Merani

GALLERY

Exterior

Interior

Schematics

There are many companies all over the world, developing and operating the next generation of airships. The dozen or so currently are employed to fly tourists on sight-seeing trips over the German countryside or over the Amazon. The next major event to happen in dirigible history is scheduled to begin in 2023, Swedish company Ocean Sky Cruises has begun marketing trips to the North Pole.

Unlike other airborne types of tourism, Hospitality Concept "Merani" is not a Flying Tourism or even a Flying Hotel. The logistic motherboard of H.C. ”Merani” consists of a series of portable Mini Luxury Hotels (MLH), designed to be transferred by an airship. The MLH can be easily removed without any ecological damage as a consequence of its presence, thus accompanying guests during their journey/stay - on Land, in the Air and on the Water. "Merani" is a concept in which an airship is used only for short-term transfers, in most cases, guests will spend nights and days on land or water. Therefore, one airship can serve up to six transportable "Merani" hotels in one day, drastically reducing the cost of renting an airship.

There are a lot of stunning natural or historic sites all over the world - hidden in inaccessible gorges, remote deserts or on mountain peaks. They have been visited by very few people for their remoteness and difficulty or impossibility to staying there. With the ability to take off and land anywhere an airship can carry the hotel, with guests to places that are really off the tourist beaten track, wait for or leave guests for a several days in a tourist complex territory or dives them deeper into the middle of the wilderness - to feel, touch, and smell the nature.

H.C."Merani" gives you the unique opportunity to reach effortlessly, incredibly beautiful but difficult to reach places. There is no need to move from hotel to hotel, climbing mountains or fording swamps for days. Here you will have the unique opportunity to enjoy pristine nature, staying in luxurious conditions . . . You really can't do that in any other type of tourism that exists.

An airship is ecological and noiseless, it can cruise at a slow speed, relatively low - at the height of a bird's eye, at high in luxury and with some of the most breathtaking views available. HC “Merani” leads to a new emotionality - putting you in a very quiet, airy and spacious environment. Making able to savor the world from a different pliable point of view. Just imagine having a view of the beach, being immersed in the forest or the desert, or perched on the side of a cliff. A tourist, in order to visit an attraction, only needs to leave the room and take a stroll, then get back, to be accommodated in what is effectively a mini luxury hotel, which waits nearby under the hovering airship.

In addition to tourism, there are many other purposes of a different nature in which "Merani" would be useful, but primary of all it would be important for remote and inaccessible locations.
For example: as mini medical centers of different specializations, including first aid in emergencies; archaeological or scientific expeditions; social activities of an educational and entertaining nature for remote and isolated communities.

From the first idea to complete concept we are inspired by "Merani" a hero of the homonymous poem by Nikoloz Baratashvili one of the greatest Georgian Romantic poets, referred to as the "Georgian Byron". "Merani" is a striking manifestation of the romantic spirit: active, life-asserting, and full of revolutionary aspirations. "Merani" in Georgian means Pegasus - მერანი.

It is very surprising how: The Aspirations of the poem, The ultimate Freedom Soul of Pegasus and The Philosophy of the Hospitality Concept "Merani" - Coincide With Each Other! Wild and free, "Merani" represents attaining ultimate freedom, with no boundaries of times and space. It flies among the clouds, Soaries over the oceans reaching lands that have to be explored, yet to be discovered, this is power of freedom the "Merani" reveals to us.

This glorious fantasy creature moves on earth and through the heavens, becoming the embodiment of “as above, so below.” This animal spirit reminds us that we are not merely Flesh and Blood, but also Spirit. The magnificent creature comes to us in our times of greatest need, to lift us above the ordinary, to help reach our goal and taste the triumph, to take us to experience something extraordinary, to places and times that are alive in dreams of our hearts.

Merani invites you where, there are hardly any limits to your gaze and imagination; where you feel and sense the vastness and get a whole new sense of exploring or rediscovering the true senses of traveling. Merani invites to close you eyers for just a moment and imagine the life that you feel you were born to live.

