New Civil Engineer – Research on lighter-than-air craft

Dr Christian Carey, who is based at the Smith School’s Low Carbon Mobility centre, was interviewed by the publication earlier this year on his research.

Sir David King, at the 2010 Smith School World Forum, said of airship technology:

“With modern technology applied to airships we could carry a lot of the freight carried by wide-bellied Boeings”. 

The report focused on developments from some of the biggest names in the aviation sector, with Lockheed Martin, Northup Grumman and Boeing all involved in developing modern-day airships.

Smith School research has identified a number of the capabilities of lighter-than-air craft which are beneficial in the current transport climate:

• An ability to take off from short and unprepared locations, even on water, could meet the demands upon airports to increase capacity.
• Airships also have long range capabilities and could be powered by energy efficient power sources, bringing down their carbon impact over conventional jet-engined craft.
• They could potentially have a load capacity more than nine times that of a Boeing 747-400F freighter aeroplane.

Dr Carey’s paper written with Dr Oliver Inderwildi and Professor Sir David King, is entitled “The development of lighter-than-air craft and their possible impact”.

New Civil Engineer earlier this year announced the launch of the Lighter-than-air craft paper. The article can be viewed here.

The Smith School’s Low Carbon Mobility centre is one of six research centres at the School. The potential for low carbon transport was addressed at the School’s second World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment held in Oxford in June.