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This concept give me a BioShock Infinite vibe. Of all the terminated projects we’ve covered so far, I’d love to see Atoms for Peace come to life the most.
"Atoms for Peace" was actually an entire project/PR campaign (look up operation candor for fun info) back in the cold war for the usage of nuclear science in civilian applications;It isn't referring to just this thing
The N.S. Savannah was a nuclear powered cargo/passenger ship that was also developed for “Atoms for Peace.” Unlike the nuclear airship, the N.S. Savannah was actually built, but it didn’t last long. Being a cargo/passenger ship, it wasn’t good at carrying either, and the crew needed special training to operate the ship. Many countries, fearing a potential nuclear disaster in their own ports, banned the ship from entering their waters. The economics just didn’t make sense. Also, civilians weren’t open to the idea of traveling next to a nuclear reactor, despite the numerous safety features in place.
I remember that. This channel and Mustard did videos on the Savannah as well ruclips.net/video/cYj4F_cyiJI/видео.html Given the number of past airship accidents, it's probably best that nuclear reactors weren't used in the sky. I mean, a flying aircraft carrier sounded awesome too.
@@Phrancis5 Probably not very efficient in weight as well. Nuclear reactors are HEAVY, and airships are infamously known for lacking the ability to carry large loads. Hell, the Hindenburg’s max payload with cargo, crew, living facilities, and passengers can probably be matched with a C-5 Galaxy.
They also learnt a lot from the NS Savannah that would have been very relevant to a nuclear airship. Stuff like learning which rubber seals go hard or break down under radiation. The materials issues for a nuclear airship are oft overlooked, but tricky to solve
@@robertoroberto9798 beaten by the C5 actually. BY A LONG SHOT! Everything on an AIRSHIP was super thin, and lightweight, because it can't carry anything. It can carry a max payload of 21K lbs.. a C5 Galaxy can carry 6x that amount.
@@demcomp No, I mean the crew facilities and the bedding as well. We’re comparing a plane that can carry way more cargo at the cost of less facilities for passengers to enjoy, to an airship which carries way less cargo because most of it was spent on passenger comfort like a bar, smoking room, etc.
My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw the thumbnail of the Atoms For Peace Airship. I couldn't believe I'm actually finally going to see this beautiful, gigantic vessel animated. As usual, you've done a magnificent job of showing how breathtaking it was, in its size and scope. Now, since you brought this mammoth Airship to life with your wonderful animation skills, I'm asking. Can you please do the same for the Soviet nuclear-powered airship as well?!! If you decide to do it, you will definitely bring tears to my eyes. Hahaha.
Just one note: This is NOT A BLIMP. Blimps are airships without any supporting framework inside the main fuselage, they only keep their shape by pressure. This is a Zeppelin-like rigid airship. As can be seen there is a lot of framework inside. Furthermore, parts of the living space is inside the main fuselage. If it was a blimp that wouldn’t be possible as their fuselage is just a balloon with a gondola strapped to the bottom. So no, this is not a blimp.
After I make my comment, of course I find this. Thank you. These kids would really be confused, if we were mentioned Zeppelin's latest airships. Those are not blimps either. :)
You are most certainly correct a blimp is classified as a non-rigid airship, while the Zeppelin type AIRSHIP is a rigid airship with an aluminum (duralumin) the shape and structure of the airship. How are blimps, and Zeppelin type of ships are both considered dirigibles, and or airships!
My father worked as a aerospace contractor in the 70's and he used to tell me we have tech they are working on that are 50 to 100yrs beyond what we have today
The Atoms for Peace program sponsored the first nuclear-powered commercial vessel, the NS Savannah. I remember visiting the ship in Portland, Maine in the early 1960s. The ship was on tour and a must visit for a ten year-old.
We can do both. People have already long since figured out how to harness fission effectively and dispose of the byproducts safely and securely. The bottom line is that there’s just way too much money left in hydrocarbons, so nuclear power is regulated so heavily that it’s financially impractical to build or maintain. We’ve been living in the past since the 1970s because of greed and unwillingness to move forward towards a better future in the realm of power generation.
@@OneBiasedOpinion Well, to be fair, (although I'm a fan of nuclear power, and think we should have embraced the technology and run with it), there have been some spectacular disasters, not helped by the arrogance and condescension of the atomic community towards reasonable questions about safety, then when there's a disaster, they don't seem to know what to do. Cockcroft's folly springs to mind.
Just an observation; the line of flags along the fuselage shows a Canadian "Maple Leaf" flag. If the airship is being portrayed as it would have appeared in the 50's, that flag is completely wrong. During that time period, the Canadian flag was a totally red field with the British Union symbol in the upper left with the Canadian coat of arms in the lower right. The Canadian "Red Ensign". The one pictured was only adopted in 1965. Otherwise, a really interesting topic, with excellent animation and graphics.
Have you ever considered doing a merch store that sells models of the vehicles you tell these stories about? could be a neat way to make some cash on the side.
Could be an issue with licencing. Don't really know how it works, but maybe the companies that designed the vehicles could have an issue with them selling their designs
The other major problem is risk assessment - you need to weight the effects of a worst case scenario and the probability of such a scenario. In the case of nuclear powered airship, the very not-zero chance of airships crashing or being destroyed mid-air and the dispersal of the nuclear fallout. That alone would have killed the project if nothing else did. As a video game vehicle, this would be awesome and it was done in Fallout 4 and in other games.
