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Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 4/98 CARGOLIFTER PLANS SUPER AIRSHIP by Jürgen Grasseder/Christopher Hess The idea behind the concept is simple: Heavy loads, for example large turbine casings, are not going to be transported laboriously by land, sea or aircraft to their destination, but directly from the factory to their intended operations location. The CargoLifter will fulfil this new role as heavy loads transport vehicle. It is a 242 meters long and 61 meters wide transport airship with a maximum speed of 135 km/h. According to Dr. Carl von Gablenz, Head of CargoLifter AG in Wiesbaden, "the CargoLifter will not only outdo all existing airships with its size and capacity, but bring up a new era in transport." The heavy-duty-airship is designed to transport enormous freights non-stop at speeds of 80 to 100 km/h over distances of thousands of kilometers. The altitude will be up to 2000 meters, and the airship will be able to deliver goods exactly to where they are required independently of the local infrastructure. Up to now builders involved in large scale constructions were faced with difficult problems. Very often transport via roads from factory to seaport and from there to the final destination takes a long time and is very expensive. At the beginning of the nineties logistics expert von Gablenz had approached the Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA, Germany's Association of Machine and Plant Construction) in the search for a new way of transporting heavy duty loads. The VDMA did a market research on heavy plant construction. Ten companies involved in manufacturing heavy plants were questioned. The study revealed, that just these ten companies are transporting 300 parts weighing over 100 tons, being more than 25 meters long and or having a diameter of more than four meters. The VDMA study showed that these goods can only be shifted at an average speed of 8,4 km/h. Some of the reasons for this are, that often bridges have to be supported and roads have to be lowered and widened. One single transport firm would work continuously for 15 years to accomplish this task. That is why the VDMA came to the conclusion that using an airship would make good sense. Von Gablenz estimated that it would take approximately 60 days and would cost about half a million DM to transport cargo weighing 140 tons from Germany to Kasachstan in the conventional way. Using the CargoLifter, the freight would arrive at its destination in three days at only 80 per cent of the cost. A so-called "Multibox" was especially developed for storage on board the airship. This container can be loaded and unloaded from all sides. It is 50 meters long and eight meters high and wide. It has the volume of 36 40ft standard containers, which are used on cargo ships and lorries. Furthermore, the CargoLifter will also be able to hold and transport parts as big as 50x8x8 meters. The CargoLifter is featuring a new loading mechanism which is about to be patented. It enables the airship to load items like a crane on the spot and unload it at its destination. The CargoLifter, which will be filled with 450.000 cubic meters of helium, will be at 100 meters above the loading and unloading point. A special loading frame, which is fixed during flight to the keel of the airship is than rigged with four cable winches to the ground, a procedure which is to assure that the airship's lifting gear stays exactly above the desired position. After the above described "docking", the frame will be uncoupled, lowered to earth on four steel cables and attached to the load. In order to create the lift necessary to take heavy loads on board, the airship must lose a certain weight when loading and take in ballast weighing roughly the same when unloading. The engineers have come up with two possible solutions. One is that balancing might be achieved with additional ballast containers, which will be placed on the ground during loading the freight. The disadvantage of this procedure is that these containers, which must weigh up to 160 tons depending on the goods in question, need to be available at the destination, or will have to be transported there. The other possibility is to use water as ballast, which the airship would carry within the loading frame. In this case an integral pump with on output of eight tons per minute would accomplish the weight balancing. However, this solution assumes, that the necessary water supply is available at the destination. Equally arrangements need to be made on the ground to receive up to 160 tons of water during the loading of the freight - enough to fill a small swimming pool. According to a spokes-person at CargoLifter, this is why transport flights will probably be limited to building sites. In this case it can be assumed that the necessary infrastructure is in place. The designers have to keep the possibility of cross winds in mind, which could severely affect the loading and unloading of the craft. Ideally, the CargoLifter will be pointed into the wind when loading. According to Professor Bernd Kröplin, who is on the board of directors at CargoLifter AG and Director of the Institute for Statistics and Dynamics for the Construction of Planes and Spacecraft at the University of Stuttgart, problems will only arise, when the wind changes suddenly in direction or becomes gusty. On the one hand it will limit the wind speed at which the loading or unloading can take place. On the other hand the new loading procedure as explained above gives a certain leeway. Kroplin explains that the airship, which is floating at a height of around 100 meters, will be able to move horizontally up to 50 meters away from the landing position. Special engines for manoeuvring, which the aircraft will be equipped with additionally to the engines used for normal flight, will ensure that the CargoLifter will stay in this 50 meter radius. Jet engines on one or both ends of the airship are being considered as manoeuvring. Quick reaction time is of the utmost importance, because the position must be corrected immediately and not two or three seconds later, when the big and clumsy ship has already gathered impetus and is turning in the wrong direction. It is planned to use three or four ship diesel engines in the 10,000 to 15,000 kW power range to propel the craft. If the designers decide on these engines, they will first of all need a certification from the airworthiness authorities. According to the manufacturer's ambitious schedule, the craft will be up and running in just over two years. The first CargoLifter is supposed to fly at the Expo 2000 in Hanover. Work to construct the CargoLifter is under way at the Stuttgart Steinbeis Transfer Centre for Aerodynamics, Plane and Lightweight Construction. A team consisting of seven engineers and two or three scientific employees are currently working on the structure of the aircraft. The envisaged data are: The outer shell will have a weight of 33 tons, the keel and carbon structure will weigh 30 tons and the lifting gear amounts to 60 tons. Another 152 tons will be the combined weight of tail unit, engines, flight control system, fuel and crew. During operation there will hardly be any helium leakage, because the airship's shell will consist of extremely tight multi-layered foils. This summer the scaled down version, the testbed "Joey" (1:8) will take to the air. It will make its first public appearance in Leipzig at the "Traffic and Logistics" trade fair in May. The construction of the first version, which will be used to demonstrate the new loading system, will start in a hall belonging to Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart. The enterprise is also quick in choosing a site for the assembly of the CargoLifter itself. Negotiations are underway with the state of Brandenburg. Local politicians have reportedly agreed to subsidise the construction of the hangar with 35 per cent of the entire investment of 120 million Marks. The former military airport Brand, which is situated a 30 minutes drive from Berlin, is the ideal location. From 1999 onwards 240 employees will build three CargoLifters per year. The hangar will be 300 meters long, 100 meters high and roughly 200 meters wide. In any case it will be big enough to allow the simultanous assembly of two of airships. Until the first CargoLifter is airborne, the stock company will have to generate0 360 million Marks. At the moment the enterprise's available capital stands at 10.5 million Marks, a further 5.25 Marks were approved at the last general meeting. At the moment investors have to pay 27.5 Marks per share. Among the shareholders are businesses and big construction firms like ABB, Siemens and Thyssen. There are, however, also many small investors. If everything goes according to plan, the CargoLifter will start transporting freight beginning in the year 2001. Ten to twelve crew will be in charge of flying and loading and unloading the craft. It is envisaged that the firm will have broken even two years later. According to the team's ambitious plans the CargoLifter will make huge profits by 2007 at the latest. It will cost around 240 million Marks to develop and build the first CargoLifter. Once it goes into serial production, the predicted price per craft will be 100 million Marks. The CargoLifter AG is aiming at acquiring 12 per cent of the relevant transport market, operating a fleet of 44 giant airships. From page 58 of FLUG REVUE 4/98 Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 4/98 Copyright 1998 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated March 6, 1998 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany