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The CargoLifter CL 160 I mentioned above was planned to carry 160 metric tons with a volume of up to 3,200 cubic metres. Its body volume should have been 550,00
by Borrible 5y ago
The CargoLifter CL 160 I mentioned above was planned to carry 160 metric tons with a volume of up to 3,200 cubic metres.
Its body volume should have been 550,000 cubic meter filled with helium.
They probably chose helium for a reason.
They didn't think it a good idea to plaster the skys with thousands of vehicles, each with half a million cubic meters of burnable fuel in its hull.
To save the whales from container and other ships with a cargo capacity of thousands of TEU's.
https://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/cargolifter/ https://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/cargolifter/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-foot_equivalent_unit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-foot_equivalent_unit
And there is still the question of economic sustainability.
Even for small operations like cargo to remote areas.
Not to say the volume on a global scale like cargo shipping.