I've always felt the world gave up on Airships too easily after the Hindenburg disaster. The safety regulations simply needed to be vastly improved, that's all. I'd very much prefer traveling in something like this than a conventional airplane. I don't know about it being nuclear powered, though. I think there are much safer fuel alternatives. By the way, I've been subscribed to you for quite a while and this is my first time commenting on any of your videos. You do a lot of great work here.
What did airships in was advancements in aircraft design. By 1938 airships were obsolete for passenger service. Aircraft could do it cheaper and faster.
@@jamesricker3997 That's true. Airships weren't as as quick and cheap as airplanes, but I still think there could've been a way maybe further down the line where the industry could've achieved that with airships. They definitely could today. Maybe not cheaper, but the experience of air travel would be much more comfortable.
What I'm asking is: Is an airship worth it energy efficiency wise? Since airships don't need fuel to generate lift, would they be feasible for cheap cargo transportation in areas with low infrastructure or difficult geography? Like for providing help in an area after an earth quake or serving as mountain ambulance and such for example
Airships suffer terribly in bad weather, they are literally death traps in a storm. Sure they are majestic and there is romance to them but they really are a dead-end for all but the most niche use cases.
Also to consider is that you're talking about a ship the size of Titanic, that can maybe heft 50-70 people, plus baggage and food/water supplies...vs the *thousands* of a regular ship.
Amazing work. I love airships, but this could be disaster waiting to happen ;) In the 1980's I read a Bulgarian book that describe something like this (atomic airship), but it did not spoke for this particular one.
Given how well the 'Nuclear-powered' Cargo/Cruise liner was received, i take it people were thrilled at the idea of a nuclear reactor *floating over their heads* !!
@@Victor_._. Sorry, no. I'm doing it on my computer. It's a steampunk/alternate history novel. But the "Atoms for Peace Airship" has inspired a luxury French airline, a flying symbol of national pride.
Launching this airship at the time would’ve been like trying to launch a modern supercarrier before 1941, or a B-2 when planes are still wood and canvas- the industry, infrastructure, and operational experience just aren’t in the right state for it.
Great video! 👍 It reminds me of the sci-fi series “Fringe” (2008-2013), which involves alternate universes. In the alternate universe the Hindenburg disaster never happened. So, travel by airships is the most common form of air travel. There was one cool scene where you see passengers disembark from an airship at the Empire State Building.
Wonder if this inspired the airships of the Fallout franchise… Requesting videos on the following: -switchblade aircraft designs such as the FA-37 Talon from the ‘05 movie “Stealth” or the X-02 Wyvern from the Ace Combat franchise (the concept, not the actual fighters I mentioned) -Super Tomcat-21 and ASF-14 -the NATF program as a whole -early ATF proposals -Sea Apache -F-20 Tigershark -Bae SABA -Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Bomber proposal -Northrop’s proposal for what would become the F-117 Nighthawk -Interstate TDR -JSF proposals OTHER THAN the X-32 and X-35 -XFV-12 -Gloster Meteor -the proposals that didn’t win the F-X program that spawned the F-15 Eagle -Erado E.555
Took me a few minutes to realize you weren’t putting lightning in the clouds behind the airship, but clouds popping in and out of existence in your animations. 😂. Still love the video 10/10
A major factor that ultimately killed development of nuclear-powered aviation was the inability to develop a reactor that was both light enough and powerful enough to be used for aircraft propulsion. I think that with greater lift capacity and less power required the dirigible was a little closer to reality than nuclear-powered bombers. However, I'm also thinking it was largely a product of the imagination of Popular Mechanix magazine and Goodyear's marketing department.
You'd be surprised. Airships are actually extremely safe contrary to popular belief, and even when hey crash it is at relatively slow speeds. It was considered by nuclear engineers to be easier to make an airship reactor safe than a conventional ship reactor (actually built and in use).
@@robertoroberto9798dont even go there, gravity wouldn't allow anything at all , also the airship would be way way better than an airplane in that situation
@@robertoroberto9798dont even go there, gravity wouldn't allow anything at all , also the airship would be way way better than an airplane in that situation
As part of Atoms For Peace the UK released the designs for its Magnox reactor. This could run off natural, i.e. non enriched, uranium and would produce plutonium as a by-product. This formed the basis for North Korean plutonium production and the Nyongbyon reactor is based on the Magnox design.
God how I love this channel, I've watched a lot of your videos hehe, this is probably my favorite, since it touches on my favorite theme, Zeppelins!!. By the way, a question that came to me after watching the Ultimate Hellsing anime, where a zeppelin (the deux ex machina) appears, which is capable of transporting 1000 soldiers (not counting the crew), several Uboat submarines, airplanes, and numerous missiles. V1 and V2 with napal and probably white phosphorus, and a steel coating, would it be possible and how big would such a zeppelin be? I appreciate answers. PDST: Greetings from Argentina and good luck!!!
@@FoundAndExplained Thank you very much for answering, the anime is called Ultimate hellsing, you can look for the scene where the Zeppelin appears as (Hellsing Ultimate - London assault (sub esp)), it is a very good anime and very gore. PDST: They also destroy London, the revenge of any Argentine (including me) xdxd. Greetings and good luck to you!!!.
