Hydro 2000

[Jemiba]

[quote author=hesham]Hydravion Hydra 2000:very strange project,look like Boeing-747,it was
large cargo seaplane,powered by six turbofans 93,000 1b
each ption GE90,RR Trent 211-52 and PW 4087 engines.[/quote]

About the mentioned Hydro 2000 : I'm still not sure, if this was really a project,
or just a try to collect money...

 

[foiling]

I saw a very short article in "Popular Mechanics" (Dec 1990) on a 'super French cargo seaplane' called the Hydro 2000. It was to be an 8-engine 330' long giant of maximum take-off weight 2.2 million pounds. Does any one know anything about it, such as what progress was made, and also, does any one have a good general arrangement drawing of it?

 

[fightingirish]

Hydro 2000 @ "Popular Mechanics", December 1990

 

[hesham]

Hi,


a real project mentioned in Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1995/1996.

 

[Jemiba]

Honestly, I'm still not convinced. Perhaps Jane's mentions the designing company and some more details ?
Is it one already credited with experience in aviation ? There were and are a lot of companies with the
main aim, not to build aircraft, but to collect investors money. And sometimes they even got attention by
Jane's All The World Aircraft .
Perhaps you can tell us, what they wrote about this project ?

 

[TomS]

The New York Times also wrote about it, at leadt giving the name of a prominent member of the group.

Tech Notes; A Flying Whale of an Idea -- Its Name Is Hydro 2000

By LAWRENCE M. FISHER
Published: October 28, 1990

A FRENCH group is encouraging international aerospace companies to develop a huge cargo seaplane to be called Hydro 2000. The plane would be about 330 feet long, with a projected payload of 880,000 pounds. By comparison, the Boeing Company's largest freighter, the B-747-200, is just 231 feet long, with a typical payload of about 250,000 pounds.

The French group, headed by Vice Admiral Yves Goupil, the French Navy's vice chief of operations, perceives the need for such a large, all-cargo aircraft to handle the continued growth in freight projected for the next century.

Designed for sea-based operations only, the plane would need no landing gear, and would be able to operate away from congested airports. Seaports already have the cargo infrastructure to handle large loads.

Despite its immense bulk, the Hydro 2000 would require no new technology in its airframe, flight control systems or engines. It would, however, require no less than eight of the largest turbofan engines currently available, but this could be reduced to six as larger powerplants are developed. The size of the project, of course, means it would be beyond the means of any single aerospace company. Therefore, the group is hoping to interest a multinational consortium.

Goupil would indeed have been Vice Chief of Operations at the time. It appears that the Hydro 2000 group was a consulting or advocacy group, not an actual aviation engineering company.

 

[hesham]

Honestly, I'm still not convinced. Perhaps Jane's mentions the designing company and some more details ?
Is it one already credited with experience in aviation ? There were and are a lot of companies with the
main aim, not to build aircraft, but to collect investors money. And sometimes they even got attention by
Jane's All The World Aircraft .
Perhaps you can tell us, what they wrote about this project ?

OK my dear Jemiba,


and here it is.

 

[kcran567]

Why no project such as this, or even a very large WIG type air/sea craft for the USA? Could be used on the huge coastlines, disaster relief, even inland on the Great Lakes, cargo transport, passengers, etc. Do the airlines and trucking companies want a monopoly?

 

[TomS]

The economics of large seaplanes are pretty terrible. At least in the US, there's basically nowhere with a significant population where a large seaplane could operate that isn't equally accessible by at least one large land airfield.

 

[sferrin]

The economics of large seaplanes are pretty terrible. At least in the US, there's basically nowhere with a significant population where a large seaplane could operate that isn't equally accessible by at least one large land airfield.

Boeing's Pelican would have been awesome to see though.

 

[Jemiba]

Thank you hesham !
It's mentioned as a "design study", so, to my understanding an idea formulated before a more
detailed design was started. Not unusual, absolutely legit and probably not even Boeing's Pelican
was much more. It's a test, if there's enough commercial interest to spend real money on it.
By googling I found the following paper http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/35539.htm
and that the "Hydro 2000" at least already made it to a stamp motif !
(via http://michel.bkl.pagesperso-orange.fr/images_photos/!cid_00592758-BE8E-4AA8-B095-711AFF257C84.jpg)

 

[Stargazer]

There were actually TWO stamps sporting the Hydro 2000 project. Here's the second one:

 

[Stargazer]

Source page for above also has a black and white photo of a painting for the program:

http://michel.bkl.pagesperso-orange.fr/photos.htm

 

[hesham]

Hi,

http://archive.aviationweek.com/image/spread/19900723/35/2

 

[Spherz]

Long dead thread, but i've found this mention of the Hydro 2000 in a French magazine, Aerofrance Issue 74, 1996. Does anyone happen to have this magazine or images of page 4?