[REQUEST] Zeppelin

Landquart · Post by **Landquart** » 23 Nov 2004 19:11

Who is going to build a zeppelin? Like the "Graf Zeppelin" or "The Hindenburg"... Please, please, please!!!

Illegal_Alien · Post by **Illegal_Alien** » 23 Nov 2004 20:43

Give more info/ photo`s er something, so the designers have some info to build on

Steve · Post by **Steve** » 23 Nov 2004 22:01

Might be fairly easy if you think about it. The main body is just a stretched sphere. Just add fins and a bottom bit. Oh, and colour it in to make it nice and pretty.

metalangel · Post by **metalangel** » 24 Nov 2004 00:24

Yes, but how does it work in the game? Does it come gliding in to land on the runway? Or does it work like a helicopter? What can it carry?

Post by **PikkaBird** » 24 Nov 2004 03:04

Well... I looked into it... and decided the problems were too great.

Firstly, it would definitely require its own airport. Built to the same scale as the other aircraft, it would be about 20 squares long.

Secondly, the operating costs would be very high (not that the early aircraft in Locomotion aren't uneconomical anyway). Airships often had more crew than passengers. An airship 10 times the length of a Boeing 747 only carried about 40-50 passengers.

Thirdly, they're not very "realistic", certainly not for the type of transport in Locomotion. There were very few airships used for commercial travel, they were mostly intercontinental flights, and almost all of them crashed.

Downmaster · Post by **Downmaster** » 24 Nov 2004 04:51

I agree with PikkaBird,
Transport Giant has some Zeppelins, with their own airport, to an unrealistic scale. It is impossible to make money with them, so why should we have them here???

Niklas

Paasky · Post by **Paasky** » 24 Nov 2004 07:59

How about modern airships? They're not too long and they're built with economy as the first priority. And I think they could use heliports, or maybe a long metal rod which would work in the same way as heliports?

http://globalskyships.com/gss3.htm (press stop once to make the fade effect go away)

Code: Select all

Dimensions: 
Length: 222 Feet / 68 Meters  (Boeing 747-400 is 70m long)
Height: 64.88 Feet / 20.16 Meters  
Width: 54.7 Feet / 16.67 Meters 

Volume: 
353,146 Cubic Feet / 10,000 Cubic Meters  

Lifting Gas:  
Helium (non-flammable)  

Total Disposable Load: 
5962 lbs.  

Performance:  
Cruising Speed: 62 Mph 
Maximum Speed: 69 Mph 
Cruising Altitude: 1,000 - 4,000 feet  
Maximum Altitude: 8,000 feet  

Engine:  
Twin Porsche 930/67 turbo-charged  
300 hp  

Fuel: 
AvGas 100 LL  

Gondola: 
Length: 38.3 feet / 11.6 Meters  
Width: 8.4 feet / 2.6 Meters 
Headroom: 6.3 Feet/ 1.9 Meters  

Envelope Fabric: 
Polyester synthetic with Tedlar laminate outer film  

Operating Personnel: 
25-person crew, including Pilots, Mechanics, Riggers, Electricians and Ground Crew.

Post by **PikkaBird** » 24 Nov 2004 13:43

Paasky wrote:How about modern airships? They're not too long and they're built with economy as the first priority.

... and they carry a dozen people, maximum. They're an advertising gimmick, not mass transportation.

It would be interesting to see them in Locomotion, but they wouldn't serve much of a purpose. They'd also need their own landing field, since they're far too big to use a one-square heliport.

MacNetron · Post by **MacNetron** » 24 Nov 2004 15:00

TADA! You said the magic words! -> "advertising gimmick".
Let them raise the rating in the city!
That still doesn't make them profitable, but they return a big favor to the company!

Villem · Post by **Villem** » 24 Nov 2004 15:03

People in Loco don't care if you got a zeppelin,as far as i know you can't make a vehicle to raise ratings of the city or anything..