I wonder if this is where Sonic thr Heghog creators got the idea for the flying battery levels. They seem to share a lot in common. Also, they eventually did build a ship for that Atoms for Peace program, but as actual ship, the MS Savanah. The problem was by the time it went into service, nuclear power was become a bit taboo, and the ships were far more expensive to operate than promised. But the ship still exist today, laid up in Baltimore, MD, USA.
probably the entire history of Dirigibles as use for warfare, there were A LOT of crazy designs, from untouchable (at the time) bombers to aircraft carriers
-what if it crashed in bad weather? -how do you keep the reactor from melting without a lot of water onboard? -I imagine that the price tag for this would be pretty high
I can't say I can see a 1,000ft city but I could see this concept being shrunken down and used to create modern "cruise ships" in the sky instead of just the oceans
Its such a shame this was never built. I always had the feeling that the airship technology was never used to its full potential, which is truly tragic imo.
I agree with you there I do their that the airship has never fully implemented or utilized and find that to be one of the sad things about the modern world. We still live ina coal/diesel run world even though we are technically in the atomic age but have done very little in the field to advance or even implement it technology
Remember seeing other videos saying the airship like the ocean liner was abandoned not due to safety but due to the introduction of jet travel making both no longer financially viable. The ocean liner did at least get reinvented as the cruise ship.
It's a pity that the politicians in charge didn’t see a point in making it! If they did, any technical challenges would have been surmounted eventually, and the Atomic Age would have looked very different. Good video ,I'll look out for more 👏🏻
There was a young adult sci fi book decades ago, about a military nuclear powered airship called The grand Eagle, which was a flying aircraft carrier. This video made me think of that.
How would the power plant convert heat from the reactor to power? Normally nuclear plants use enormous amounts of water, heating it up and turning steam turbines with it, but an airship would have no way to get water while in the air
Nowadays, such an airship could be powered by electricity ⚡️ generated by solar panels all over the substantial surface area of the airship, and stored in modern batteries, it could also have onboard generators that run on hydrogen as well, particularly for nighttime operations or for emergency power. I definitely think that airships could potentially make a comeback, particularly for luxury air- cruise applications. An airship that is large enough to essentially be an airborne hotel or city could essentially be an option for vacationing in the sky, just as a cruise ships do now. Thank you for posting these videos! Please have an excellent and awesome day! ☀️✨✈️
Well, its clear from the proposal itself that the concept was not feasible. Titanium and fibreglass manufacturing didn't mature until the 60s. The ship would have needed to vent helium, a precious resource every time it needed to land (if the ducted propellers were insufficient) The added weight of lifting and lowering the hall would have been quite significant The complexity of operating a floating helipad would have meant that pilots would need the same training as carrier based navy pilots. Not to mention that IFR basically didn't exist at that time, so all weather operations would have been near impossible. Overall, the project is so ambitious that it would have cost almost the same as an aircraft carrier, if not more to develop. I highly doubt any country would spend that kind of money on a single propaganda tool...but then again this is the cold war we're talking about....
While I agree that this thing wouldn’t have worked as advertised, I do think something could have been made to work, until it crashed in some high winds . The gewgaws would have been dropped in design 1.1, nothing on winches, no helipad ( there is actually an Arthur C Clarke story that starts with a drone hitting what is essentially a fictional version of this thing, in the real world there would be a no fly zone around it ) , no sea landing . The lift thing was probably manageable with balonets ( balloons that could be filled with air within the gas envelope that could be blown up to decrease the lift of the zeppelin ) and possibly using the reactor heat as an additional source of lift as required . The specific strength of titanium and aluminium alloys seem to overlap at all but the most extreme values so going with something as rare and hard to work as titanium seems work for the sake of it, so that would probably be dropped as well. So a nuclear electric zeppelin using a small reactor out of a nuclear submarine might be feasible, until the first wind shear it encountered drives it into the ground.
As cool as airships are in concept, they're pretty much dearh traps. Their massive surface area makes them extremely vulnerable to strong winds, we figured that out through the several airship crashes in the early 20th century. An airship with a nuclear reactor on it is a catastrophe waiting to happen, so I'm glad it was never built.
@@Groza_Dallocort physics don't change tho, sure modern computer systems can help, but it's still way too much of a risk to strap a nuclear reactor onto it.
@@justalex4214 depends on what kind of nuclear reactor. Some of the SMRs that use molten metal as a collant dont have the capability to meltdown like Chernobyl and Fukushima
There was a bit of a problem with dirigible definitions. There are three classes of Airship, Ridged, semi ridged and non ridged. A ridged has a frame, a non ridgeds is maintained by pressure and a semi is a mix. Eg: Zeppelin's are ridged, Blimps are Non ridged and the Norge and Italia were semi Ridged.
I think airships actually make a lot of sense for logistical applications. They can operate cheaply and carry VERY heavy payloads around the world and land on any flat ground. Imagine shipping goods places after earthquakes, tsunamis, and wars! Your airstrip could be destroyed, and you could come in with a zeppelin carrying massive amounts of goods. The slower speed makes little difference when the cargo capacity is so high.
If it has an internal structure, it is a zeppelin, but if it is held in shape like a balloon by the lifting gas, it is a blimp. The sketches etc show an internal structure, so it's a zeppelin.
The idea of such an airship just gets my imagination going. Think of cruise ships in the sky, and the prospect of living on one fulltime. Looking out your bedroom window at 20,000ft when you wake up in the morning, gently floating over the Pacific ocean towards nowhere in particular. Perhaps you want to head back to land ahead of the next scheduled landing. You hop into your 1955 Cessna 172, clear for takeoff, and fly out of the airship hanger towards your destination. It's just a tiny part of the grandiose post WWII nuclear powered vision of the future that was never realized.
