> It's just a silly idea, the economics will never work. I am aware that this idea is silly. That's why I started with "my naive mind..." But let's keep goin

> It's just a silly idea, the economics will never work. I am aware that this idea is silly. That's why I started with "my naive mind..." But let's keep going with the thought experiment while we are here. > Helium is too expensive Significant new sources have been found in Africa, this might help. However, if you were always over the ocean, and fully automated, I see no reason why hydrogen wouldn't be practical. Also, the hybrid ships I've read about all had a closed-loop helium system. > they have trouble flying high enough to get above bad weather. Agreed, this is the main problem of which I am aware. It would take billions in development and might not ever work. The benefit of staying over oceans and being fully unmanned might mitigate some risks. We never had orbital-class rocket boosters that could land before, now we do. "Impossible" things are sometimes possible. The main crux of this idea to me was that there are some benefits to having one player, Amazon, be a such a large shipping consumer. It would be neat if our species derived some benefit from that level of concentration. Amazon could be working on moonshot type projects in shipping. The hybrid airship was just one thought. edit: oops, just realized that user Ancapistani made a great case for hydrogen as well