World's Largest Ship

Titanic - Courtesy Google Images

In 1912, the RMS Titanic was a state of the art passenger liner. She was 882 feet long and carried 3,547 passengers and crew. In case you missed it, on April 15, 1912, she hit an iceberg and sank, killing more than 1,500 people.

In the years since that 1912 disaster, ships have gotten bigger. The Disney cruise liner, the Dream, is 1,115 feet long and can carry 5,450 crew and passengers. But she’s not the largest liner in the world; that honor belongs to Royal Caribbean’s sister ships, the Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas. Both ships are 1,187 feet long and can carry 6,296 people.

Wow! 6,296 people is larger than the crew aboard a United States Navy Nimitz class aircraft carrier.

Dream - Courtesy Google Images

Oasis - Courtesy Google Images

There seems to be no maximum of ship size. Freedom Ship International has announced plans to build a ship, Freedom Ship, that would be 4,500 feet long, and twenty five stories high. There would be over 200 acres of recreation space, hospitals, restaurants and a runway at the very top of the ship that would be capable of accommodating forty passenger turboprop airplanes. According to Freedom Ship International, the ship would accept up to
40,000 full time residents, 30,000 daily visitors, 10,000 nightly hotel guests and 20,000 full time crew. Freedom Ship International calls it The First Mobile City at Sea.

The ship would be so massive that no port in the world could accommodate it. It would complete an around-the-world cruise every two years.

The concept for the Freedom Ship originated in the 1990s. According to Business Insider, at an estimated cost nearing a staggering $10 billion, project investors were scarce. The project was scrapped after the financial crisis in 2008.

Freedom - Courtesy Google Images

Business Insider reports that Roger Gooch, a member of the original team, has revived the idea because he believes the financial climate is changing.

I’ve seen the Oasis of the Seas up close and I’ve been on the Disney Dream. Both ships are huge; the Dream is so big that it is easy to get lost and turned around once aboard.

I find it difficult to fathom that something that’s more than ¾ of a mile long and 750 feet wide can float. If built, the Freedom Ship would make the Oasis of the Seas look like a tugboat. And, based on what happened to the Titanic, I wonder how many lifeboats it would take to evacuate 100,000 people.

What do you think; would you take a cruise aboard the Freedom Ship?

Volocopter Update

K-16B General Arrangement

I was going through basement “stuff” and I found a report approved by my father dated September 1961. Dad was the project engineer for the K-16B. The report is titled THE MODEL K-16B V/STOL AIRPLANE RESEARCH PROGRAM, Report B-27.

The introduction to Dad’s report states:

“At the request of the Bureau of Naval Weapons this report has been prepared … to summarize the research program that is being carried out under Bureau of Naval Weapons Contract NOa (s) 56-549c.”

K-16B Scale Model

According to the New England Air Museum, the U.S. Navy contacted Kaman to design and build a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The project was cancelled in 1962. My father said the K-16B program was cancelled because helicopters were approaching the air speeds desired by the Navy.

However, I don’t think the research done in the development of the K-16B was in vain; the same concept was employed in the development of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey.

K-16B Tie-Down

Finding the K-16B report reminded me of my blog Flying High, July, 2012. The blog discusses the Volocopter, an 18-rotor personal helicopter developed by E-volo. In July, 2012, the company did not have a date when the ‘copter would be available to the public.

In 2012, E-volo won the Lindbergh Prize for Innovation. The Lindbergh Prize for Innovation is awarded by the Lindbergh Foundation and is intended to award people who strive to achieve a balance between technological advancement and the preservation of human and natural environments.

The Volocopter has evolved since my July blog. E-volo has developed the VC200, the first Volocopter to carry two people. On November 17, 2013, E-volo conducted a successful radio controlled test flight of the VC200. According to E-volo, the vision for the VC200 is:

“a cruising speed of at least 100 km/h
a flight altitude of up to 6500 ft
a maximum take-off weight of 450 kg
more than one hour flight time”

Unfortunately, the Volocopter is still a ways off. The Camera Forum reports that it will probably be between 10 and 20 years before the Volocopter is available to the public.

Technology evolves and one advancement builds on the one before. I’d like to think that the work my father’s team did on the K-16B played some small part in the development of the VTOL technology and subsequently the Volocopter.

So, what do you think, would you use a Volocopter for your work commute?