It would be great to live in an airship. The advantages are obvious. You can travel the world in a serene, comfortable environment. You can spend Tuesday skiing in the Alps, set the autopilot before you go to bed, and wake up on Wednesday floating above the pyramids. So why doesn't everyone do it? The problem is that airships are expensive. But so are houses, and we buy them. This idea allows you to take that money which you would normally waste on a house, and use it to buy an airship, while still being able to live among human civilization when you need to earn some money to finance your air-borne life.The Block o'Blimps consists of the mere skeleton of a block of flats. It's got the stairs and the corridors and such-like, but no actual flats. When you feel the need to re-integrate into society for a few months, you land your blimp on top of the building. The balloon is removed and put into storage, or used by someone else. Meanwhile, the gondola of your blimp is lowered on pulleys down the side of the house, and inserted into one of the docking bays. Never has moving house been so easy! No packing, no getting used to a new place. And when you fancy going off on another long cruise, or moving to Paris, you just get winched up to the top of the building, refitted with a balloon, and off you go, like a flying Gypsy.-- spacemoggy, Aug 10 2004 “The World” cruise ship http://www.residensea.com/This idea reminded me of this - a ship you can live on for the rest of your life. Sounds ghastly. [hippo, Oct 05 2004] Got me thinkin' about regulations http://www.balloonl...ife/9507/far103.htm [yabba do yabba dabba, Oct 05 2004] Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?-- DocBrown, Aug 10 2004 Now just get a gang of young, Air Time Share salesmen to pester the tourists.-- FarmerJohn, Aug 10 2004 [pedant] Why would you get time-share-salesman for a concept where the whole point is that you can live where you want when you want? [/pedant]-- scubadooper, Aug 10 2004 [tabs] isn't the idea to do away with the distinction?-- scubadooper, Aug 10 2004 I think [FJ] was only kidding about the time share salesmen. You would need to rent time in a building while your gondola was parked there, but I see it as being a commodity-type thing, more like a long-term car-park than a regular apartment, since your living area is defined by the inside of your gondola anyway.-- spacemoggy, Aug 10 2004 Kinda like a marina for the sky-- scubadooper, Aug 10 2004 Hey, good analogy. Maybe that's what I should have called it...-- spacemoggy, Aug 10 2004 Seems to me that although this sounds like a far-out-there idea it's quite bakable. I've seen news stories about mass produced housing pods for highrise apartments that would almost perfectly fit this scenario. Just add crane to bring it to the roof and bake a blimp module.
(later) I searched and searched for these factory-built apartments and can't find them. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about? They look like tubes, with windows at one end and they attach to a building frame on the other end.-- Worldgineer, Aug 10 2004 Lovely but lethal. [+]-- wagster, Aug 10 2004 Gorgeous.-- bristolz, Aug 10 2004 I'd be all for it. And air conditioning wouldn't be so much an issue - just go up another 5,000 feet and open a window.-- shapu, Aug 10 2004 The explode if they're full of hydrogen. The hindenburg blew up because the yanks wouldn't give the germans any helium because of the threat of war. So they used hydrogen...and, kaboom!-- swimr, Aug 10 2004 (actually it is believed to be resin on the skin of the hindenburg that caught fire - hydrogen doesn't ignite without oxygen)-- Worldgineer, Aug 11 2004 [world] yes the dope on the covering was implicated, however the escaped hydrogen from the imperfect manufacture of the airship is most likely to have been the real problem. Its kinda like lighting a stove, it's the match that lights it but it's the gas that cooks your food.
[spacemoggy] (what a great name) thanks but your title can't be beaten.-- scubadooper, Aug 11 2004 Can I attach my Hullaballoon instead?-- goff, Aug 11 2004 What lovely fun when you flush the toilet.-- Spare parts, Aug 11 2004 Surely all the plumbing/electrics/gas would have a standard fitting-- scubadooper, Aug 12 2004 What a great and lovely idea. And the best it is that not everybody would be able to stand such a degree of freedom, thus leaving the place all to ourselves chickens alone. Wait a minute, that would change all our concepts of frontiers and nationalities...a real world comunity. Yes. Bum bum bum.-- finflazo, Aug 12 2004 Blimps for president !-- finflazo, Aug 12 2004 Taft?-- RayfordSteele, Aug 12 2004 random, halfbakery