4 ms·

But we do have lighter materials to build with, avaiable today? So a same size blimp could give more room. And why not just build bigger blimps.

adrianN 5y ago
Cruise ships are absolutely massive. They're floating cities, housing and feeding thousands of people. The new materials would have to be very light indeed to scale from 50 to 5000 passengers.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  I would be fine with 50-150 people per module. And then you can maybe meet in air. Combine them or seperate them. Land or go up very high. Drift where the wind blows. The sky is big.
LeonM 5y ago
Yes, we could make a larger cabin with the same weight constraints using modern composite materials. But even with lighter materials, you would still not be able to accommodate more passengers comfortably. The majority of weight-per-passenger will come from water (which every passenger needs for showering, toilets, food preparation). You would need to land regularly just for passenger hygene reasons. So I still don't expect blimps will be a 'comfortable' alternative to cruise ships. Random fun fact: The Hindenburg had a grand piano made from aluminium, as a regular piano would have been too heavy.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  I think there is usually lots of water in the sky. You could just pipe in a cloud ...
  - TylerE 5y ago
    Condensers are going to be heavy, too.
    - dr_dshiv 5y ago
      When you have tons of surface area for free and a big temperature difference, I'm sure water condensation can be done in a different way.
- simonebrunozzi 5y ago
  > Random fun fact: The Hindenburg had a grand piano made from aluminium, as a regular piano would have been too heavy. This is truly fascinating. I didn't know that.
  - dr_dshiv 5y ago
    Random fun fact-- the only lady on the first round the world zeppelin trip secretly brought on a phonograph!
- nickik 5y ago
  Random fun fact 2: They even removed that piano because it was to heavy.

adrianN 5y ago

Cruise ships are absolutely massive. They're floating cities, housing and feeding thousands of people. The new materials would have to be very light indeed to scale from 50 to 5000 passengers.

hutzlibu 5y ago
I would be fine with 50-150 people per module. And then you can maybe meet in air. Combine them or seperate them. Land or go up very high. Drift where the wind blows. The sky is big.

LeonM 5y ago

Yes, we could make a larger cabin with the same weight constraints using modern composite materials. But even with lighter materials, you would still not be able to accommodate more passengers comfortably. The majority of weight-per-passenger will come from water (which every passenger needs for showering, toilets, food preparation). You would need to land regularly just for passenger hygene reasons. So I still don't expect blimps will be a 'comfortable' alternative to cruise ships. Random fun fact: The Hindenburg had a grand piano made from aluminium, as a regular piano would have been too heavy.

hutzlibu 5y ago
I think there is usually lots of water in the sky. You could just pipe in a cloud ...
- TylerE 5y ago
  Condensers are going to be heavy, too.
  - dr_dshiv 5y ago
    When you have tons of surface area for free and a big temperature difference, I'm sure water condensation can be done in a different way.
simonebrunozzi 5y ago
> Random fun fact: The Hindenburg had a grand piano made from aluminium, as a regular piano would have been too heavy. This is truly fascinating. I didn't know that.
- dr_dshiv 5y ago
  Random fun fact-- the only lady on the first round the world zeppelin trip secretly brought on a phonograph!
nickik 5y ago
Random fun fact 2: They even removed that piano because it was to heavy.