4 ms·
The economics are bad. Imagine the unit cost is $10 million. This seems realistic, the prototype cost ~$30 million and this airship is made of 40,000 pounds of
by asdfadsfgfdda 7y ago
The economics are bad. Imagine the unit cost is $10 million. This seems realistic, the prototype cost ~$30 million and this airship is made of 40,000 pounds of light weight materials with very manual assembly processes. The cost of capital and depreciation might be $1 million/year. If the cruise speed is maybe 70 MPH, even if electricity and maintenance were free, this will $1.60 per mile. A container ship will be about $.01 per mile in similar cost.
Then looking at energy consumption, a container ship might need 8 HP of power per 40 foot container sailing at 18 mph. This airship has 700 HP per container at 70 mph.
- e12e 7y agoWith automated ships, and automated airships, you could do away with most loading/unloading - have the airships load/unload in coastal waters, use ships for the long haul across oceans? Ideally you'd use windpower (sails) and solar (electricity) for the ships.