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Looks like it's not focused on traditional passenger routes. Their Q&A (linked elsewhere in this thread) talks a lot about bringing cargo directly to where it's
by breischl 8y ago
Looks like it's not focused on traditional passenger routes. Their Q&A (linked elsewhere in this thread) talks a lot about bringing cargo directly to where it's needed, with little/no infrastructure. So if you want to unload 10 tonnes in the middle of a primitive area, they can do that. Also 20-40% of airplane fuel consumption.
Seems fairly niche, but potentially very useful when you need it.
- jarvuschris 8y ago> Seems fairly niche It's basically a container ship for land that doesn't need any crew If they bring it to market, it's not going to stay niche Edit: the smallest 10ft containers hold ~10 tons, so each ship is basically a flying small container. Still though. Also reasonable to assume bigger ships would come next
- Twirrim 8y ago20-40% of the fuel consumption of a similar cargo plane.... what does that work out to in comparison to, say, a container hauling truck? Are we likely to see vehicles like this (or larger) taking trucks off the road? If it's entirely autonomous, and thus able to operate 24x7 there's some strong advantages there, but fuel efficiency could seriously ding in to that.
- geezerjay 8y ago> what does that work out to in comparison to, say, a container hauling truck? A truck doesn't have a cruise speed of 160km/h, doesn't provide point-to-point delivery services (i.e., is bound to the available roads) and doesn't provide lifting services. I do believe that these airships won't replace standard trucking services but they are indeed capable of providing specialized high-value services in time-critical scenarios.
- breischl 8y agoThey did mention a planned model with a 50 ton capacity.