There is a very cool post appoc series of books called "Helldivers" by Nicholas Sansbury Smith where the last remnants of humanity huddle inside this type of airship, while sending teams to the destroyed surface to scavenge for materials. Meanwhile this was a pretty cool video.
As we watch these just imagine if people 100 years ago were watching videos of todays plane designs. What may seem unrealistic now could certainly be the reality of tomorrow.
It would never been able to fly with enough shields around the reactor, that's why we canceled atomic powered airplanes too. The Hindenburg had a lightweight Piano made from aluminium as a luxury item, you need lead and concrete to shield from radiation... (it would have flown like a Lead Zeppelin)
6:06 Some smart engineer please correct here, but I feel like the hangar, the way it's shown, would disallow any helicopter to safely land and take off. Strong currents at the high altitude would blow the exposed part of the helicopter aside while it's only partly outside out of the hangar and and make it hit a wall. Better solution would be to have the helicopter land on the roof and then be lowered to the hangar while firmly attached to an elevator.
This dirigible could be built today using photovoltaic panels....and should be. It would make air travel more pleasant, less expensive and more ecologically friendly.
What an amazing and simply ludicrous / insane / fantastic concept. Guess if one wanted to build something like that today, the most pressing problem would not be the nuclear reactor, or light-weight materials, but the lack of helium. Read somewhere that apparently we have been using up Helium reserves that were built up until something like the 1970s, and ever since then they were shrinking globally.
Go to ground.news/found to stay informed on breaking news as it’s happening around the world, compare coverage, and know where your news is coming from. Check it out for free or subscribe for unlimited access before May 22 and get it for as little as $5 a month.
Future video about the F-22 Raptor?
Penguins are cool
True
Bro please make a video about Tu-160
Thank you Found and Explained! For anyone interested, check out the link above and let us know if you have any questions.
This concept give me a BioShock Infinite vibe. Of all the terminated projects we’ve covered so far, I’d love to see Atoms for Peace come to life the most.
"Atoms for Peace" was actually an entire project/PR campaign (look up operation candor for fun info) back in the cold war for the usage of nuclear science in civilian applications;It isn't referring to just this thing
A mini Columbia hahaha
They did make the NS Savannah, a nuclear powered cargo/cruise ship.
Nah man, it's the Pridwyn
The thumbnail made me think of an anime or game.
something to point out is while you call it a flying city, this airship would fit perfectly in the studio ghibli film titled 'castle in the sky'
Love that
Or as Castle Wulfenbach in the long-running steampunk comic series "Girl Genius".
Or a Jules Verne novel. The entire thing is very steam punk.
@@fredbloggs8072 more like atompunk
I actually genuinely agree with you😂😂❤❤ @@jackychan9236
The N.S. Savannah was a nuclear powered cargo/passenger ship that was also developed for “Atoms for Peace.” Unlike the nuclear airship, the N.S. Savannah was actually built, but it didn’t last long. Being a cargo/passenger ship, it wasn’t good at carrying either, and the crew needed special training to operate the ship. Many countries, fearing a potential nuclear disaster in their own ports, banned the ship from entering their waters. The economics just didn’t make sense. Also, civilians weren’t open to the idea of traveling next to a nuclear reactor, despite the numerous safety features in place.
I remember that. This channel and Mustard did videos on the Savannah as well ruclips.net/video/cYj4F_cyiJI/видео.html Given the number of past airship accidents, it's probably best that nuclear reactors weren't used in the sky. I mean, a flying aircraft carrier sounded awesome too.
@@Phrancis5 Probably not very efficient in weight as well. Nuclear reactors are HEAVY, and airships are infamously known for lacking the ability to carry large loads. Hell, the Hindenburg’s max payload with cargo, crew, living facilities, and passengers can probably be matched with a C-5 Galaxy.
They also learnt a lot from the NS Savannah that would have been very relevant to a nuclear airship. Stuff like learning which rubber seals go hard or break down under radiation.
The materials issues for a nuclear airship are oft overlooked, but tricky to solve
@@robertoroberto9798 beaten by the C5 actually. BY A LONG SHOT! Everything on an AIRSHIP was super thin, and lightweight, because it can't carry anything. It can carry a max payload of 21K lbs.. a C5 Galaxy can carry 6x that amount.
@@demcomp No, I mean the crew facilities and the bedding as well. We’re comparing a plane that can carry way more cargo at the cost of less facilities for passengers to enjoy, to an airship which carries way less cargo because most of it was spent on passenger comfort like a bar, smoking room, etc.
My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw the thumbnail of the Atoms For Peace Airship. I couldn't believe I'm actually finally going to see this beautiful, gigantic vessel animated. As usual, you've done a magnificent job of showing how breathtaking it was, in its size and scope. Now, since you brought this mammoth Airship to life with your wonderful animation skills, I'm asking. Can you please do the same for the Soviet nuclear-powered airship as well?!! If you decide to do it, you will definitely bring tears to my eyes. Hahaha.
