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xkcd #3298: Aerospace Flowchart (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 month ago by [B] to c/xkcd@lemmy.world
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xkcd #3298: Aerospace Flowchart

Title text:

Someday, we will find the problem that goes with this solution.

Transcript:

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3298/

explainxkcd for #3298

Someday, we will find the problem that goes with this solution.
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[–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

Maybe some balloon animal structures inside the balloon to give it a shape?

I started off being a bit silly, but this question is serious. If you had a magic material that was rigid and could maintain that inflated shape for the same weight as the current material they use, could you selectively change its buoyancy by vacuum? Don't submarines and fish with their swim bladders do the same thing? That would make it a materials problem correct?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    Ok, say you have an extremely lightweight yet strong material that you could make a large vacuum chamber out of. It would be quite effective as a lifting device.

    And as you note, regulating the pressure inside with bladders would enable you to adjust the buoyancy, this is actually a system that the modern Zeppelin NT uses, though not for adjusting lift in response to loading/unloading, more as a general setting for the area and air pressure.

    The NT is usually calibrated to weigh about 300kg and uses movable propellers to move up/down and relies on the airfoil shape of the inflated envelope to generate the tiny amount of lift to stay up while moving forward.

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