Gas Bags

[Tiffy]

Have been trying to work out if you fill the inflatable tubes with
Helium or Ballon Gas will the Rib weigh less , and perhaps go faster. ?
Answers to captiffy13@msn.com
visit www.venturers search and rescue.org.uk

[ribraff]

I've thought about this in the past but i think you would have a job keeping Helium in the tubes!

[EDDO]

If you started to sound like Joe Pascualli, you would know that you may have a leak.

[Swifty]

Fill em with propane and it'll go like a rocket

[Simon B]

Propane is as we all know a hydrocarbon gas a bit like petrol vapour, so is therefore heavier than air. My money would be on alternate chambers of the RIB being filled with Hydrogen and Oxygen.

However for max thrust one could employ open ended "tubes" that were packed with solid fuel like a shuttle booster unit...Did I hear some mention a stepped hull?

Brainiacs did a test to see if you filled a parcel with helium you could reduce postage costs, it made the parcel lighter but the gas was more than the postage would have been.

HTH

[Jelly]

Tiffy
Your link doesn't work,
What happened to the ex RNLI prototype cabin Rib I think it was called a 'Medina' class you used to have in the Beaulieu river?
As for helium you might well find, (trying to remember chemistry lessons at school) that as the molecules are smaller it might leak out of the hypalon as the weave is designed for air.
Rgds
Jelly

[Scary Des]

Originally Posted by Jelly

Tiffy
Your link doesn't work,
What happened to the ex RNLI prototype cabin Rib I think it was called a 'Medina' class you used to have in the Medina?
As for helium you might well find, (trying to remember chemistry lessons at school) that as the molecules are smaller it might leak out of the hypalon as the weave is designed for air.
Rgds
Jelly

http://www.venturers-search-and-rescue.org.uk/ is the link More on there about what happened to the boat

And I think you are right about leaks, but just as a matter of interest, in the automotive world they are talking about using nitrogen to reduce leaks, but that might have more to do with the characteristics of rubber than anything else
Des

[keytouch]

could hypalon be lined with some kind of foil?

[Cookee]

The amount of helium involved would not make a measurable differance anyway .......... add a load of foil or other barrier to the inside of the tubes would only add to the weight and make it heavier than when you started

[Pete7]

Tiffy, think you posted this about 3 weeks to early.

Breathing quality Helium is about 1p per litre, so thats going to cost a bit with a rib the size of yours.

Its a light gas that can even escape past the seals in diving cylinders that hold air to 300bar perfectly, so the chances of you keeping it in a set of tubes are slim.

It has a greater expansion and contraction rate when the temperature is varied for a given volume.

The cost of permanently hiring cylinders from BOC is expensive and hardly readily available.

Wouldn't want to be asleep in a cabin rib with a leak from the tubes.

Think I will stick to using a mix with 79% Nitrogen in my toobs.

Pete

[ashbypower]

Originally Posted by Cookee

The amount of helium involved would not make a measurable differance anyway .......... add a load of foil or other barrier to the inside of the tubes would only add to the weight and make it heavier than when you started

Agree, however you'll have a RADAR reflector as well

Brian

[Simon B]

Haven't the manufacturers thought of this?