FLYING around Toronto (For fun and for profit.)

[Rock]

Toronto rains:

 

[Rock]

Perhaps with tickets sold in advance around Toronto and North America, etc., one question might be how far in advance is already sold out. (Think other outdoor events scheduled in Toronto.)

... and the long, long forecast weathers.


EDIT: Sorry, forgot that weather forecasting might have improved over the last near 100 years... a lot.

 

[Rock]

Need to add one or more telescopes. (I have drawn lineups on Bloor Street to see celestial events eg a really full moon. My larger telescope is portable, and can stand on its own three feet. Walked w/it and legs over my shoulder eg to the Toronto Islands (south side). I imagine the view of things on the ground may interest some also.

EDIT: Again sorry, (but I know I have said that before...) Might add a camera so folks may watch anytime from the comfort of wherever via Internet.

 

[Rock]

Seen on the Torontoist site, here:
http://torontoist.com/2011/10/tracking-traffic-over-toronto/

Kinda crowded. But apparently less so around the downtown. Plus I suspect commercial flights are waaay higher up above a lit up zeppelin.

 

[Rock]

BTW... In another recent thread elsewhere, discussion was about one recent earthquake in LA. Back in 1906, San Francisco (City, north of the City of Angels in California) had a rather large earthquake, and around that same time, Alva Reynolds was experimenting with his "Man Angel" around Huntington Beach (a resort just south of LA):

His "rowing balloon" was filled with hydrogen, 34 feet long carrying an 18 pound frame plus passenger weight (adult male.) He was wise enough to understand the "tear drop" shape of a solid slipping through a liquid.

But solving for the volume of a cylinder, "pi" (at 3.14159 approx.), times the radius (distance from the middle to one edge) squared, times the height (length in this case) of 34 feet, and estimating the radius of his balloon as perhaps 10 feet, say 10,681 cubic feet of balloon.

So if carrying say 50 passengers including crew, 534,070 cubic feet of lifting gas (hydrogen).

Per Wikipedia, in part:

Hydrogen is a chemical element with chemical symbol H and atomic number 1. With an atomic weight of 1.00794 u, hydrogen is the lightest element on the periodic table. Its monatomic form (H) is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, constituting roughly 75% of all baryonic mass.

The "problem" maybe? Wikipedia continues:

At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, nonmetallic, highly combustible diatomic gas with the molecular formula H2.

All sounds good. Except maybe for the bit "highly combustible". That does NOT sound good? H2 was used in the Hindenburg zeppelin, which was destroyed in a midair fire over New Jersey in 1937.

About the Hindenberg here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_129_Hindenburg

In part:

A large German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship.

Elsewhere, about "large", she (?) was 245 metres (804 ft) long and 41 metres (135 ft) in diameter, longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end, longer than four current Goodyear Blimps end-to-end, and only 24 metres (79 ft) shorter than the RMS Titanic.

And:

The design originally called for cabins for 50 passengers and a crew complement of 40.

Cabins??? So our GTA Zeppelin might be though of as perhaps lifting 1/2 the weight of passengers including crew.

But there's still that fire hazard thingee.

Again per Wikipedia:

The duralumin frame was covered by cotton cloth varnished with iron oxide and cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated with aluminium powder. The aluminium was added to reflect both ultraviolet, which damaged the fabric, and infrared light, which caused heating of the gas.

And:

Following the destruction of Hindenburg, the doping compound for the outer fabric covering of Graf Zeppelin was changed: bronze and graphite were added to prevent flammability and also improved the outer covering's electrical conductivity.

And:

Hindenburg was powered by four reversible 890 kilowatts (1,190 hp) Daimler-Benz diesel engines which gave the airship a maximum speed of 135 km/h (84 mph).

So those designs were intended to go faster than most ground vehicle speed limits, with attendant "large" engines.

Again per Wikipedia:

To reduce drag, the passenger rooms were contained entirely within the hull, rather than in the gondola as on the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and consisted of two decks. The upper deck, "A", contained the passenger quarters, public areas, a dining room, a lounge, and a writing room. The lower deck, "B", contained washrooms, a mess hall for the crew, and a smoking lounge. Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks.

Hehe... A "mess hall for the crew"??? Sounds a bit "overbuilt" for a day-tripper sight-seeing airship perhaps.

An amusing article from 2011 "A Comeback For Hydrogen Flight?":
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/AComebackForHydrogenFlight_204202-1.html

Includes:

One purpose of the flight was to demonstrate that modern hydrogen-filled balloons are safe and practical. The price of helium is getting too high for many sport flyers, he said. The two crews flew for about eight hours.

And:

"(Drew) Barrett, who is from Tampa, Fla., told the Record he has flown many types of aircraft, but gas ballooning "is the most perfect and pure flying I've ever done."

But it is of course possible that the citizens of Toronto will want to talk on endlessly about "pubic (sp?) transport" (including subways) instead of having fun and making money for their city, as well as promoting it to the world.

 

[Rock]

Anybuddy in Toronto worried if a few folks get killed or injured every year? (Doesn't seem to be a "problem" when folks buy land vehicles sometimes used just for fun, or ride on a circus ride/ferris wheels, etc.)

EDIT: Ya know, I only write about/investigate this stuff in the hopes of getting a rise (pun intended) out of my neighbours? To get ANY sort of "feedback", both POSITIVE, but perhaps more importantly NEGATIVE? OK... More "digs". Maybe most folks really ARE not any better than sheep.

 

[Rock]

Put another way, is there a better way for Toronto taxpayers to spend their money to promote their own city? EG flying a ride and World Beating "ambassador" to other cities?

 

[Rock]

"That time a giant airship darkened Toronto's skies", found on the BlogTO website, post May, 2013:
http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/05/that_time_a_giant_airship_darkened_torontos_skies/

"had the potential to fly for days without stopping for fuel."

"The Toronto Star called the spectacle "one of the biggest news events in recent years in America."

"The R100's visit to Toronto was an ideal occasion for companies to cash in on even the most tenuous association with the airship. Ads for everything from fountain pens to cigarettes and condensed milk ran in the Toronto Star and other papers in the days after the visit of the R100."

At least on that site Toronto folks weren't too shy to [C]omment. Yet nobody in Toronto wants to make a little history of our own???

 

[Rock]

"The pride of the Royal Canadian Navy Rigid Airship Service " seen here:
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageN...23/language/en-CA/The-Ghost-of-the-North.aspx

 

[Rock]

Seven years later, the hydrogen-filled LZ-129 Hindenburg burst into flames while docking in New Jersey, effectively ending the passenger and cargo dirigibles industry. Seen here, published by Canadian Geographic in April, 2012:
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/apr12/arctic_airships.asp

One question might be, whether 80+ years later, engineers have gained any better understanding about how to use hydrogen for transportation. Anybuddy here? Anybody at all???

 

[Rock]

After almost zero responses on the UrbanToronto forum website, I have jumped ship re: Flying around TO in the business sense to "crack" a fresh/dedicated online forum here:
http://gtaecoflyer.freeforums.org/index.php

Bon chance mes amis!
L

 

[Rock]

Guest free tickets now emptying available. Crew has moved on to selecting food and bevie lists.