I made a blimp using the technique you showed in one of your previous videos. The envelope worked great, there were only a few leaks that I was able to easily fix. I decided to fill the envelope with hydrogen because helium was expensive. Because I did not have enough hydrochloric acid, I had to make the envelope about half the size of the one in the video so it ended up not flying. Anyways it was still a fun project for me.
Pretty soon were not going to have a choice. And considering how easy it is to make and for how cheap... By the way they store lots of hydrogen in underground tanks in Europe for sport ballooning. We need to look at some kind of specialized carbon dioxide fire retardent system for envelopes.
Nevertheless, hydrogen has been in use for almost three centuries, and has many uses! Here's a quote from an industrial hydrogen journal, the "International Journal of Hydrogen Energy," (vol. 23, Issue 7, July 1998, page 593): "Hydrogen is a very important molecule with an enormous breadth and extent of application and use. It is...used in many industries, from chemical and refining to metallurgy, glass and electronics. Hydrogen is used as a fuel in space.
I believe the same thing about nuclear power as well we need to figure out how to use these technologies more safely because you never know the breakthroughs that are right over the precipice
I think the very viable use of airships for cargo transport with low emissions will demand hydrogen. Lots of ways around the issues. Flame retardant structure. Cargo bay ejectors. Automatic extinguishers. And simply routing airships away from populated areas and loading/unloading a short distance from population centres. I thought about this about 15 years ago, and hydrogen's abundance, cost, and lifting power make it a no brainer for low/zero emission air freight transport.
You may want to take a look at this video: th-cam.com/video/igFxu6NyAPM/w-d-xo.html&pp=ygUcaG93IHRvIG1ha2UgYSBibGltcCBlbnZlbG9wZQ%3D%3D That is for a very inexpensive method using emergency blanket Mylar. There are also more advanced materials, but Mylar is actually pretty good. Stronger than balloon foil, and much cheaper.
I used to know a party store that would fill their balloons with hydrogen as it was so much cheaper, I don't think they ever had a problem that I'm aware of, this was mostly for weddings btw.
I feel if it is a small balloon / blimp, the danger isn't TOO high. That being said, it would be foolish to think there is no danger, and you should always have a plan if a fire starts. I would argue that is true for any drone, be it a small H2 filled blimp or a quadcopter stuffed with LiPos.
Yeah, I hear you. Let me ask you guys: what game or other medium could be used for storytelling other than Minecraft? Something where big airships could be made and battles filmed, plus character interaction. Preferably something other than an actual 3d software like Blender. Something easier / faster to work in.
BaccaYarro I mean blender works well but there are a lot of other softwares to tell stories and animate them, however most of them cost money but softwares like Adobe Animate work well especially for me
@@BaccaYarro not really blimps but spaceships: Star Citizen works quite good also maybe once it is out dual universe also more in the space ship direction but i think it might be possible to make airships
There was a guy, I think he was in New Zealand, who made a youtube video that said the drones he was making were basically cruise missiles. He got a knock on his door from the government wanting to know what terrorist cell he was a part of :P So, yeah, you are kind of right...
Nicely built electrolysis machine and a good message overall in the video. But I wish you'd scripted it first and condensed this 15 minute video into two or three minutes. Something about using a compressor safely to lightly pressure the envelope would be nice to see, including a demonstration. I imagine there are lots of piston or diaphragm pumps available that would keep the hydrogen gas well isolated from any source of ignition (such as the motor).
Great and informative video Bacca! This talk of helium and hydrogen has me wondering though, what about the use of hot air or pressurized air? And couldn't water vaper/steam also create lift in a blimp or zeppelin?
"hot air" = a hot air balloon .... "or pressurized air" = pressurized air is heavier air... so... no. " And couldn't water vaper/steam also create lift in a blimp or zeppelin" = steam = (air + water) > (air)... so... no.
