X-Message-Number: 14398 From: Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2000 06:12:11 EDT Subject: Back to 21st century: Flying carpet Flying carpets At the end of 21st century, there could be some flying carpet Balloons and airships technologies have been bolcked in the 20th century by wars: They are too sensitive to destructive systems and so connot be used in a world where war in endemic. The next century can't see global wars and so airships must thrive. The biggest can't have a diameter larger than 150 m because the building hall would be too large. On the other hand, the modular technology allows to make kilometers long ships. Unfortunately, they become too frail. The solution is then to have many cylinders side by side so that a more sturdy structure may be built. A very large airship would then be 150 m high, may be 2 km long and 1km width, it is a flying carpet with near 100 000 tons capacity. A flying carpet could move a factory anywhere in the world, it would reduce to near nothing transportation costs and you could even live year round on one of them. The strategic value of sea and harbors would disapear. Sea transport would be a thing of the past, it is unlikely that custom and country boundaries would survive. Yvan Bozzonetti. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14398