Just one note: This is NOT A BLIMP. Blimps are airships without any supporting framework inside the main fuselage, they only keep their shape by pressure. This is a Zeppelin-like rigid airship. As can be seen there is a lot of framework inside. Furthermore, parts of the living space is inside the main fuselage. If it was a blimp that wouldn’t be possible as their fuselage is just a balloon with a gondola strapped to the bottom. So no, this is not a blimp.
Thank you.
After I make my comment, of course I find this. Thank you.
These kids would really be confused, if we were mentioned Zeppelin's latest airships. Those are not blimps either. :)
You are most certainly correct a blimp is classified as a non-rigid airship, while the Zeppelin type AIRSHIP is a rigid airship with an aluminum (duralumin) the shape and structure of the airship. How are blimps, and Zeppelin type of ships are both considered dirigibles, and or airships!
Well said!
@@diggingattycho7908 It's not a balloon, it's an airship! If you want to play with balloons, get outside!
My father worked as a aerospace contractor in the 70's and he used to tell me we have tech they are working on that are 50 to 100yrs beyond what we have today
The Atoms for Peace program sponsored the first nuclear-powered commercial vessel, the NS Savannah. I remember visiting the ship in Portland, Maine in the early 1960s. The ship was on tour and a must visit for a ten year-old.
When they future was actually the future and not some corporate technocracy BS pandering to overgrown mental infant fads.
I wish there was still exciting stuff in Portland. I live super close and it's worse than the town I live in.
Despite being referred to as a 'blimp' many times in the video, this vehicle is not a blimp. It's a rigid airship.
Imagine a world so civilized that we could use nuclear energy to the fullest. Also a world that we could dispose of the waste responsibly.
To quote Pro. Farnsworth (from Futurama): "A man can dream"
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride nuclear airships.
So Fallout in a way?
We can do both. People have already long since figured out how to harness fission effectively and dispose of the byproducts safely and securely. The bottom line is that there’s just way too much money left in hydrocarbons, so nuclear power is regulated so heavily that it’s financially impractical to build or maintain. We’ve been living in the past since the 1970s because of greed and unwillingness to move forward towards a better future in the realm of power generation.
@@OneBiasedOpinion Well, to be fair, (although I'm a fan of nuclear power, and think we should have embraced the technology and run with it), there have been some spectacular disasters, not helped by the arrogance and condescension of the atomic community towards reasonable questions about safety, then when there's a disaster, they don't seem to know what to do. Cockcroft's folly springs to mind.
Skipping math to watch this W FoundAndExplained
I'm in chemistry bro
I'm in art
In chemistry
Geography
Same
Just an observation; the line of flags along the fuselage shows a Canadian "Maple Leaf" flag. If the airship is being portrayed as it would have appeared in the 50's, that flag is completely wrong. During that time period, the Canadian flag was a totally red field with the British Union symbol in the upper left with the Canadian coat of arms in the lower right. The Canadian "Red Ensign". The one pictured was only adopted in 1965. Otherwise, a really interesting topic, with excellent animation and graphics.
If it was actually built, my life would be spent in this Airship, I'm with you, it's a good place to live in, the Flying Cities would have great life
Have you ever considered doing a merch store that sells models of the vehicles you tell these stories about? could be a neat way to make some cash on the side.
DONT TEMPT ME FRODO!
Could be an issue with licencing. Don't really know how it works, but maybe the companies that designed the vehicles could have an issue with them selling their designs
This is a rigid airship and not a "blimp!"
I'm so jealous of the multiverse timelines that goes these.
"People Of The Commonwealth. Do not interfere. Our intentions are peaceful. We are the Brotherhood of Steel."
I've been looking for this comment the moment i saw the thumbnail lol
9:31 I’m quite certain it’s not “kneel”, but “keel” (pronounced: key-eel). The bottom most structural member of the hull of a ship.
For a man that created excellent visuals he spends zero time researching the pronunciation of some names/words.
The other major problem is risk assessment - you need to weight the effects of a worst case scenario and the probability of such a scenario. In the case of nuclear powered airship, the very not-zero chance of airships crashing or being destroyed mid-air and the dispersal of the nuclear fallout. That alone would have killed the project if nothing else did. As a video game vehicle, this would be awesome and it was done in Fallout 4 and in other games.
I've always felt the world gave up on Airships too easily after the Hindenburg disaster. The safety regulations simply needed to be vastly improved, that's all. I'd very much prefer traveling in something like this than a conventional airplane. I don't know about it being nuclear powered, though. I think there are much safer fuel alternatives. By the way, I've been subscribed to you for quite a while and this is my first time commenting on any of your videos. You do a lot of great work here.
What did airships in was advancements in aircraft design.
By 1938 airships were obsolete for passenger service. Aircraft could do it cheaper and faster.
@@jamesricker3997 That's true. Airships weren't as as quick and cheap as airplanes, but I still think there could've been a way maybe further down the line where the industry could've achieved that with airships. They definitely could today. Maybe not cheaper, but the experience of air travel would be much more comfortable.
What I'm asking is: Is an airship worth it energy efficiency wise?
Since airships don't need fuel to generate lift, would they be feasible for cheap cargo transportation in areas with low infrastructure or difficult geography?
Like for providing help in an area after an earth quake or serving as mountain ambulance and such for example
Airships suffer terribly in bad weather, they are literally death traps in a storm.
Sure they are majestic and there is romance to them but they really are a dead-end for all but the most niche use cases.
Also to consider is that you're talking about a ship the size of Titanic, that can maybe heft 50-70 people, plus baggage and food/water supplies...vs the *thousands* of a regular ship.