@@googleyoutubechannel8554 Water vapor is actually quite a bit lighter than air, but in practice preventing condensation is very difficult, making it impractical.
Having watched your recent video and deciding to look back at some others I have noticed some things here. The way you explained the hydrogen and the way the blimp caught fire is exactly how the Hindenburg basically blew up, eye witnesses reported and the recolored footage shows clearly that it was burning with a bright orange flame with the top portion burning up first which is no doubt in relation to how the top and bottom parts of the outer skin were made of different materials. Asking this following a small discussion with some regarding the disaster, what is your take on it? Do you think the skin contributed to the cause of the fire and why it burned up so quickly like some theories suggest or do you think the mass amount of hydrogen inside the cells catching fire from possible static is what made it burn up so fast?
I think it's incorrect to say that the skin was a deciding factor, but it was a factor. A skin burn would not explain the extraordinary speed the ship burned down. I will probably not make many friends in the airship community saying this, but in my opinion the core issue was the envelope ventilation system was badly designed, and was basically a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. The ventilation system was basically a series of large tubes deep inside the envelope. In the event of a leak, those tubes could fill with air and H2. So basically a huge spud gun. What gets worse is that the air mixed with H2 is then vented out the top of the airship. So now you have a stream of H2 mixed with air exiting the envelope into the atmosphere. Where all kinds of ignition sources are possible, and once it ignites it would lead the fire right back into the heart of the airship. Witnesses claim to have seen Saint Elmo's fire shortly before the disaster, and I believe 2 witnesses reported hearing an explosion right before the fire. (This lead to the incorrect belief a bomb was involved). That explosion could have been the "spud gun" ventilation system exploding, which would rapidly spread fire all across the ship.
@@BaccaYarro That is a rather interesting and more logical explanation compared to some others I have heard and does explain why the rear of zeppelin is where it caught fire, which some suspect was from a hydrogen leak as it was reported and photos shown it to be tilting downward at the rear, and how it so quickly traveled through the whole interior and was shooting out the nose like a flamethrower. However the ignition source has always been the main mystery and why lightning has always been an acceptable cause, many still put the skin to blame for the source of ignition due to it having a metallic coating of alluminum powder and creating a static discharge.
"Is it safe?" is the wrong question. Any tech can be dangerous without knowledge and professionals adhering to best practices and standards. The better question is "do we have the knowledge and professionalism to handle hydrogen safely?"
Yeah, I think something like that could work. You would have to figure out how to make the envelopes keep their shape relative to each other. Tricky, but possible.
What is set-up for H2 generation exactly? I heard you were using a hydrobullet pure H2 generator... What model hydrobullet, and what are the specs on your power supply you dug up?
It's the Hydrobullet R06 Separator. It's their smallest H2 separator. The power supply is 24V, 20A maximum, although in operation it's about 10A. I am working on a scaled down version that would only be 12V, 10A max after talking to Hydrobullet support. In the current configuration it gets pretty hot after a while.
@@BaccaYarro What gauge wire did you use for wiring the power supply to the H2 gen? Sorry for the questions, I am working on a set-up myself and have everything ready, I am not planning on going to 10A initially as I think the PWM has 14 gauge wire, but I think it will be OK. Starting with a DC power source (like a breadboard), but plan on using a car battery eventually
might be 2 months too late but what the hell? i hear all this talk about hydrogen and helium, are those the only ways to lift an airship off the ground or are there other methods?
@@BaccaYarro fair enough i guess. thanks for the answer, i apreciate it EDIT: would changing the pressure of the gas in the envalope have any effects on the lift?
Sorry for the late reply, I made the Hydrogen generator using a reaction chamber made by Hydrobullet. So big square in the middle was made by them, and I made all the other stuff around it from spare parts.
