Monday, January 9, 2012

Ooh Balloons!

Every so often a balloon appears in our student house, such a simple object.  Yet ever since i was young and even now at university they just seem fun, something to do.  We end up playing alsorts of stupid games out of the boredom of revision, a well used break!
Ok so we're big kids, it's fun.
There's even been a balloon that's been stuck to the church ceiling for months, we can't get it down, although a BB gun may fix that soon.
That problem is the total opposite of a company called Aeros, who design and build airships.  They're trying to get their latest venture to the skies as I type.  The Aeroscraft, which is absolutely massive and being designed to lift an army, literally, the US are paying for this brand new vehicle to lift their men into a warzone and out again.  Seems odd huh, a giant balloon landing in a warzone?  Images of a bullet hitting it and the ship farting off into the distance come to mind don't they. However apparently our pessimism is wrongly based.  Even with several bullet holes the vehicle won't simple fold up or rip apart, and certainly won't explode (i know you were thinking about the hindenberg!).  This airship is lifted by helium at a relatively low pressure with a simple internal framing.  Due to this they say bullet holes will only make a minute difference to the flight of the airship if any, although you may end up with your army speaking in high pitched voices i guess. As we know Helium is much safer then Hydrogen albeit more expensive so no more crash and burn theories!