My question would be how heavy is the cooling system and how many hundreds of gallons would be required for safety.
Amazing work. I love airships, but this could be disaster waiting to happen ;)
In the 1980's I read a Bulgarian book that describe something like this (atomic airship), but it did not spoke for this particular one.
Airship crashes are relatively low forces. It was calculated to be very easy to make reactors safe for airship crashes.
@@matthiuskoenig3378 will not call 150 km/h low force, but is better than 600+ km/h as slower jets fly.
Given how well the 'Nuclear-powered' Cargo/Cruise liner was received, i take it people were thrilled at the idea of a nuclear reactor *floating over their heads* !!
I've been trying to create an opening setting for a steampunk novel! I've found inspiration! Great Video!
I would love to read when done! Do you have a specific platform?
@@Victor_._. Sorry, no. I'm doing it on my computer. It's a steampunk/alternate history novel. But the "Atoms for Peace Airship" has inspired a luxury French airline, a flying symbol of national pride.
Man the music from the Ace Combat 7 flying air craft carrier mission would have fitted the into so damn perfect
Launching this airship at the time would’ve been like trying to launch a modern supercarrier before 1941, or a B-2 when planes are still wood and canvas- the industry, infrastructure, and operational experience just aren’t in the right state for it.
True, but it’s those projects that lead to progress and technological advancement.
@@stinkymccheese8010 unfortunately, real technological advancement is also known as "repeated failure" and is therefore politically unfavorable.
The Horten brothers built their first flying wings ("B2's") from wood and canvas
Source: trust me bro.
Great video! 👍 It reminds me of the sci-fi series “Fringe” (2008-2013), which involves alternate universes. In the alternate universe the Hindenburg disaster never happened. So, travel by airships is the most common form of air travel. There was one cool scene where you see passengers disembark from an airship at the Empire State Building.
Wonder if this inspired the airships of the Fallout franchise…
Requesting videos on the following:
-switchblade aircraft designs such as the FA-37 Talon from the ‘05 movie “Stealth” or the X-02 Wyvern from the Ace Combat franchise (the concept, not the actual fighters I mentioned)
-Super Tomcat-21 and ASF-14
-the NATF program as a whole
-early ATF proposals
-Sea Apache
-F-20 Tigershark
-Bae SABA
-Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Bomber proposal
-Northrop’s proposal for what would become the F-117 Nighthawk
-Interstate TDR
-JSF proposals OTHER THAN the X-32 and X-35
-XFV-12
-Gloster Meteor
-the proposals that didn’t win the F-X program that spawned the F-15 Eagle
-Erado E.555
Still would have been cool to see in real life. Even cooler to be a passenger.
Took me a few minutes to realize you weren’t putting lightning in the clouds behind the airship, but clouds popping in and out of existence in your animations. 😂. Still love the video 10/10
A major factor that ultimately killed development of nuclear-powered aviation was the inability to develop a reactor that was both light enough and powerful enough to be used for aircraft propulsion. I think that with greater lift capacity and less power required the dirigible was a little closer to reality than nuclear-powered bombers. However, I'm also thinking it was largely a product of the imagination of Popular Mechanix magazine and Goodyear's marketing department.
Yea my first thought was along the lines of oh ffs this was when the genius collective thought airbreather reactors were a thing lol.
Everything about it, except for the fact that it would be a radioactive deathtrap, is super cool!
You'd be surprised. Airships are actually extremely safe contrary to popular belief, and even when hey crash it is at relatively slow speeds. It was considered by nuclear engineers to be easier to make an airship reactor safe than a conventional ship reactor (actually built and in use).
Remember "Crimson Skies:Hi road to revenge" on the original x-box?
I could see this in a story 20 years later in the games time line.
I wander how popular airships would be on a Super Earth, where the distance between continents would presumably be larger.
On other worlds, land ships and airships would likely be the norm, even compared to traditional cities.
Supersonic aircraft would be really popular too
Gravity would increase and make airships even less economical. Planes would still rule the sky.
@@robertoroberto9798dont even go there, gravity wouldn't allow anything at all , also the airship would be way way better than an airplane in that situation
@@robertoroberto9798dont even go there, gravity wouldn't allow anything at all , also the airship would be way way better than an airplane in that situation
As part of Atoms For Peace the UK released the designs for its Magnox reactor. This could run off natural, i.e. non enriched, uranium and would produce plutonium as a by-product. This formed the basis for North Korean plutonium production and the Nyongbyon reactor is based on the Magnox design.
God how I love this channel, I've watched a lot of your videos hehe, this is probably my favorite, since it touches on my favorite theme, Zeppelins!!.
By the way, a question that came to me after watching the Ultimate Hellsing anime, where a zeppelin (the deux ex machina) appears, which is capable of transporting 1000 soldiers (not counting the crew), several Uboat submarines, airplanes, and numerous missiles. V1 and V2 with napal and probably white phosphorus, and a steel coating, would it be possible and how big would such a zeppelin be?
I appreciate answers.
PDST: Greetings from Argentina and good luck!!!
It would be huge, but wouldn’t actually require that much material. Most of the inside of a balloon is gas so wouldn’t be super heavy
@@FoundAndExplained Thank you very much for answering, the anime is called Ultimate hellsing, you can look for the scene where the Zeppelin appears as (Hellsing Ultimate - London assault (sub esp)), it is a very good anime and very gore.