A simulation of the R38 is not a good thing; if the crews and important folks riding on the R38 first flight knew how contaminated the hydrogen was they would have all refused to get on it. Hydrogen is safe if everyone knows all the rules they need to follow. Contaminated lifting gas was responsible for a number of very unfortunate accidents as the US, Britain and France learned how to build and fly their own dirigibles. R38 was a dirigible patterned on the German high altitude ships. The test flight was conducted at only a couple thousand feet and they over-stressed the structure, as it broke in two there was a thunderous blast heard on the ground and the flaming debris fell into the Humbar river.
It's a shame to have to top it off with helium. The only cheap helium available is a helium/air mix for party balloons and not suitable. There's often no way to get "cheap" 100% helium. Maybe I could make the envelope fill inlet extra long and voluminous and pressurize the blimp by rolling/squeezing the inlet's gas up into the main body. Or even a detachable fill inlet bulb to roll up to pressurize the blimp envelope proper without the mass of a long fill inlet.
"guys my airship is out of air, give me a sec to blow into it"
*boom*
I made a blimp using the technique you showed in one of your previous videos. The envelope worked great, there were only a few leaks that I was able to easily fix. I decided to fill the envelope with hydrogen because helium was expensive. Because I did not have enough hydrochloric acid, I had to make the envelope about half the size of the one in the video so it ended up not flying. Anyways it was still a fun project for me.
That sounds awesome, keep up the good work!
Thanks!
Pretty soon were not going to have a choice. And considering how easy it is to make and for how cheap...
By the way they store lots of hydrogen in underground tanks in Europe for sport ballooning.
We need to look at some kind of specialized carbon dioxide fire retardent system for envelopes.
I agree 100%. Whether or not we have Hydrogen filled blimps today, in 50 years we will either have Hydrogen filled blimps, or no blimps at all.
Society's fear of hydrogen could be a problem, since it could impede the development of safe or safer handling/use technologies..
Nevertheless, hydrogen has been in use for almost three centuries, and has many uses! Here's a quote from an industrial hydrogen journal, the "International Journal of Hydrogen Energy," (vol. 23, Issue 7, July 1998, page 593): "Hydrogen is a very important molecule with an enormous breadth and extent of application and use. It is...used in many industries, from chemical and refining to metallurgy, glass and electronics. Hydrogen is used as a fuel in space.
I believe the same thing about nuclear power as well we need to figure out how to use these technologies more safely because you never know the breakthroughs that are right over the precipice
I think the very viable use of airships for cargo transport with low emissions will demand hydrogen. Lots of ways around the issues. Flame retardant structure. Cargo bay ejectors. Automatic extinguishers. And simply routing airships away from populated areas and loading/unloading a short distance from population centres. I thought about this about 15 years ago, and hydrogen's abundance, cost, and lifting power make it a no brainer for low/zero emission air freight transport.
This is an excellent video. Please keep them coming
Just found your channel. Excellent work. A topic I've been thinking about it alot.
Ayy another vid. Don't care what kind of vid it is, just glad there's another vid.
Me rn: i'm sitting next to a 20l tank at 200bar hydrogen🤣🤣
Great video .... Helium is fo me .
But how do you make the Envelope ...say fo a 10 foot blimp?
You may want to take a look at this video: th-cam.com/video/igFxu6NyAPM/w-d-xo.html&pp=ygUcaG93IHRvIG1ha2UgYSBibGltcCBlbnZlbG9wZQ%3D%3D
That is for a very inexpensive method using emergency blanket Mylar. There are also more advanced materials, but Mylar is actually pretty good. Stronger than balloon foil, and much cheaper.
I used to know a party store that would fill their balloons with hydrogen as it was so much cheaper, I don't think they ever had a problem that I'm aware of, this was mostly for weddings btw.
I feel if it is a small balloon / blimp, the danger isn't TOO high. That being said, it would be foolish to think there is no danger, and you should always have a plan if a fire starts. I would argue that is true for any drone, be it a small H2 filled blimp or a quadcopter stuffed with LiPos.
