The electric airship/mini airship – shaped like a donut – in flight
Why would someone decide to make a giant donut-shaped aircraft? Aren’t planes, helicopters, rockets already doing an excellent job transporting people through the atmosphere? Yes and… no.
If you’re a loyal viewer of The Simpsons, you know at least two things about Homer: you love donuts and is an absolutely terrible designer vehicles.
Out of curiosity (or not), someone decided to make a donut-shaped vehicle. We therefore present to you the .
Planes, helicopters, rockets… all vehicles that burn massive amounts of extremely expensive fuel and release enormous volumes of carbon dioxide. Airplanes alone cause approximately 2.4% of annual global CO2 emissions – note a.
The same magazine explains that the airshipson the other hand, emit little carbon because their vertical lift comes from gases lighter than air, such as helium, rather than burning fuel during diagonal ascent, and their Propeller propulsion can be fully electric.
Although they are much slower than planes, the largest ones really deserve the name airships due to their enormous capacity to transport passengers and/or cargo: close to 100.000 kg.
For these general reasons, the designer and CEO’s office Jerome Delamare It is, indeed, a very attractive creation. It uses completely electric engines and around 400 m³ of helium for its vertical takeoff and landing, which means it is a eVTOL.
While something nicknamed a donut isn’t expected to do the job of a cargo ship, the airline for two peopleat 15 meters wide, is more than capable of carrying out important work.
Using three sets of four propellers each, the vehicle has “an autonomy of five-hour flight and can reach speeds of 25 to 30 km/h in all directions, with a payload of 200 kg
“All this, without any noise and with very low energy consumption and requires just a few hours to charge”, praised Delamare, quoted by New Atlas.
The aerial muffler has an open cockpit, allowing the crew to carry out repairs at altitude, for example on power lines or transmission towers, with a obvious application for emergency or medical rescue. Furthermore, the Airplane only needs a few hours to recharge.
The company is asking €200 for 20 minutes of experimental flight in what New Atlas describes as a “wild experience”.