PDST: They also destroy London, the revenge of any Argentine (including me) xdxd.
Greetings and good luck to you!!!.
Seeing a 304.8 meter long airship would've been wild, 59.8 meters longer than the Hindenburg!
I wonder if this is where Sonic thr Heghog creators got the idea for the flying battery levels. They seem to share a lot in common. Also, they eventually did build a ship for that Atoms for Peace program, but as actual ship, the MS Savanah. The problem was by the time it went into service, nuclear power was become a bit taboo, and the ships were far more expensive to operate than promised. But the ship still exist today, laid up in Baltimore, MD, USA.
probably the entire history of Dirigibles as use for warfare, there were A LOT of crazy designs, from untouchable (at the time) bombers to aircraft carriers
-what if it crashed in bad weather?
-how do you keep the reactor from melting without a lot of water onboard?
-I imagine that the price tag for this would be pretty high
This is one of those things where I say:
"I don't care about your cost and Health And Safety regulations,
Get it built.
Now."
I can't say I can see a 1,000ft city but I could see this concept being shrunken down and used to create modern "cruise ships" in the sky instead of just the oceans
Its such a shame this was never built. I always had the feeling that the airship technology was never used to its full potential, which is truly tragic imo.
I agree with you there I do their that the airship has never fully implemented or utilized and find that to be one of the sad things about the modern world. We still live ina coal/diesel run world even though we are technically in the atomic age but have done very little in the field to advance or even implement it technology
Remember seeing other videos saying the airship like the ocean liner was abandoned not due to safety but due to the introduction of jet travel making both no longer financially viable. The ocean liner did at least get reinvented as the cruise ship.
Another great video!
love you always
Love your "photography" about Aircrafts! ❤
@@FoundAndExplained likewise, thank you for your friendship!
amazing work as always
Thank you! Cheers!
It's a pity that the politicians in charge didn’t see a point in making it!
If they did, any technical challenges would have been surmounted eventually, and the Atomic Age would have looked very different.
Good video ,I'll look out for more 👏🏻
"Seem like" is a very significant understatement there...
There was a young adult sci fi book decades ago, about a military nuclear powered airship called The grand Eagle, which was a flying aircraft carrier. This video made me think of that.
How would the power plant convert heat from the reactor to power? Normally nuclear plants use enormous amounts of water, heating it up and turning steam turbines with it, but an airship would have no way to get water while in the air
Probably been said before, blimps have no ridged structure. It’s an airship.
The artwork for this is pretty incredible.
How would they cool the reactor?? I don't think that air cooling would be sufficient and water cooling viable.
Nowadays, such an airship could be powered by electricity ⚡️ generated by solar panels all over the substantial surface area of the airship, and stored in modern batteries, it could also have onboard generators that run on hydrogen as well, particularly for nighttime operations or for emergency power. I definitely think that airships could potentially make a comeback, particularly for luxury air- cruise applications. An airship that is large enough to essentially be an airborne hotel or city could essentially be an option for vacationing in the sky, just as a cruise ships do now.
Thank you for posting these videos!
Please have an excellent and awesome day!
☀️✨✈️
Uhhh...look up. A hundred miles probably one above you now. It's jimmy page or Will Smith!
Gotta wonder. They got the $$$
"Lets make peace!"
"that's propaganda!"
man
Finally something related to airships
10:40 The Legend, Dr.Homi Bhabha ,father of the indian atomic program 🙂
Well, its clear from the proposal itself that the concept was not feasible. Titanium and fibreglass manufacturing didn't mature until the 60s. The ship would have needed to vent helium, a precious resource every time it needed to land (if the ducted propellers were insufficient)
The added weight of lifting and lowering the hall would have been quite significant
The complexity of operating a floating helipad would have meant that pilots would need the same training as carrier based navy pilots. Not to mention that IFR basically didn't exist at that time, so all weather operations would have been near impossible.
Overall, the project is so ambitious that it would have cost almost the same as an aircraft carrier, if not more to develop. I highly doubt any country would spend that kind of money on a single propaganda tool...but then again this is the cold war we're talking about....
While I agree that this thing wouldn’t have worked as advertised, I do think something could have been made to work, until it crashed in some high winds . The gewgaws would have been dropped in design 1.1, nothing on winches, no helipad ( there is actually an Arthur C Clarke story that starts with a drone hitting what is essentially a fictional version of this thing, in the real world there would be a no fly zone around it ) , no sea landing . The lift thing was probably manageable with balonets ( balloons that could be filled with air within the gas envelope that could be blown up to decrease the lift of the zeppelin ) and possibly using the reactor heat as an additional source of lift as required . The specific strength of titanium and aluminium alloys seem to overlap at all but the most extreme values so going with something as rare and hard to work as titanium seems work for the sake of it, so that would probably be dropped as well. So a nuclear electric zeppelin using a small reactor out of a nuclear submarine might be feasible, until the first wind shear it encountered drives it into the ground.
This is the type of things that i definitely put into my 50's styled Spy Novel if i have one.
"The story is more nutty than you might think?" *How?!* I'm already picturing cackling mad scientist laughter and a man stroking a Persian cat.
The fact you can drop from one of these in a suit of power armor is amazing.
