Vacuum Aiships

On 12 May 2012 16:49, sailor.barsoom wrote:

> Five atmospheres of pressure is plenty for an airship. I should think
> that ONE atmosphere should be enough for an airship, because it only needs
> to hold out against the atmosphere.
>

Yes, I think it's possible, it would work best at very, very high altitude
where the pressures and costs are a lot lower.

It would have to be really big since the strength/weight and strength to
cost ratio of magnets is really quite poor.

You'd be looking at altitudes of about 55km, and diameters of kilometres,
and cost per square metre of envelope of perhaps a thousand UK pounds or
more.

Minimum diameter goes down as you go higher because you can get away with
less magnet, so the skin becomes lighter and you don't need as much
buoyancy.

--
-Ian Woollard