Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

L. The lifting body has ten usable spaces out of fifty, at sixty five kilostarbux, and a speed band of high.

M. The blimp has ten usable spaces out of a hundred. at thirty kilostarbux, and a speed band of medium.

N. Drop the speed from high to medium, you get an extra five spaces, one of which would be usable, cost reduces to fifty eight and a half kilostarbux.

O. That would be 5'318.18181818 per usable space.

P. The advantages of the lifting body are half the volume for a given usable space, at a seventy eight percent premium.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

Q. That would be what would be aimed for.

R. But, it seems obvious that's it more grav powered, with the balloon giving additional lift.

S. External crane would be used to carry large sized loads, upto the airship's designed cargo capacity.

T. Current heavy lift helicopters have a capacity of twenty tonnes.

U. I'm not sure you could trade air speed for additional cargo capacity, on the spot.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

V. The above seems an interesting variant, with the balloon giving lift, and the sail providing direction and propulsion

W. Though it seems doubtful that you can squeeze much speed from it.

X. Too bad that wouldn't work with a solar sail.

Y. Since any secondary drive acceleration would, by a far margin, exceed that of the solar winds, with the sail likely being more of a drag.

Z. Though, onboard lasers could be used to bombard the sail, to give it an additional boost.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

1. For airships, you have to wonder exactly what happens to range, if you just park the airship at a specific orbit, indefinitely.

2. Potentially, that's infinite, until something breaks, or you run out of food.

3. Presumably, you can harvest water from humidity, or a passing cloud.

4. Likely, for all aircraft, range has to include maintaining orbit against wind currents.

5. Updrafts, downdrafts, crosswinds, headwinds, tailwinds.

6. Which would include helping or hindering movement, which results in modifying range.

7. Time spent being exposed to those wind conditions, times wind speed.

8. If anchored by ropes to the ground, range modification would not apply.

9. Unless the motors are also actively counteracting the wind.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

A. Performance customization isn't really worth it, since advancing a speed band doubles cost.

B. Lowering the speed band only benefits with a ten percent discount, and a ten percent space increase.

C. You might want speed to mitigate headwinds in adverse weather conditions.

D. With a default six thousand klix range, you could sacrifice three quarters of that, gaining you an additional thirty percent extra spaces.

E. That would change the cost to five kilostarbux per usable space for a lifting body.

F. 2'307.6923076923 starbux per usable space for a blimp.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

G. Without a full ten usable spaces, cutting speed bands or fuel capacity isn't worth it, since you don't get the benefit of extra spaces.

H. Fuel efficiency directly affects cost, not spaces.

I. You could lower costs by thirty percent. if you lower range by seventy five percent.

J. Lifting body adjusted cost per usable space, forty five and a half hundred starbux.

K. Blimp, twenty one hundred starbux per usable space.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

L. By using sails more commonly seen on waterborne vehicles, a light chassis can be propelled at some surprising speed.

M. However, the vehicle is utterly reliant on prevailing conditions and its maximum speed can never exceed that of the current wind.

N. This increases the Cost per Space by Cr200.

O. Tech Table TL/Speed 1-6/Very Slow 7-9/Slow 10+/Medium

P. Borrowed from Unpowered Vehicle chassis, but I think it applies if you switch off the engines, and attach a set of sails.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

Q. Although it is rarely done intentionally, a vehicle can be weakened by using poorer quality materials or just tolerating shoddy construction.

R. A vehicle can decrease its Hull by -25%, by decreasing its Cost per Space by -25%.

S. This may be done once.

T. Together with the seventy five percent range reduction, that would discount the cost of a vehicle by fifty five percent.

U. Which, for a four usable spacer lifting body is twenty times cheaper than the default air/raft, at the same speed.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Airships

V. Twenty spaces would make a lifting body, or blimp, as large as the maximum size of a light ground vehicle.

W. Four usable spaces, about the capacity of a compact car.

X. Thirteen hundred times twenty, times forty five percent, is eleven and three tenths kilostarbux.

Y. Fully inflated, that would require a shipping space of ten tonnes.

Z. Deflated, two tonnes shipping space, plus a helium or hydrogen pump.