The USNAVY's Lighter Than AirMen
Could you do a video on the Blohm and Voss BV 141
Love these videos they are so good
new starship redesign is looking pretty radical
If i could choose one thing from your channel to bring back it would be this
As cool as airships are in concept, they're pretty much dearh traps. Their massive surface area makes them extremely vulnerable to strong winds, we figured that out through the several airship crashes in the early 20th century. An airship with a nuclear reactor on it is a catastrophe waiting to happen, so I'm glad it was never built.
I think that if you build them with 2023 technology that will change I mean alot of happend since the Hindenburg disaster
@@Groza_Dallocort physics don't change tho, sure modern computer systems can help, but it's still way too much of a risk to strap a nuclear reactor onto it.
@@justalex4214 depends on what kind of nuclear reactor. Some of the SMRs that use molten metal as a collant dont have the capability to meltdown like Chernobyl and Fukushima
There was a bit of a problem with dirigible definitions. There are three classes of Airship, Ridged, semi ridged and non ridged. A ridged has a frame, a non
ridgeds is maintained by pressure and a semi is a mix. Eg: Zeppelin's are ridged, Blimps are Non ridged and the Norge and Italia were semi Ridged.
This video is impresive and give me idea what to add on my airship build
Holy Thunderbirds, Batman ... now this is a story to break an old Trekkie's heart.
I think airships actually make a lot of sense for logistical applications. They can operate cheaply and carry VERY heavy payloads around the world and land on any flat ground. Imagine shipping goods places after earthquakes, tsunamis, and wars! Your airstrip could be destroyed, and you could come in with a zeppelin carrying massive amounts of goods. The slower speed makes little difference when the cargo capacity is so high.
This would be an excellent setting for some really good SciFy storie telling.
The original Prydin airship from Fallout 4.
This was just a pure concept that would never be capable of being built.
If it's a 1950s design, then the Canadian flag on the side is the wrong one
Imagine peresnting a nuclear powered dirigible only to call it a blimp, after the intro.
Would have loved to see this come true. What a great idea❤❤❤❤
I don't know why but every time i see an airship, my brain immediately says "kirov reporting"
If it has an internal structure, it is a zeppelin, but if it is held in shape like a balloon by the lifting gas, it is a blimp.
The sketches etc show an internal structure, so it's a zeppelin.
Don't know how you fit all that in 100 tonnes
The idea of such an airship just gets my imagination going. Think of cruise ships in the sky, and the prospect of living on one fulltime. Looking out your bedroom window at 20,000ft when you wake up in the morning, gently floating over the Pacific ocean towards nowhere in particular. Perhaps you want to head back to land ahead of the next scheduled landing. You hop into your 1955 Cessna 172, clear for takeoff, and fly out of the airship hanger towards your destination. It's just a tiny part of the grandiose post WWII nuclear powered vision of the future that was never realized.
*yet to be realised
We can always hope
It's classified. Look here(planes) not there...
It's the predecessor to modern unclassified manned satellites aka Oprah's sky yacht
There is a very cool post appoc series of books called "Helldivers" by Nicholas Sansbury Smith where the last remnants of humanity huddle inside this type of airship, while sending teams to the destroyed surface to scavenge for materials.
Meanwhile this was a pretty cool video.
"Ah yes the luxury of the boat and the speed of...a slower boat" -Sterling Archer on Airships.
As we watch these just imagine if people 100 years ago were watching videos of todays plane designs. What may seem unrealistic now could certainly be the reality of tomorrow.
Just finished my Bio test😢 Thanks for being there FandE.
Best inspirational avionics teaser ever
Are you sure making a nuclear powerd, city sized flying mass would create peace..?
peace through superior flying mass
That's funny!
I feel like this should be included in The Grand Voyage. Might be a little far into the future but it is still technically a liner.
It would never been able to fly with enough shields around the reactor, that's why we canceled atomic powered airplanes too.
The Hindenburg had a lightweight Piano made from aluminium as a luxury item, you need lead and concrete to shield from radiation... (it would have flown like a Lead Zeppelin)
Atomic dirigibles are an awesome concept.
this sounds like the next bioshock setting, i love it
How did they plan to cool the reactor?
Ships use the surrounding sea water
6:06 Some smart engineer please correct here, but I feel like the hangar, the way it's shown, would disallow any helicopter to safely land and take off. Strong currents at the high altitude would blow the exposed part of the helicopter aside while it's only partly outside out of the hangar and and make it hit a wall. Better solution would be to have the helicopter land on the roof and then be lowered to the hangar while firmly attached to an elevator.
Now I know where the idea for te Fallout 4's Prydwen came from. Thanks!
Genuinely wish this was fully realized...
This dirigible could be built today using photovoltaic panels....and should be. It would make air travel more pleasant, less expensive and more ecologically friendly.
What an amazing and simply ludicrous / insane / fantastic concept.
Guess if one wanted to build something like that today, the most pressing problem would not be the nuclear reactor, or light-weight materials, but the lack of helium. Read somewhere that apparently we have been using up Helium reserves that were built up until something like the 1970s, and ever since then they were shrinking globally.
we live in the dumbest timeline.
Man you remember wolfram from the sky clawer: innocent ace?
Yeah that wolfram
I don't see how flying an atomic reactor over a country with all the risk of spreading fallout all over the place could go wrong.
Because having 20 larging reactors roaming the sea is any better?
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough they are not hanging from a gas bag.
What happened to the cloud rendering during the nine minute period??
By the time they met the shielding standards, they would have ended up with a "Lead Zeplin"