Aerogels and Airships

I been doing research on my free time and this is some of my discoveries that I would like to share here in my blog.

As boy I've been and still is; very passionate, about airships. As a small boy I used to imagine the flights of these giants. I strongly believe that the future of air travel would rely more heavily on airship.

The last great airship Hindenberg of the 1930's was an accident that should have not happened if only the people back then had the technology that we have today.

This year 2008 the price of oil rose to its highest level in human history and people were expecting it would rise to a level of 200 US$ a barrel but because of the current and worst financial crisis in human history, the price of oil has fallen to its historic low.

One thing comes to my mind when we consider how these events affect the airline industry.

It's pretty obvious that the price of airline fare is greatly affected. Not only does the price of oil affects air fares it also affects the quality of air we live in. The more we use oil the more we put CO2 in our atmosphere making it warmer.

So here I am putting things together to find a solution to the daily problems of life. So I thought maybe we should put back the airships to replace the jets. AIRBUS just made a very huge investment on their A380 super giant jumbo jet and it this could make the situation worst in my own humble personal opinion.

Perhaps in the early phase of A380 introduction it would be good and profitable but in the long run we would need to upgrade all the airports so it could let the A380 land and take off .This requires another huge investment on every major airport on the planet. It would also worsen the condition of the air quality and make the demand for oil bigger.

But the current financial turmoil could delay the production of future A380s

I strongly believe the future of air travel is about to change significantly. The latest development in Nanotechnology is about to radically change the way we build airships.

I believe the key material for the construction of the new generation of airships is in Aerogels. But before I explain what is aerogel let me explain first why we should use airships instead of giant jets. Well here are some very good reasons:

Airships are more eco friendly. It does not consume too much fuel to fly and does not require the destruction of forest and and natural habitats for the construction airports. It requires less money to maintain and is easier to control in navigation. If properly constructed airships could have almost unlimited transport capacity compared to airplanes and jets. In fact, Airship could have very huge economic impact on seafares and ships, because airships has almost equal capacity like a normal cargo ship. Instead it floats and flies in the air compared to the cargo ships which floats on water. Imagine cruising in the air instead at the sea.

Because of the unique physical properties of aerogels, it could be possible to construct a thermal airship with temperatures around 700 degrees celcius. This means hydrogen would not be needed at all to make the airship float in the air. Aerogel is the lightest known solid on the planet just 0.01g/cu.c 3 times the weight of air an ideal material for the construction of airships.

Light and strong and a very good insulator. Its the material of the new millenium. And there is another thing very good about aerogels, it can be made from rice husk ash and bio ethanol. By increasing the production of aerogel we will also be increasing food production and bio-fuels at the same time making more profitable air transport system. So if you are reading this blog and can help me put up my aerogel business plan please do contact me for more details.

I hope to further study aerogel at UNED here in Spain. Universidad Nacional de Educacion a la Distancia via Ciencias Quimicas. I hope to finish my studies before the end of the year 2010 at the Terrassa Center of UNED here in Barcelona Spain.