Jules Verne's albatross airship now possible?

[covert_shores]

All these quad rotor drones with tiny powerful lightweight electric motors has made me think. In the 1800s visionary author Jules Verne imagined an 'airship' lifted aloft by massive of propellers like sails. At the time it was forward thinking but air travel took quite different forms, So ever since it has been largely dismissed as unworkable. But would it now be possible?

And to anyone asking why anyone would bother...

 

[papacavy]

I think it is possible and maybe even in manned form.

 

[Hobbes]

That's basically a helicopter.

 

[aethertek]

Search NASA+leaptech or Greased Lightning GL-10

I guess you could do the same so long as the boat/ship/craft was light enough.

K~

 

[Dynoman]

Aethertek, your right...a scaled up Greased Lightning might make one of Jules Verne's fictional notions a reality.

 

[Steve Pace]

Why not! The US Navy had a nuclear-powered submarine called the USS Nautilus. -SP

 

[UpForce]

But would it now be possible?

Yes, even more so in the near future. There are piloted multicopter research projects already, for example E-Volo.

At least Li-air and possibly also some flow batteries are approaching fossil derived fuels' energy densities. One could also postulate that the obviously amazing performance of the batteries in the book points to an atomic solution but for that time frame it's perhaps an intellectual stretch too far. Verne also speculates on some specific ligtweight structural composites (a form of paper). Nanocellulose and various new versatile wood based organic chemistries (lignins and such, even 3D printable methods) in come cases exceed the properties of some highly developed metal alloys in wide use today.

My view is that Verne purposely "constructed" his airship to do everything a lighter than air vehicle could, only much better. Fixed wings even in an otherwise self powered airframe would not enable complete freedom of movement so that was out. Modern propellers were also a fairly new development at his time and an exciting technology under rapid development. Ocean steamers were taking over from sailing ships so it was a somewhat obvious extrapolation that the same would happen in the skies. Hence the shape.

Perhaps some Robur wannabe will yet construct such a thing for airshows. Other applications of the enabling technologies will likely be more useful than that.