CHAPTER 446: CHAPTER 444: AIRBAG ARK

Chen Xin had long entertained the idea of building an airship, but the previous airships were too costly to invest in and had a low cost-performance ratio, making them unsuitable for the current needs of the nation.

However, the Airbag Ark was different. It was more like a flying refuge, somewhat similar to the lighthouse in "Spirit Cage," yet much simpler and easier to construct than the lighthouse.

Leafing through the materials he had collected before, Chen Xin was also contemplating how this airbag airship should be constructed.

The story he had read in a novel was long forgotten, and he had no clear idea of how to make it.

For now, he could only think of using the same method as constructing an airship, utilizing a large airbag as the source of lift.

If using a hot air balloon method, the fuel would be a significant issue. Although heating the air could increase its volume and provide more lift, the Airbag Ark needed to fly continuously, not just land to refuel after a short period.

Chen Xin vaguely remembered that in the novel, the protagonist built an ultra-large airship capable of carrying an astonishing 800 tons. Calculating with an average adult weight of 60 kg, this airship could support five thousand people living on it, with enough surplus to carry living supplies and other necessities.

But how easy was it to build an airship capable of carrying 800 tons?

The largest airship ever built by humanity, the Hindenburg, could only carry a few dozen tons. It’s simply impossible to build ten airships the size of the Hindenburg and then bundle their airbags together, right?

Not to mention the resources required for such construction, the final product would be an unbelievably massive behemoth, which from a cost and investment perspective, doesn’t seem very feasible.

Yet, this idea inspired Chen Xin, as modern technology is not to be compared with the era of Zeppelin Airship construction. Lightweight alloys could significantly reduce the total weight of the airship while providing enough support to ensure that the airship’s airbags don’t deform.

The original Zeppelin Airships used materials like aluminum. Although aluminum is light, compared to new materials like carbon fiber and graphene, it is undoubtedly much heavier.

Scientists have long created new graphene materials in laboratories that are lighter than plastic sheets yet ten times stronger than steel.

If cost is not a concern, Chen Xin is confident in enhancing the new airship’s payload capacity to 100 tons. This makes it theoretically possible to construct an Airbag Ark capable of carrying a thousand people.

And with system upgrades as his backup, Chen Xin feels he can attempt to build such an airship for potential personnel transportation in the Southwest Region when necessary.

After all, currently, the most efficient domestic transport remains the train, but should a geological disaster occur, train operations would inevitably be severely impacted. Once the railway lines are cut off, nowhere can be reached.

Airplanes are of similar logic. The aviation network, which has only just restored its flight capacity, heavily relies on airports. Without a suitable airport for landing, even if there is an airplane, it cannot land, not to mention that regular airplanes can only carry just over a hundred passengers.

As for helicopters, they are useful for search and rescue or transporting the wounded at crucial moments but to transport survivors on a large scale, unless able to dispatch hundreds at once, it would still be an insignificant effort.

It is evident that constructing a vehicle with adequate carrying capacity and terrain adaptability is essential.

Having made up his mind, Chen Xin opened his workstation’s drawing software and started designing the blueprint.

Of course, this so-called blueprint was more of a preliminary concept than even a draft. The specifics of the design would be perfected later. For now, Chen Xin was merely noting down his mental ideas.

Being just a concept sketch, drawing it was naturally quick.

Chen Xin soon sketched a cigar-like structure, resembling a Zeppelin Airship, with a large gondola beneath it on the screen.

However, looking at this design, Chen Xin quickly dismissed it.

The cigar-shaped design isn’t unreasonable; it can be considered a classic for airships. Even modern airships mostly retain this design, with unusual airship shapes being relatively rare.

But what Chen Xin needed was an Airbag Ark with sufficient lift, not just an airship. Naturally, adequate lift and suspension capability are what Chen Xin needed. The faster forward speed brought by a cigar-shaped airship was rather incidental for Chen Xin.

So quickly, the airship’s design on the blueprint transformed into a disc-like shape.

The entire airship looked more like a UFO, with a flat circular design making the airship appear larger. Although its length didn’t change, the volume undoubtedly increased significantly, greatly boosting the amount of gas it could contain, thereby enhancing the airship’s load capacity.

Looking at the modified structure, Chen Xin proceeded to refine the design, and after quite a while, the Airbag Ark was finally completed in design.

It had a maximum diameter of 240 meters, and when filled with gas, the entire airship reached a height of 130 meters. Inside, Chen Xin planned to use graphene material for support and multiple airbags for lift. This way, even if one airbag was damaged, the others could still provide enough buoyancy to prevent the whole ark from crashing due to a ruptured airbag.

The main body of the Airbag Ark was located beneath the airbags, structured as a multi-layered disc with a larger upper side and smaller lower side, resembling an inverted Tower of Hanoi.

The largest layer served as the living compartment, structured similarly to a circular city layout from the "Frostpunk" era, with rooms arranged around the center, maintaining the same area size, designed to accommodate two people per unit and a maximum of 1200 people.

Below that was the living area for daily necessities, and the bottom layer ensured the ark’s normal operation and propulsion. This area also had the capability to temporarily prepare gases required for inflating the airbags, allowing for emergency gas replenishment to the airbags above when necessary.

As for the material storage section, it was placed above the living area, installed between the airbags, thereby reducing the occupation of living space.

Yet after completing the entire design, Chen Xin couldn’t help but scratch his head. Building this is easy, but before the large-scale and low-cost production of lightweight materials is achieved, the investment would still be too high.

Not to mention anything else, just the graphene material used to support the airbags is a stunningly expensive material despite its outstanding performance.

So, before constructing the airbag airship, is it necessary to first procure affordable materials? Chen Mo scratched his head, picked up his notebook, and wrote down the large-scale preparation of lightweight materials.