Reserved elegance, expressiveness, evolution of shapes, visual and physical reliability. A concept that invigorates all the senses and provides relaxation at the same time. "Merani" means voyaging without sacrificing the comfort and elegance of your floating-flying hotel, that could be your cocoon of peace and security. Our challenge was to create a welcoming, luxurious and discreet environment. To create a setting, which could be able to live up to Merani's consumers most extraordinary emotions and offer some mind-blowing ways to enjoy the beauty of the journey.

The futuristic vessel that could influence the way we travel nowadays, A Vehicle, Ship or Airship - "Merani" falls into all three categories, leaving guests the options to fly or navigate to their holiday destinations. MLH Merani is full of stylistic elements "borrowed" from the world of Supercars, Nautic, Aeronautic and Dwelling, but despite this remains a strange newcomer for these scenes.

The vessel combines industrial aesthetics with delicacy and an artisanal touch, providing the right balance between minimalistic and modern yet timeless design. Wood, Glass and Sun Panels are dominant materials of the concept. The 39- meter vessel concept is characterized by her curvaceous, rhythmic lines and a stunning look. Merani's shape alludes to the flowing, watery forms. Exterior lines literally flow into dynamic interior details creating a continuum of inviting spaces, marked by simple and honest aesthetics. The hull is sculpted with a rib of glazing that starts from the stern and extends to the bow, creating light and dynamic external lines, giving a feeling of integrity and dynamism to the profile.

"Merani" provides an unprecedented interpretation of the environments onboard, features compact and well-equipped interiors designed to offer an immersive and entertaining areas. She boasts a wealth of inviting areas, spacious lounge and the upscale interior design, pamping guests with maximum comfort and making a longer stay on board a pure pleasure.

MLH Merani spans 39m, with a 14m beam, and 1.2m draft. Three decks - Main, Upper and Sun with the total area of 700sqm. Merani offers accommodation for up to 20 guests, she is also capable of carrying up to 8 crew onboard to ensure a relaxed experience and thoroughly enjoyable cruising.

Merani’s key features includes: Sundeck, Swimming pool, Dining Terrace, mini- Beach&Gym Area and Multi-function lounge with kitchen in the central part, restaurant, wine bar, cozy and unique spaces. Apart from the beach club, the main deck aft, is devoted to the crew and service areas.

Stepping on board guests are greeted by mini-Beach that, through corridor, leads to suits and to forward observation lounge with panoramic views, to soak up the world glide by through huge windows. This multifunctional “horizon to horizon” lounge with floor-to-ceiling windows gives enormous amounts of natural light and air, stunning and impeccable view of the landscape below and the immense. The lounge interior has been designed to enable an unobstructed 180 degree view. There is also a second-floor lounge, featuring fireplace and smoking areas, for more intimate socializing or as a cozy nook to escape with a good book or cigar.

The Sun Deck area offers a flexible space for different purposes including a 360 degree viewing point, 16m x 4m pool, jacuzzi, mini bar and outdoor cinema. Special deck connected ample sun loungers and palm trees converts the Sun Deck in mini beach. The floodable swimming pool has a glass bottom, dappled light trickles down into the corridor below playing with sun light arousing surrealistic sensations.

The 36 sq.m. suites, featuring a living-sleeping areas, sunbathed bathrooms and retractable balconies. The suites angular arrangement, confers expressiveness and allows to have six meter-wide windows, at only four meters of room width. The suites bath skylight glazing lets natural light flow in, illuminating palm trees which can be lift up to sun deck.

Multiple layout configurations are available to set up the suites for a supreme level of comfort on board. General arrangement options can be different, with enough versatility to suit different group arrangements: Air ferry, Eight suite rooms, Four VIP suites, layout for a large Family or Event-hall. There are also expected spaces for cars, horses or camels.

The zero-emission vessel combines the newest maritime technologies, providing maximum stability, effective propulsion, maneuverability and the highest level of sailing comfort. She is set to demonstrate the effectiveness of using multiple energy sources to ensure a continuous supply of power.

