmental concerns have urged humanity to think once again over the possibility of deploying these lighter-than-air ships. This paper describes an on-going project thereby a nature-inspired airship, namely Huvr Trek is being designed to address current airborne technological, economical and ecological gaps. It uses the world’s best thermal insulator and second lightest material, silica aerogel for inhibiting heat transfer within the balloon for efficient lift as well as in a prototype liquid-fuelled ramjet for propulsion. The airship uses carbon aerogels also as super capacitors for energy storage. Proposed applications of the aerogel airship are and implementations into advertising and tourism, surveillance, environmental monitoring, planetary exploration, cargo transportation, stratospheric observation, medical equipment carrier and telecommunication relay. Science Publishing Corporation 2018 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/74320/1/Towards%20a%20sustainable%20aerogel%20airship.pdf Bheekhun, Nadiir and Abu Talib, Abd Rahim and Cardenas, Fortunato (2018) Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer. International Journal of Engineering and Technology (UAE), 7 (4.13). 141 - 145. ISSN 2227-524X http://www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET
spellingShingle Bheekhun, Nadiir
Abu Talib, Abd Rahim
Cardenas, Fortunato
Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer
title Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer
title_full Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer
title_fullStr Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer
title_full_unstemmed Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer
title_short Towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer
title_sort towards a sustainable aerogel airship: a primer
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/74320/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/74320/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/74320/1/Towards%20a%20sustainable%20aerogel%20airship.pdf