The Midairport

The Charge:

We can design and launch a zeppelin larger than any made in history, not for the purposes of traveling, but for the purpose of launching ships. An aircraft carrier floating not on water but air, suspending commercial and scientific planes to improve air travel.

Means:
A disc-shaped zeppelin approximately 1 kilometer in diameter, floating at 30,000', with a surface rigid enough to land a plane on is an attractive condition.

-Incoming planes can achieve a very low angles of approach, making landing a much safer and smoother exercise.
-Planes will not need to climb high altitudes during their takeoff, allowing them to reach higher speeds more quickly with less engine labor and pollution through thinner air.
-Urban real estate is conserved, allowing for less ground level disturbance from an air facility. Less ground level sound and air pollution is produced, and more space is available for green development.

Above this aircraft carrier, a high-altitude aircraft carrier can suspend rigid tramlines to assist in upper-atmosphere and space launches, with similar benefits of fuel and resource conservancy.



Navigation:
Air is energy.

Aircraft Zeppelins can use their atmospheric position to make excellent use of equator-equivalent altitude adjusted solar arrays and wind power from the earth's natural weather convection. Wind farms can help steer the ship with resistance as they generate power. It will be possible to use sails rigged under the zeppelin to steer through the air depending on currents and maintain position with little artificial thrust, provided from on-turbines, wind farms, or support from the ground. The ship will also be compartmentalized and fitted with compressors to change operating pressure and function as a single wing with a flap at the tip of the tapering disc to wisk air up or down and adjust buoyancy and real load weight with passing gusts.

Connection:
Many theorists have assembled strategies for super-tensile cords to connect a massive orbiting counterweight to suspend the elevator, but helium works just as well. The main benefit from a super-tensile chain would be reduced weight. Currently, connectivity relies on tramlines linked to mooring stations on earth. Threads of cables secured to cement blocks similar to the foundations of buildings will secure the carrier's place, along with its own navigation systems.

Buoyancy:
Tramlines can run ballast up or down depending on necessary mass and to counteract the presence or absence of planes. The Carrier must provide a substantially greater amount of lift than its heaviest active weightload. The average commercial plane weighs some 13 tons, and a metro airport must be able to service up to 50 of these planes at any given moment, along with its own operating weight, control services, and equipment.

Ground Level:
The primary portion of baggage, customs, and commercial elements will be positioned in a large facility where the tramlines let passengers on and off at ground level. Numerous large trams must be able to operate simultaneously to ferry people, baggage, equipment, and ballast up and down continuously. A functional ground level landing strip may be necessary as well.

Security:
It is critical that the Aircraft be prepared to remain secure during any disaster. For this reason all possible events have been considered and thwarted. Lift well in excess of the heaviest load must be maintained at all times, so even in the event of a rupture the massive airship will remain aloft. Substantial ballast must be able to be removed and ferried to the ground rapidly to increase the ship's buoyancy in such an event. In the event of de-mooring, helium levels must be manageable to turn the airship into a hot air ballon until it can be repositioned and remoored. Navigational systems must also be in full working order to counteract drift and dislocation.

Substantial weather must be counterable. The majority of storms fall below the airport's altitude, but it is not impossible for strong winds to affect the airship. Navigational systems must be retractable and counteracting propellers must be strong. The ship's sides must be aerodynamic to allow strong winds to rush over the top and bottom of the ship, likely coming to a point at the edge of the disc-shape 360* around the ship. The ship must be able to conduct lightning down to the ground without sustaining damage. This may be an attractive situation, as the lightning bolt can be stored into giant supercapacitors to harvest the storm's energy.

Furthermore, the structure, being made of conductive metal, may experience a steady electrical current, bursts of energy, or both, due to the difference in ionization between the earth and atmosphere. Lightning is continually striking somewhere on earth, and a metal elevator such as this may act like a lightning rod. We can be prepared for and benefit from this liklihood.

The ship will be protected against accidental drops. If a plane rolls towards the side, a small lip or bump should give it the upward thrust it would need to achieve flight, or if it doesn't, the plane would be caught shortly below in a net. This same kind of net would catch people or items that move over the edge. No object larger than a coin should be able to fall from the airship.

The ship will be protected against accidental collisions by a similar net stopping and catching low-arriving planes. The tramlines and trams themselves will also be protected by netting. The airport will be in a speed-zone requiring planes to fly slowly or turn around for a reapproach. The airship's buoyant interior will also be compartmentalized so the damage from a collision will be minimized and the plane, passengers, and carrier will likely survive.

The surface of the airship and compartments inside the airship shall be vested with bulletproof textiles, although bullets and most artillery and shoulder-fired missiles do not approach 30,000 feet. Netting and compartmentalization should also deter most localized attacks on the airport, as well as add security in the event of accidents or disasters.

Overview:
The installation of one or numerous of these midairports will dramatically increase the fuel economy, safety, and comfort of air travel and increase the value of the metropolitan areas they serve. An estimated cost of $2 billion per airship should quickly be offset by savings in airplane fuel, improved urban real estate, electricity production and harnessing, and increased air travel.

The Zeppelin Aircraft Carrier is an idea too serviceable to pass up.

State assistance may be available under the 'regulation of interstate commerce' clause, as well as for other forms and modes of travel and shipping, including maglev trainlines and new energy vehicles. Zepplin Aircraft Carriers are presumed to function in conjunction with scramjet aircraft as well as conventional jets.

***

A plane can be made *lighter* by using a scramjet. The scramjets will also propel the plane to ~7000mph. Planes will actually s-t-r-e-t-c-h at this speed, making lighter hard enameled rubber with metal mesh and metal coated fuselages feasable.

A plane's turbines are made enormous to get it moving along at speeds up to 550mph. Large plane turbines each weigh about 6 tons, holding the plane down and requiring more fuel use on a large heavy plane.

Scramjets can kick in at about 250mph, meaning that a plane equipped with scramjets only needs to use turbines to achieve that speed, at which point the scramjet can kick in and take over. This allows much smaller turbines. An individual or pair of small turbines mounted close to the fuselage might be able to propel even a heavy plane to 250mph, and then produce reduced drag at mach 10. A plane using scramjets with turbine assist might weigh about half as much or slightly less than half as much as a conventional turbine plane of comparable size.

Scramjets also use less fuel per mile than jet turbines and operate using hydrogen fuel in open air at high altitudes. This causes less pollution and greater fuel efficiency at much higher speeds. A trip from Boston to Los Angeles in a scramjet would take about one hour from take off to landing. Jet turbines could potentially be converted to electric systems to make better use of hydrogen fuel, further reducing pollution.


Used in conjunction with the Zeppelin Aircraft Carrier midairport, a commercial scramjet will provide unbeatable transport service and unparalleled fuel efficiency. An electric plane could change batteries for recharge at the aircraft carrier inbetween flights, and load up on hydrogen fuel electrolyzed at the station. conventional jet refuelling is also possible on the carrier.


Scramjets and Zeppelin Aircraft Carriers are a Winning Combination