MLH Merani harnesses solar energy using an impressive array of flexible photovoltaic panels, ensuring a self-sufficient and a sustainable retreat in utmost luxury, even in remote regions. Owing to the introduction of climate-controlled technology and PCM materials we would save energy for cooling and heating. Having height Thermal mass, PCM (Phase Change Materials) absorb heat during sunlit days and slowly release it as temperatures drop. The photovoltaic shields opens up like a fish scales, to recharge the heat or the coolness in Merani's body.

Merani is equipped with an automatic leveling system: retractable telescopic anchor-lags for landing on uneven or sloping terrain. The pool structure is supported by a system of framed columns, through which go 12 lifting ropes. This solution allows to dampen motions in fly, at landing and take-off. The hot galvanized steel frame is bolted directly into the hull in order to secure low point of gravity and the best possible balance of the ship during take-off and landing. The frame provides a secure lifting points, the straps go through rooms walls to the roof, hanging Merani totally in balance. The rigid load frame has a series of bracing adding to rigidity, massive arms will derive from the mainframe to either side of the ship. Merani is also equipped with a cushioning system to avoid side collisions with treetops or rocks when flies through canyons. Merani it’s not a pressurized cabin, an airship doesn’t exceed 10,000 feet in normal operations so you don’t need to pump the pressure up in.

Merani is self-sufficient, autonomous, equipped with silent electric propulsion, electric engines produce zero emissions, zero noise, as well as zero waves. Merani's quiet motors give you the opportunity to experience the water-nature in silence, listen to the waves lapping against the hull instead of the rumble of the engines below you. There are no fumes, low vibration, no greenhouse gas emissions and no water pollution.

As a vessel Merani has a number of key features it boasts and is able to change its operating characteristics to accommodate a variety of conditions. An adaptable vessel with ability to run in 2 feet deep water as well as offshore. Yes, Merani can transform itself into different configurations, the hull system is capable of shifting buoyancy system shapes and characteristics, imparting new functionality to the vessel. Thanks to the special retractable hulls it can transform, that too while it is in motion. The hulls, upon folding, move on to become a pontoon, it's sea-keeping performance fully enables the dream of a luxury hotel on water to be turned into reality.

On the other hand, where there are livelier seas, the hulls open up and ride the bulk of the displacement underwater, where the vessel therefore is less affected by waves, as their excitation drops exponentially as depth increases. Placing the displacement majority under the water level results in 90 percent less rolling and heeling and is similar in concept to creating a ship that rides a top twin submarine, achieving high speed through greatly reduced drag. This enacts stability in rough conditions, increases safety in waters of up to significant wave height. All this resulting Merani's smoother sailing characteristics, you no longer have to worry about seasickness.

Higher speed, faster acceleration, shallow water capability, great maneuverability, absence of vibrations, extremely environment friendly and many other Merani's typical and exclusive advantages have been created thanks to "DeepSpeed" electric propulsion motors, thus eliminating several problems deriving from conventional propulsion methods.

Essentially a water jet drive is like an aircraft turbojet with the difference that the operating fluid is the water instead of the air. The DeepSpeed engine has a similar design to a rim motor — instead of having blades attached to a central hub, the blades are attached to the rim of the housing, and water flows through the middle. The engine transfers pressure and speed energy to the water, converting it in a straight highspeed jet, much higher than a vessel speed. The advantage of DeepSpeed is based on the propulsive aspect and not on the electric motor. The faster the boat goes, the more water is forced into the jet, increasing its overall efficiency - Jet’s power absorption is insensitive to boat’s speed. This means constant jet thrust at boat drag variation.

Absence of open rotating blades ensures minimal damage susceptibility to floating debris, complete safety around people in the water and marine life. Lower size and weight in respect to the pair motor-pump of traditional hydro-jet - Eliminates the need of mating with transmission shaf. The outboard installation creates an ideal cooling system and low underwater acoustic signature, no torque effect and no high-speed cavitation gives maximum comfort levels on board.

