31 ms·

I wonder about airship based (inland) cruises. The cruise industry is on the order of $20b annual and I could imagine a similar experience by air, going no wher

• bombcar 4y ago
  This is where it will come back if it does. Since lifting empty space is “free” you can have absolutely huge rooms in a cruise ship of the skies.
  • alpos 4y ago
    Lifting an enclosed space is not free. Gravity is still in play so "huge rooms" means more floor space. Floor space is surface area and material costs by the square foot or meter both in terms of construction costs and in terms of weight. On top of that, any time you're moving through a fluid your speed is determined by your thrust/drag ratio. When adding more space internally you have parasitic drag and induced drag working against you. Parasitic drag increases as you add surface area and when you grow your forward facing profile. Induced drag increases with the amount of lift you need to fly, more sq.ft, more material weight, more lift needed, more induced drag. Airships mostly fly with lifting gas but still generate a lot of body lift once they start moving. So if you'd like to go anywhere once you get off the ground, you're going to need to balance cabin size against the size of the engines needed to produce enough thrust to travel at a reasonable speed along with the fuel weight required to travel any distance.
• brudgers 4y ago
  While possible, amenities, staff, food, water, and human waste are likely to require most of the lift capability. The cruise industry is constantly retooling for economy of scale.