TheGrew · Post by **TheGrew** » 24 Nov 2004 17:46

Going off Topic steve I like your new avatar

Landquart · Post by **Landquart** » 24 Nov 2004 17:51

I don't understand why a zeppelin or blimp has to be economical interesting or realistic for Loco. In most maps it is also not very realistic to let a 747 fly from one corner to the other. Why could we not just make vehicles that are beautiful or interesting because of what they are??? Pikkabird, I know for sure you are able to make a blimp, like a Goodyear-blimp. It could fly like a helicopter, and would make a nice decoration of the game. Since I have easily a few million to spend during the game, I am willing to pay for it. I know also for sure that I am not the only one who would love a blimp...

Steve · Post by **Steve** » 24 Nov 2004 19:41

Umm, thanks.

There is no need to make the airship the real size, just make it fit in. It would be nice to see it flying around, and if you desperately need a new airport, i can create one easily enough.

Landquart · Post by **Landquart** » 24 Nov 2004 23:24

Thank you for your support, Steve! I really hope someone is picking it up..

metalangel · Post by **metalangel** » 25 Nov 2004 00:20

Hmmm.... airships would be nice... except you'd essentially need to give them their own 'port' (since they tend to dock with a tower) and there would be little point in using them except to compete with ships early on - given we can build unlimited length bridges there's not much point in using ships anyway.

It would be interesting, yes, but it would add very little to the game.

Oh, and 100 passengers would be possible, I found this old Vickers catalogue - the passenger area appears to be atop the ship, connected via lift, on plate #3

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenf ... ickers.htm

Jim-San · Post by **Jim-San** » 25 Nov 2004 01:24

after noticing this thread and killing my own request of Airships I'ld like to help on this one.

Airships can hold quite abit, it just depends on how they are made:

Airships: Like the Zepplien, steel frame covered with a fabric with a gas bag to seperate cargo and...gas.

Blimps: The main bit thats seen is the gas bag itself with a gondla underneith holding cargo and stuff, soft structure as theres no steel frame.

The best one I think would be airships as they can hold the most cargo due to its steel frame, plus they are still quite cheap to run (well better then planes), plus I remember watching on Discovery Channel (yeah nothing else on at 3am) that they are planing a large cargo carrying Blimp called Skycat (Skycat) aslo the Zepelien company is trying to make a large passenger Airship (with helium in not hydrogen this time) sometime...as soon as they get the flighting permission first or something

PurdueGuy · Post by **PurdueGuy** » 25 Nov 2004 03:14

A blimp/airship for the game could be very cool. I did have one nightmare/daydream sorta thing about it, though. I'm working on a complex intersection with my rail routes... A blimp, moving very slowly, goes right over what I'm working on. Now I can't get to it!

Ok, so I could just rotate the map.

Anyway, as said, this is a pretty good idea. Base how it operates off of a helicopter in the game. Might even just make a new version of the heliport that would look right for both vehicles (though I'm not sure how - I wouldn't want to be in a helicopter landing right next to a big pole.

)

Post by **PikkaBird** » 25 Nov 2004 06:36

metalangel wrote:Oh, and 100 passengers would be possible, I found this old Vickers catalogue

It would be massive, it would (realistically) be much more expensive to build and operate than a plane, and it is unrealistic as it was never built.

It could be done, and I'm not saying don't do it, but I'm not convinced of the merits.

MacNetron · Post by **MacNetron** » 25 Nov 2004 09:51

Akalamanaia wrote:People in Loco don't care if you got a zeppelin,as far as i know you can't make a vehicle to raise ratings of the city or anything..

Planting an invisible tree?
Somehow I realy like the idea of a blimp with "MacTrans" on it

metalangel · Post by **metalangel** » 25 Nov 2004 13:25

Yeah, the thing about airships is they were especially useful for transatlantic flights, essentially stuff that the planes of the era could not manage. However, there's no range restrictions on planes in Locomotion, so bang goes that. In terms of capacity, the Hindenberg carried 72 passengers.

As I said earlier, the only really useful thing I can imagine for them in Locomotion would be for large amounts of cargo. I think, as you say Pikka, they'd wind up as little more than a curiosity.

How fast would it go, anyway? I remember reading that the big trans-atlantic ones went 60mph or so!

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[REQUEST] Zeppelin

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