4 ms·
This is a cool project, but there's been lots of abandoned airship projects (commercial and military) since the 1930s. Have things really changed since then?
by helsinkiandrew 4y ago
This is a cool project, but there's been lots of abandoned airship projects (commercial and military) since the 1930s. Have things really changed since then? No new technology really solves the main issue that they're fairly slow, don't tend to work well in bad weather and can take a lot of infrastructure to land safely.
I'm not an expert but for disaster relief a few military cargo planes could be refuelled midair and drop 20 tons of aid on parachutes to most of the world fairly quickly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship#Postwar_period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship#Postwar_period
- sudhirj 4y agoThe cargo planes can't lift people out, though. You could evacuate over a 100 people at a time on one of these ships, which seems incredibly useful.
- flohofwoe 4y agoThe Americans famously evacuated >800 people out of Afghanistan in a single C-17 flight. Airships could be useful though if they can land "anywhere" (on the other hand, a single Mi-26 helicopter can also carry 90 people, and probably many more if crowded in the same way as that C-17 flight). https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/20/politics/military-cargo-plane-record/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/20/politics/military-cargo-p... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26#Specifications_(Mi-26) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26#Specifications_(Mi-2...
- alistairSH 4y agoThe Boeing C-17 can absolutely carry people. It’s designed for paratrooper operations as well as cargo. As noted, you can cram hundreds of people into one of the goal is fast evac not comfort.