Would it be theoretically possible to buy or build a dirigible airship, fit small living quarters underneath (like a caravan Top Gear style), and use it for holidays?

Given that people do build and use airships, it must be legal in concept…

Course it is. Same concept as buying a 747, fit large living quarters aboard and use it for holidays.

No worries with overtaking, either.

I assume you’d still need a pilots license, to file flight plans, operate a radio etc. And where would land it/tie it up? It’s hard enough getting access across fields to rivers 🙂

You are Caractacus Potts and I claim my £5!

It’ll end in tears

If you don’t want to bother with all that license crap..
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYgIgaBPbYw[/video]

Yeah landing it would be tricky. I wonder if you could create a hybrid hot air/helium airship, so you could make it heavier than air to land it anywhere you wanted, then warm it all up to take off again.. Once airborne you could stick out some stubby little wings to gain lift which would reduce your need for keeping the gas hot.

Or you could just leave the fans pointed down until you had it tied down.

Why not just take the family on a nice normal holiday?

You could drive to somewhere, you could even fly to somewhere in a nice safe commercially operated jet and relax….

Because cruising the world in your own airship with living space would be possibly the most awesome thing ever done, that’s why.

Apart from the risk of instant, fiery, 9.8 metres per second squared actual death…

You are an entertaining loony and I bet your kids love you to bits, but late at night I suspect they whisper to one another and say ‘Why is Daddy making crazy plans again?’…

You’ll need a licence!

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=49&pagetype=90&pageid=2739

Is there such thing as an airship simulator ? 😆

Ideal for Farnborough airport Molly 😉

Molgrips , have you been at some from or class A tonight ? 🙂

It’s a very Jules Verne idea!

Molgrips- why am I ALWAYS drawn, as if by some weird Mollygetistic force to your threads? I love this idea.

Come and park it on one of the trees in my garden if you ever build it. Get CynicAl to give a hand with the designing and I reckon you are on to a winner. Maybe you could build a wood fueled version, ask Mc Moonter for some tips.

oh the huge manatee

late at night I suspect they whisper to one another and say ‘Why is Daddy making crazy plans again?’…

I hope they do 🙂

I think this is a seriously overlooked idea. Airships are perfectly valid, safe, regulated and well understood forms of transport. I see absoutely no reason why this idea would not be possible. It doesn’t need to be a crazy bodge, there are commerical airship companies out there.

It wouldn’t be cheap but then neither are luxury yachts.

My wife said we could do it if we become millionaires. Well, she said ‘yes dear’ without looking up, but that’s still a yes.

I’m tempted to make a reference to overtaking, but I shall refrain…

Yeah, you wait your turn.

No-one to overtake in the wide open skies, anyway.

You’ll need to get a certificate of airworthiness for whatever you build, you’ll also need a pilots licence to fly it. The top gear caravan was based on a standard blimp shaped hot air balloon. No good for touring as it’ll only fly for a couple of hours. You need helium to go any distance. They’ll fly for days so you can cross continents. It’ll be way more expensive and far less practical than a campervan. Fun project though, go for it

I probably shouldn’t feed the imagination of molgrips, but what the hell…….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19634160

http://www.hybridairvehicles.com/

http://www.rafcardingtoncamp.co.uk/

That’s a proper shed 🙂

There are two of them, next door to each other. The Cardington Balloon Sheds are a wonder of British engineering.

When visiting rellies I often do a road ride which passes close to those hangers.

Molgrips with a bank holiday weekend free.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C71rb-4_bOk[/video]

Sliderule by Neville Shute is a good read on the subject of building your own airship (if you are an airship company). It’s an interesting analysis of the merits of the public and private sector too.

Need a big conveyor belt for it to take off.

What happens if, whilst in your airship, you happen across a hot air balloon, and whilst waiting to find a gap between the clouds, a eurofighter overtakes both of you. Should he have been in the queue?

Because cruising the world in your own airship with living space would be possibly the most awesome thing ever done, that’s why.

Precisely! Has anyone ever seen the archive film from the lounge of the Hindenberg on one of her Atlantic crossings?
Just amazing, people sat by open windows waving at ship’s crews as they pass underneath, and watching pods of whales swimming below.
That’s the way to travel!
Trouble with Helium is that it’s a finite resource, so hydrogen would be better for lift. Yes, it’s highly flammable, but then, so’s seventy tonnes of Avgas, and it wasn’t the hydrogen that ignited in the Hindenberg, it was the outer skin, which was basically solid rocket fuel; aluminium powder in a cellulose dope base.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/23/airship_prang_oklahoma/