In this day and age travel, and particularly air travel, is all about rushing. How quickly can I get there? Why is my flight delayed? Is it worth it to pay extra to board and de-board the plane first?
With this in mind, London-based design and innovation company Seymourpowell took a different tack when designing their Aircruise concept. According to Design Director Nick Talbot, "We got thinking about proposals based on time being the real luxury in the future, and how you might travel if you had a lot of time. After considering ideas including aircraft interiors and cruise ships, the team settled on developing a new type of airship."
The result is a sort of vertically-oriented luxury blimp:
The Aircruise, labeled as 'a hotel in the sky', is a new concept of product innovation design by Seymourpowell. The aircraft would allow for a low number of travellers with large internal spaces for relaxing, sleeping and dining. The concept also proposes four duplex apartments, a penthouse, five smaller apartments, a bar/lounge area and look out zones with glass floors.
Seymourpowell's Aircruise displays a different take on the future of transportation, proposing that 'slow is the new fast'. The colossal airship would cruise up to speeds of between 100 and 150km/h. This would allow for flights from London to Shanghai in 90 hours, and London to New York in 37 hours. "In a world where speed is an almost universal obsession, the idea of making a leisurely journey in comfort is a welcome contrast," Talbot explained.
The design innovation behind the Aircruise concept would allow the craft to reach heights of up to 12,000 feet by the use of hydrogen fuel cells. The cells are contained in four "flexible envelopes". Solar panels would power all onboard services, and also be silent and pollution free - making it far cleaner than most current forms of transport.
...The concept subsequently captured the imagination of Korean giant Samsung Construction and Trading (C&T). Driven by its interest in new materials for building, Samsung C&T appointed Seymourpowell to refine the idea and produce a detailed computer animation of the proposed experience to illustrate this visionary approach to the future.
Hit the jump to see some nutty shots of the interior and exterior.
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i imagine that a single decent airship running a valuable route (like NYC->Paris or similar) could find passengers easily. the reduced carbon footprint would be a boon.
the one luxury you really need for slow travel is a bed. it's a great thing to go to bed in one country and wake up in another one.
http://www.airships.net/blog/hydrogen-airship-nonsense
It was made clear to me by an engineer that purely "sailing" on the wind while immersed in the air is a fallacy. The design doesn't show at least in the current rendering how it will create some kind of resistance to the wind, in order to "sail". I can think of ways to create that resistance, but there not shown in this design.
Also I think keeping it below 12K will make it harder to operate, and possibly subject it to damaging weather. I think they should pressurize the gondola superstructure and take to the edge of space (about 120K) and park it there. Then just have flights coming and going to it like the cloud city in Star Wars. :)