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What do you get when you cross a plane with a blimp? A Plimp. That's not a joke, it's what the thing is actually called. Manufactured by Seattle-based Egan Airships, the 28-ft (8.5-m) unmanned aircraft has a helium-filled envelope allowing for blimp-like buoyancy, while its winged rigid body allows it to travel quick-ish like a conventional drone.
When the Plimp is taking off and landing – or just hovering on the spot – its two wings rotate so that the electric motors/propellers are facing straight up. This allows it to move vertically. Once it's time to get a move on, however, the wings rotate into a more airplane-like orientation, in which the props are facing forward. In this mode, it can achieve a maximum speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) with at least one hour of flight time depending on payload.
Should the motors conk out, the sub-55-lb (25-kg) Plimp won't just plummet from the sky. Thanks to the buoyancy of its envelope and the lift provided by its wings, it can reportedly glide down at a speed of 9 mph (14 km/h).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 07 2017, @03:24PM (1 child)
This is a step up from a balloon, in that you can sort of go where you want. But, let me do some really simple numbers. Top speed about 40 mph - and winds can blow anywhere from zero to thirty mph, without storms. Meaning, for you to travel agains the prevailing winds, you have to settle for about ten mph. Hmmmm. Might be faster to just circumnavigate the earth? Oh, wait. 40 mph, plus or minus a good tailwind is still going to take several weeks to get where I wanted to go. Babies are conceived and born in a matter of weeks, FFS.
This really doesn't sound like my modus locomotus. A horse isn't any faster, but a horse won't be blown off course by a gust of wind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:55AM
Yes, but a horse masses much more than 25kg! Without the lightweight plimp, you might otherwise be struck by a plummeting horse! Vote safety - vote plimp!