(Designboom) Measuring 204 meters (699 ft) in length, the Colossea mega-yacht is an itinerant floating docking station for a detachable airship. The project by Pierpaolo Lazzarini is a tribute to the N1 airship (later renamed Norge) which took off for its first test flight from Rome a century ago.
With Colossea, Lazzarini reimagines its iconic design with the materials and technologies of today, proposing the same measurements with upgraded materials and propulsion. Entirely conceived to be built in carbon fiber from the internal structures to the exterior blimp surface, the airship will be moved by 8 electric engines, with its upper structure comprising a take-off/landing area shaped to the blimp’s form.
all images courtesy of Pierpaolo Lazzarini
CONCEPTUALIZED BY PIERPAOLO LAZZARINI
Italian designer Pierpaolo Lazzarini pays homage to the Norge, a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that, with an overflight on 12 May 1926, completed the first verified trip of any kind to the North Pole, as well as being the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America.
Inside Colossea’s blimp, 22 isolated compartments host various installations such LH2 tanks (liquid hydrogen) batteries, cabins, and all internal structures. The overall volume of the carrier gas compartments have 30,000 mc which grants the aircraft enough space to release sufficient H2 into any compartment. The LH2 is released into the compartments to adjust the weight balancing needed and also as H2 reserve in case of gas loss.
The same LH2 is devoted to supplying the necessary energy requirement of each engine, capable of pushing the flying vessel to an estimated maximum speed of 165 km/h (about 90 knots), while the Yacht instead is pushed from 3 HTS engines on a maximum speed of 22 knots. Likewise, airship propellers can increase and support the efficiency of the sailing.
The new airship with 10,000kg of payload and armament can now accommodate up to 24 passengers (plus 10 crew members), though instead, the yacht offers 22 dislocated guest suites and multiple deck with pools on the rear part for a total load capacity up to 44 guests and 20 crew members.