As far as a Sail is Concerned, it Deserves Special Attention. Merani has a 28-meter liftable "sail", but is not a common one, it is Multifunctional. The sail's "standby mode" and First function is to be a Cover for the sundeck; in flight, when passing under a bridge or in case of bad weather. Thus, also drastically changing the exterior shape. The "sail" structure represents a arch-shaped helium filled rigid "blanket", covered with lightweight flexible solar panels. The "sail-cover" is a real intersection between sail yacht and airship worlds. The "cover" functions as tiny airship. The "takeoff" and "landing" are effectuated through intelligent roll-on/roll-off cable system, that automatically adjust the inclination angle of the sail up to 80 degrees, simultaneously exploiting as much as possible sun and wind energy. The system enables you to fix the "cover" practically in any height (that is, in depending on the installed cables length). The "cover" is attached by a power tether and cables, could host a suite of spotlights, cameras, multi-spectral sensors, sound systems, antennae, insect-animal repellent and more.

When there is need for shade, the "cover" can hover over the sundeck, at desirable height. Retractable awning systems are used to provide additional protection from the sun. And when there is no need for shade, the "cover" can be lift up to the necessary height, allowing guests to sunbathe. A screen and curtains, for a cosine’s environment, can be attached to the cover for arranging a cinema space.

In the dark at night, the surrounding area can be illuminated by adjusting the lighting surface according to the height. As well, the "Beacon" will be used for communication, entertainment and other purposes. Considering that MLH Merani will often frequent inaccessible places, it is necessary to be equipped with powerful means of communication. The "Beacon" will also allow us to measure the direction and speed of the wind, with very high precision. The information will always be useful for incoming airships. The "Beacon" serves, both for guests wandering around the surroundings and for incoming airships.

The obvious one is airship's high degree of safety. Airships fly slowly, averaging 150 kilometers per hour, can operate under all-weather conditions, taking into account the effect of winds, rain and wind gusts. During storm conditions, the airships will either avoid the troubled zone or maintain flight and exit the zone, similar to regular aircraft. Although airships look like balloons, they don’t burst: even in the unlikely event the hull did puncture the helium gas would escape slowly, it needs to be pushed out of the envelope to decrease buoyancy, a process which can take literally days to accomplish.

Airships have four-six propeller engines, which gives you greater inherent safety because obviously if you lose a single engine, you’ve lost only a part of your propulsion. It’s hard to envisage a situation where all engines would fail and even if that happened, you’d have an enormous amount of time to pick where you want to land.

One of the major arguments in favor of airships is that they are much more environmentally friendly, offering a 75 percent reduction in emissions. Engineers are already working on producing a fully electric, zero-emission version. Current airship designs include a broad spectrum of revolutionary technologies and innovations, enable to fly up to 6,000 nautical miles, while achieving true vertical takeoff and landing, to hover over unprepared surfaces, and to offload over-sized cargo directly at the point of need. As airships can take off and land from virtually any flat surface in any direction, gliding quietly overhead and leaving the landscape untouched. There’s no need to clear land, to construct runways, additional roads or airports - another plus for the planet.

The Airship is equipped with vectored thrust engines that allow maneuverability. In addition to aiding helicopter-like Vertical Take-Off and Landing capability - VTOL, the vectored thrust propels the vehicle in forward flight and aids with ground-based taxiing.

The buoyancy control system compresses non-flammable helium into a pressure envelope, to allow the vehicle to manage buoyant lift similarly to submarine. With the difference that the operating substance is the air instead of the water. The system allows an airship to act as a “flying submarine.” A pilot can control and adjust buoyant and dynamic lift at all stages, creating unique ability beyond what has traditionally been available.

Airship rigid structure provides an excellent range of hard points for mounting engines, canards, cockpit, propulsion systems, both inside and outside of the hull. Airships can be equipped with specialized loading bays to enable effect loading and unloading through airborne cranes, while hovering over specific locations.