Me too
Yeah, I hear you. Let me ask you guys: what game or other medium could be used for storytelling other than Minecraft? Something where big airships could be made and battles filmed, plus character interaction. Preferably something other than an actual 3d software like Blender. Something easier / faster to work in.
@@BaccaYarro sorry i don't even have computer ._.
BaccaYarro I mean blender works well but there are a lot of other softwares to tell stories and animate them, however most of them cost money but softwares like Adobe Animate work well especially for me
@@BaccaYarro not really blimps but spaceships: Star Citizen works quite good also maybe once it is out dual universe also more in the space ship direction but i think it might be possible to make airships
Now I have the prefect machine to make my guided missiles
There was a guy, I think he was in New Zealand, who made a youtube video that said the drones he was making were basically cruise missiles. He got a knock on his door from the government wanting to know what terrorist cell he was a part of :P So, yeah, you are kind of right...
@@BaccaYarro lmao
Yep look up xjet I think
Nicely built electrolysis machine and a good message overall in the video. But I wish you'd scripted it first and condensed this 15 minute video into two or three minutes. Something about using a compressor safely to lightly pressure the envelope would be nice to see, including a demonstration. I imagine there are lots of piston or diaphragm pumps available that would keep the hydrogen gas well isolated from any source of ignition (such as the motor).
Yes, you are quite right. I need to work on making the videos quick and concise.
Hey hi -- quick Q; what's the song at the start of the video?
Great and informative video Bacca! This talk of helium and hydrogen has me wondering though, what about the use of hot air or pressurized air? And couldn't water vaper/steam also create lift in a blimp or zeppelin?
"hot air" = a hot air balloon ....
"or pressurized air" = pressurized air is heavier air... so... no.
" And couldn't water vaper/steam also create lift in a blimp or zeppelin" = steam = (air + water) > (air)... so... no.
@@googleyoutubechannel8554 Water vapor is actually quite a bit lighter than air, but in practice preventing condensation is very difficult, making it impractical.
Having watched your recent video and deciding to look back at some others I have noticed some things here. The way you explained the hydrogen and the way the blimp caught fire is exactly how the Hindenburg basically blew up, eye witnesses reported and the recolored footage shows clearly that it was burning with a bright orange flame with the top portion burning up first which is no doubt in relation to how the top and bottom parts of the outer skin were made of different materials. Asking this following a small discussion with some regarding the disaster, what is your take on it? Do you think the skin contributed to the cause of the fire and why it burned up so quickly like some theories suggest or do you think the mass amount of hydrogen inside the cells catching fire from possible static is what made it burn up so fast?
I think it's incorrect to say that the skin was a deciding factor, but it was a factor. A skin burn would not explain the extraordinary speed the ship burned down. I will probably not make many friends in the airship community saying this, but in my opinion the core issue was the envelope ventilation system was badly designed, and was basically a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. The ventilation system was basically a series of large tubes deep inside the envelope. In the event of a leak, those tubes could fill with air and H2. So basically a huge spud gun. What gets worse is that the air mixed with H2 is then vented out the top of the airship. So now you have a stream of H2 mixed with air exiting the envelope into the atmosphere. Where all kinds of ignition sources are possible, and once it ignites it would lead the fire right back into the heart of the airship. Witnesses claim to have seen Saint Elmo's fire shortly before the disaster, and I believe 2 witnesses reported hearing an explosion right before the fire. (This lead to the incorrect belief a bomb was involved). That explosion could have been the "spud gun" ventilation system exploding, which would rapidly spread fire all across the ship.
@@BaccaYarro That is a rather interesting and more logical explanation compared to some others I have heard and does explain why the rear of zeppelin is where it caught fire, which some suspect was from a hydrogen leak as it was reported and photos shown it to be tilting downward at the rear, and how it so quickly traveled through the whole interior and was shooting out the nose like a flamethrower. However the ignition source has always been the main mystery and why lightning has always been an acceptable cause, many still put the skin to blame for the source of ignition due to it having a metallic coating of alluminum powder and creating a static discharge.
