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Why not go the other direction? Build a large, slow moving blimp/dirigible, and offer overnight service with relatively comfortable accommodations? If I could
by douche 11y ago
Why not go the other direction? Build a large, slow moving blimp/dirigible, and offer overnight service with relatively comfortable accommodations?
If I could take off in Boston or New York in the evening, sleep through the night, and wake up in London or Paris or Berlin, I think that would be an improvement over the transatlantic flights that I have taken.
- mikeash 11y agoIt isn't going to be overnight. It's going to take days. If "overnight" is 12 hours, then you're only moving about half as fast as an airliner moves. That makes for something like a 300MPH cruising speed, which would be challenging to achieve in an airship. The Hindenburg (I know, great example) could cruise at about 76MPH. NYC-London is about 3500 miles, so that's about two days, assuming the wind neither helps nor hinders.
- rconti 11y agoWith a 7.5h flight time from JFK to LHR, plus a 5 hour time difference, that's a 12.5h of effective travel time. So, you already DO take off at, say, 19:30 from JFK and land at 08:00 in Heathrow. From SFO this is a 19.5h journey when you factor in the time difference, which means to "wake up" at 08:00 at LHR, you leave at 12:30 from SFO. In both cases, making the journey longer isn't going to make it particularly more pleasant, even if the dirigible was more comfortable. And anyway, how fast do you envision this craft flying? A 200mph dirigible sounds like a feat, and it still would take AGES (with time difference, basically 24h from JFK to LHR). (yes, I'm aware we don't typically factor time change into these travel time calculations, but I'm doing it for the sake of "go to sleep in X and arrive rested and refreshed in Y")