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It's 60 years since the British inventor Christopher Cockerell demonstrated the principles of the hovercraft using a cat food tin and a vacuum cleaner. Great things were promised for this mode of transport, but it never really caught on. Why?
The hovercraft slides down a concrete ramp and into the Solent. Its engines, propellers and fans hum as it crosses from Southsea, in Hampshire, to Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, travelling 4.4 nautical miles in under 10 minutes.
The journey is more than twice as quick as the catamaran from Portsmouth to Ryde and more than four times as quick as the Portsmouth-to-Fishbourne ferry.
For that matter, why haven't hydrofoils caught on?
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What Happened to Passenger Hovercraft?
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Can anyone remember when the times were not hard, and money not scarce?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday November 11 2015, @04:33PM
It's much cheaper to generate lift by displacing air than moving air
Depressingly if you pull the actual numbers jets are about 10x cheaper. Zeppelin payload capacity was pitiful compared to a modern jetliner so when you think of the capex and opex and salary costs and fuel costs of a fleet of ten or more zeppelins vs one 747...
I'm not sure the cost of even one single zeppelin is cheaper than one single 747. Perhaps when I'm a billionaire I'll have my own private zeppelin to show off I'm wealthier than even the mere bizjet owners.
(Score: 3, Informative) by damnbunni on Wednesday November 11 2015, @07:55PM
A Boeing 747-8 has a list price of $367.8 million.
You can buy a new Zeppelin for about $21 million. That's what Goodyear is paying for their new Zeppelins; the Zeppelin NT is configured for 12-14 passengers and two pilots.
A typical 'bizjet' like the Cessna Citation X runs about $20-$25 million new, so oddly enough a Zeppelin NT is right in the same price range.
(Score: 2) by fnj on Thursday November 12 2015, @01:01AM
How about you finish comparing the apples to the oranges?
The productivity of the 747-8I is 410 passengers times 917 km/h, or 375,970 passenger-km/h, and the purchase price burden is just about $1000 per passenger-km/h. Actually, the figures for a single-class version are 50% higher. I don't think any carrier actually operates the single-class version, though they could if they could make a business case for it.
The productivity of the Zeppelin NT is 12 passengers times 87 km/hr, or 1044 passenger-km/hr, and the burden is about $21,000 per passenger-km/h.
The productivity of the Citation X is 12 passengers times 972 km/h, or 11,644 passenger-km/h, and the burden is about $1,900 per passenger-km/h.
You don't even see carriers using bizjets like the Citation X for paying service. It has twice the burden of the 747. Still less would you find anyone trying to use the Zeppelin for paying service, at 21 times the burden. Other costs, such as maintenance and insurance are in similar proportion. There is also the little problem that the Zeppelin's speed is so slow that its progress is slowed to half at the transition from a Beaufort fresh breeze to a strong breeze. At a strong gale it is literally standing still, and anything more than that pushes it backward. This is pretty moot, because I don't think it can land or take off in anything more than fresh breeze, or a low-end strong breeze at the utmost.
When the Zeppelin has been used for sightseeing (where it doesn't have to worry about schedule keeping), the seat charge has been in the hundreds of dollars per hour.
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Thursday November 12 2015, @03:25AM
I was trying to address the 'I'm not sure the cost of even one single zeppelin is cheaper than one single 747.' part, not make the case that a Zeppelin is a better deal than a bizjet or 747.
As a filthy-rich toy, it's certainly cooler. Though if I had to choose between a Zeppelin and one of those submarine yachts, it'd be a tough choice.