The Hindenburg’s skin was made of rubber coated with aluminium powder.
"Is it safe?" is the wrong question. Any tech can be dangerous without knowledge and professionals adhering to best practices and standards. The better question is "do we have the knowledge and professionalism to handle hydrogen safely?"
Well put, I agree 100%
How do you keep the air in these
What if you put your H2 envelope inside a N2 envelope with equal pressure, so if any H2 leaks out, it would do so into an inert gas?
Yeah, I think something like that could work. You would have to figure out how to make the envelopes keep their shape relative to each other. Tricky, but possible.
Is that a hyrdobullet separator?
yes it is
Hydrogen is one of the most electrically insulative gas there is
Its used in high voltage power tubes for that reason
how much does it cost (if you can send me a link)
You should come back to Airship Pirates. War of Alliances 3 is in full swing and everything ins kinda broke
Yeah, come back to AP, we miss you
WOA3 is cancer and everyone hopes it can be brought to an end
Also the combat meta is literally based around the fact the server can't handle combat
What is set-up for H2 generation exactly? I heard you were using a hydrobullet pure H2 generator... What model hydrobullet, and what are the specs on your power supply you dug up?
It's the Hydrobullet R06 Separator. It's their smallest H2 separator. The power supply is 24V, 20A maximum, although in operation it's about 10A. I am working on a scaled down version that would only be 12V, 10A max after talking to Hydrobullet support. In the current configuration it gets pretty hot after a while.
@@BaccaYarro What gauge wire did you use for wiring the power supply to the H2 gen? Sorry for the questions, I am working on a set-up myself and have everything ready, I am not planning on going to 10A initially as I think the PWM has 14 gauge wire, but I think it will be OK. Starting with a DC power source (like a breadboard), but plan on using a car battery eventually
might be 2 months too late but what the hell?
i hear all this talk about hydrogen and helium, are those the only ways to lift an airship off the ground or are there other methods?
After He and H2 the gases become much less useful. You can get some lift from natural gas and a few others, but much less.
@@BaccaYarro fair enough i guess. thanks for the answer, i apreciate it
EDIT: would changing the pressure of the gas in the envalope have any effects on the lift?
@Ham Samson oh cool, thanks man
Where did you buy this? Or did you make it?
Sorry for the late reply, I made the Hydrogen generator using a reaction chamber made by Hydrobullet. So big square in the middle was made by them, and I made all the other stuff around it from spare parts.
THIS IS SO COOL!
Please test this with carbon fibres
A simulation of the R38 is not a good thing; if the crews and important folks riding on the R38 first flight knew how contaminated the hydrogen was they would have all refused to get on it. Hydrogen is safe if everyone knows all the rules they need to follow. Contaminated lifting gas was responsible for a number of very unfortunate accidents as the US, Britain and France learned how to build and fly their own dirigibles.
R38 was a dirigible patterned on the German high altitude ships. The test flight was conducted at only a couple thousand feet and they over-stressed the structure, as it broke in two there was a thunderous blast heard on the ground and the flaming debris fell into the Humbar river.
🎈💥 OH THE HUMANITY! ahh!
It's a shame to have to top it off with helium. The only cheap helium available is a helium/air mix for party balloons and not suitable. There's often no way to get "cheap" 100% helium. Maybe I could make the envelope fill inlet extra long and voluminous and pressurize the blimp by rolling/squeezing the inlet's gas up into the main body. Or even a detachable fill inlet bulb to roll up to pressurize the blimp envelope proper without the mass of a long fill inlet.
tobu nice!
OH THE HUMANITY
Oh the humanity!
Return to AP >.>
MUM GET HERBERT MORRISON
scary not hydrogen oh oxygen. fill blimp with 100% oxygen and to fire, after compare
"Oh the humanity"
Oh The Humanity!!!!!!