PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Few vehicles attract more attention and delight than modern airships. The HIV AIDS airship and clinic will be the most recognized and visible symbol of international, and global health organizations’ commitment to research, relief, testing and prevention.
Modern helium ships are safe and described as “ the flight of dreams” smooth, slow and close to the ground. Cabin windows can be opened during pleasant days, and passengers can lean out and wave, even drop first aid, parcels and information as the blimp idles near the ground. The blimp is a marquee to provide valuable information, announce landing dates and locations, as well an ideal delivery system for a clinic with staff and sensitive medical equipment. With a sustainable cruising speed of 50mph the gentle airship is faster, less restricted, and more reliable over any terrain and over greater distances than a land based vehicle. A blimp holds the flight endurance record of 11 days, flying from Massachusetts to Europe, Africa, and back to the U.S. without refueling or landing. Every continent currently has landing facilities accessible to airships. The propulsion system for a blimp can be as simple to maintain and operate as a 600 hp diesel engine. Portable mooring masts can be set up wherever a blimp is operating. The blimp rotates around this mast like a weather vane and can withstand hurricane-force winds.
THE PORTABLE CLINIC PAYLOAD
Companies in both the United States and Germany have recently proposed and are designing airships as potential cargo container ships and “flying cranes” with payload capacities of up to 160 tons.
A cable stayed bladder contains the cargo lifting equipment and fore and aft bladders contain ballast to stabilize the blimp during the lifting of the mobile clinic pod.
“An airship can be used in the manner you suggest...Airships can hover and under the right conditions have near vertical operational characteristics if they have vectorable engines. Therefore it is possible to pick up a pod type of payload...” Lou Foltzer Skycat Technologies.
When isolated from the cockpit the clinic is roughly 55’ X 14’ and is a self contained facility equipped with fold out sleeping bunks, and storage containers for supplies, equipment, water and waste. Once on the ground adjustable feet and legs level the clinic and cables coiled at the outriggers of the roof are used to anchor the facility to the ground. Tarps can be strung along the cables to create protected areas for classrooms and an outdoor clinic. Shower and bathroom facilities as well as interior and exterior scrub sinks are included in the clinic. A generator or solar collectors in the roof provide power for clinic. A motorcycle with a stretcher sidecar is mounted to the back of the clinic for local ground transportation. The smooth ride of the blimp allows the research facilities to remain fully operational and on –line even while the clinic is in transit.
Just as a blimp is a symbol for the endless potential and promise of technology, it provides relief in the form of a mobile clinic limitlessly adaptable to terrain and weather offering patients a degree of comfort, safety, and a reminder of man’s beneficial capabilities.
