Airships

[SuperVGA]

Hello there, ever tried to have an airship crashing on your airport?
Of course you have, hey, nice airship btw?
I thought it would be cool if games starting in 1915-1920 could have
Airships enabled, like this old suggestion :

http://wiki.openttd.com/index.php/Airships

Not that it contains too much info, though.
I thought it would be easy to use the sprite from the crashing airship
during the first couple of frames to create a new, 8-directional one.

I don't understand why people don't discuss early 20'th century
transportation. Sailships and Steamboats would really make a nice addition.
Furthermore, that's one of the pluses of Locomotion.
To start early that century while not being completely out of ways of transportation.

[PikkaBird]

You mean like the airships in the planeset and av8?

Do pre-1920 introduction dates exist for vehicles other than trains?

(edit: yes they do. I will have to earlyify the airship and goliath in av8

[SuperVGA]

Neat. How about steamboats and SS'es?
Have anyone GRF'ed those things too? Would be awesome.
I din't know of AV8 before, are the airship sprites in there copied off the original crashing zeppelin?

[PikkaBird]

are the airship sprites in there copied off the original crashing zeppelin?

No, but the grf also changes the crashing airship to look like the buildable ones.

[doghousedean]

Looking at the airship link it seems like a good idea.

Just one thing i would mention, air ships were not that good at lifting at all. they could only carry relativly few passengers for its size and weight was a real problem.

Have a search on google for the history its quite interesting.

good idea tho, i also like the idea of steamships, what about a horse and cart (may be a bit of a bugger to draw tho)

Dean

[SuperVGA]

Hmm. I don't really think a horse and cart would be >too< difficult
to draw. And you are correct, the first airships by Graf Zeppelin
were weak and couldn't carry many passengers. Later it was
not unusual to see 30-60 passengers under an airship.

The big airships today are actually used for lifting of vehicles including buggies, heavy duty machinery and cargo over
distances with no roads or harsh terrain. (See AT-10, SkyCat, CargoLifter)

So while passenger transport via. airships had it's peak at hindenburg
the technology with improved hulling and shielding is still in use.

Btw. If you made an isometric editor which could automatically,
light and shade and rotate an iso-model made up from voxels,
and you wanted to do a project with it on your own, would
you release it to the OpenTTD community?
Becuse i made that, and i'm thinking about it.
Would make GRFmaking easier...

[PikkaBird]

The big airships today are actually used for lifting of vehicles including buggies, heavy duty machinery and cargo over
distances with no roads or harsh terrain. (See AT-10, SkyCat, CargoLifter)

There are no "big airships today". The AT-10 is actually pretty small, smaller even than the Zeppelin NT. Skycat and CargoLifter were never built.

[SuperVGA]

There are no "big airships today". The AT-10 is actually pretty small, smaller even than the Zeppelin NT. Skycat and CargoLifter were never built.

What does this mean? It's the ones there are and the only ones used for anything but air photos and advertisments...

Oh yes, there is a Cargolifter prototype being built, 260m long and
capable of carrying 190 tonnes of cargo.
Perhaps if you google "Brand" and Cargolifter you can find
something, as Brand is the city of the Cargolifter AG Headquarters and
Hangar. Zeppelin NT can carry up to 1,9 tonnes which does
make it an obvious leader among modern -functioning- Airships, Granted.
And just about the length of a 747, lol.
And Agreed, AT-10 is "pretty" small and SkyCat is a scifi project,
but then again, they all have a right to be in OpenTTD as they do carry
machinery and cargo. This is the reason they're made after all.

Don't you think it would be cool with the future ones too?
The only bad thing about this would be the size of them, as their
advantage is not speed but load.
It would be difficult to make an airship longer than 3 land squares look good though...

[PikkaBird]

And Agreed, AT-10 is "pretty" small and SkyCat is a scifi project,
but then again, they all have a right to be in OpenTTD as they do carry
machinery and cargo. This is the reason they're made after all.

Don't you think it would be cool with the future ones too?

There is actually a large cargo airship in av8, from 2017. It carries 150t of cargo. There's also a Zeppelin NT carrying 40 passengers from 2008.

http://users.tt-forums.net/pikka/wiki/i ... kylift_150

[peter1138]

Oh yes, there is a Cargolifter prototype being built,

If they hadn't gone bust 5 years ago...

[SuperVGA]

What? Darn. Again i just talk old news.
Their site doesn't look like they're bust, though.
They have info on an airship named CL160

Bei einer Veranstaltung des Märkischen Presse- und Wirtschaftsclubs am Abend des 8.9.2005 in Berlin präsentierte sich die Gesellschaft als neue Anlaufstelle für CargoLifter Aktionäre,
die den Gedanken des Transportes von Frachten unter Einsatz der Leichter-als-Luft-Technologie fortsetzen will.

-Looks like its owned by shareholders, though...
I don't know if anyone can expect much progress from their side.

[peter1138]

Unlikely... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands

[SuperVGA]

... LOL.

Well... then again, that's just the hangar.
I understand that they sold it, but according to
the news up there /\
Which date 1 year later than the opening of "Tropical Islands",
Cargolifter AG is still on. But i had myself a good laugh, heheh.

With a 100m tall airship, there wouldn't be much extra space for
supports and above construction platforms... Must be tight to
work in that kind of place. But future will tell if they come up with something.
For now i'm just satisfied with the airships we have in At8.