"Cargolifter" was the idea to build huge airships to transport heavy machinery and other stuff to places without the infrastructure on the ground. The airship can move around but also remain stationary like a crane and put the things on the ground. The company started in 1996. They collected a few hundred millions and started to develop the airship and the hangar. It appeared that everything would take longer than expected and cost far to much to be ever profitable but they finished the hangar before they went bankrupt in 2002. The idea to buy the hangar and to make a tropical resort out of it was almost as risky as the airships but it somehow worked out and it's still successful.
Yepp, the Cargolifter was a typical "Ideenscheisser" idea, or an idea-shitter-idea. It had a very basic flaw that even today's semi-rigids or rigid airships have. When they deposit their cargo on the ground they suddenly gain a HUGE amount of uplift. This has to be overcome by adding balast instead. Which would have to be available at the target site, but how did it get there if not by air-transport? Because these airships were designed to lift huge masses to very inhospitable locations, which couldn't be reached by ground transport at all, or only with HUUUUGE expenses and construction. Otherwise the airship has to be tethered to incredibly strong ground structures that are able to withstand the uplift of the airship. That also would require such a system to carry them there, to be then anchored to the ground, requiring even more... you get the drift. Using helium as a lifting medium is a LOT safer (cough, Hindenburg desaster, cough) but it is also very expensive, and very limited. It also has a significantly smaller lift capacity than hydrogen. Releasing helium at every drop-off point would be incredibly expensive. In addition the single largest stores of helium are found in the USA; all other nations combined are not even worth mentioning. Another addition: helium is very limited on this planet in total; once it is released into the atmosphere it is essentially gone; we can't recover it from the atmosphere (reliably or at any kind of reasonable cost) in any significant amounts. It is contained in the standard air at absolutely minuscule amounts; not even worth calling it a trace. Heck, even the other inert gases contained in standard air which make up around 0.1% are several orders of magnitude greater than helium. Helium is one of only two gases that has a chance to escape Earth's gravity well under specific circumstances; the other being hydrogen. So releasing helium to counteract the sudden uplift of the dropped cargo's mass was no option. And using hydrogen instead of helium, while comparatively cheap and VERY available does have its, well, explosive draw-backs. So overcoming this basic physical problem of constantly changing uplift was a much bigger problem to overcome than originally anticipated. Even a full throttle down-force of all four engines was barely enough to compensate, leaving virtually no thrust left to generate forward motion. Adding more engines and fuel would reduce the cargo capacity, as well as increase the running costs to such a high level that it would barely qualify for its intended role of supplying lifting capacity at cheap rates to inhospitable locations. It just remained a possible cargo transport at low speeds to inhospitable locations. But for that it just wasn't economically viable enough. Presto, end of financing, and end of project.
Moin! I can't even imagine it, I think. Unbelievable...😯🧐I also like September very much!!! (IOf the weather is nice). I like the colours or the trees and so on. Down here we call a nice and sunny Septemer "Altweibersommer". This means something like "old ladies summer". 😅😎
been there last year with the family. its pretty cool. had one of the bungalows outside could buy grill stuff nearby daily food stuff in the morning and evening inside the place. has also like "refill stations" inside all over the place where you could get free drinks while ya there - could get a new refill every 30min or so - is like one of those coca cola mix stations with lots of different flavours and what not, cuz its hot inside and ya drinking nonstop like crazy. it also has like a big outdoor pool area at this point with a wild water slide kinda thing outside. and other activity options like soccer fields and what not. shuttlebus would drive regularly between the hangar main entrances and various points in the outside area cuz the camping site itself is easily like 1~2km away from the entrance into to hangar... its a bit pricey for sure, but what holiday isnt... - is def worth checking out at least once when one has the chance.
Zeppelin are the old rigid airships germany built in the 1920's and 1930's. Zeppelin NT are the new semi-regid airships. Cargolifter CL160 was also a semi-regid airship. But the Cargolifter AG, which built this hall bought also some blimps from other companies.
We Germans have a solution for the beach chair war, we just lay our towels onto the beach chairs in the evening or night or as I myself did one time, stand on the balcony of your hotel room and throw your towel onto the beach chair 😂 Idk why so many Germans do that but I think it’s still in the blood of many of us Germans. I have a secret trick these days: Take your own foldable beach chair with you or hide one of the hotel in the bushes and take it out when you need it ;3
Two Zeppelin NT*s regularly hover over Lake Constance for tourist purposes. They are also produced and sold here in Friedrichshafen, the Zeppelins' home town. The thermal spa in Erding near Munich is the largest in the world. *Neue Technik New Technic
