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I feel like hydrogen should still be an option for long-range, unmanned cargo zeppelins. Don't fly over cities, and the worst (likely) case scenario is you los

I feel like hydrogen should still be an option for long-range, unmanned cargo zeppelins. Don't fly over cities, and the worst (likely) case scenario is you lose a load.

jodrellblank 3y ago
Why don't fly over cities? Aeroplanes fly over cities and they're full of jet fuel. Hydrogen fuelled aeroplanes can fly over cities. Airships.net has a list of Hydrogen airship fires[1] and I question how many of them could be avoided, and how many accidents that is in comparison to early aeroplane accidents of 1908-1937; Wikipedia has a very long list of aircraft accidents[2]. Some of the fires are very avoidable - cleaning the gondola with gasoline, for example. I wonder what happened with 'static from the rubber bags igniting the gas' - was there a gas leak from a tear in the bags? Through the bag material? Gas buildup inside the canopy? Oxygen leaking into the bags making an air/gas mix inside? "Torn from its temporary mooring by wind" - is that avoidable today? "suffered in-flight structural failure over the city of Hull, England and crashed into the River Humber where it ignited", "ignited when it hit high-tension electrical wires", the R101 was a bad design modified in a rush to meet a political deadline. It might be that this really is unavoidably dangerous, but the advantages of Hydrogen for its extra lifting power and affordability and renewability make me want to see some good engineers and safety officers, with today's tech and air travel safety experience, work the problem for a few years and see how safe it could become. [1] https://www.airships.net/hydrogen-airship-accidents/ https://www.airships.net/hydrogen-airship-accidents/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incident...

I feel like hydrogen should still be an option for long-range, unmanned cargo zeppelins. Don't fly over cities, and the worst (likely) case scenario is you lose a load.

jodrellblank 3y ago

Why don't fly over cities? Aeroplanes fly over cities and they're full of jet fuel. Hydrogen fuelled aeroplanes can fly over cities. Airships.net has a list of Hydrogen airship fires[1] and I question how many of them could be avoided, and how many accidents that is in comparison to early aeroplane accidents of 1908-1937; Wikipedia has a very long list of aircraft accidents[2]. Some of the fires are very avoidable - cleaning the gondola with gasoline, for example. I wonder what happened with 'static from the rubber bags igniting the gas' - was there a gas leak from a tear in the bags? Through the bag material? Gas buildup inside the canopy? Oxygen leaking into the bags making an air/gas mix inside? "Torn from its temporary mooring by wind" - is that avoidable today? "suffered in-flight structural failure over the city of Hull, England and crashed into the River Humber where it ignited", "ignited when it hit high-tension electrical wires", the R101 was a bad design modified in a rush to meet a political deadline. It might be that this really is unavoidably dangerous, but the advantages of Hydrogen for its extra lifting power and affordability and renewability make me want to see some good engineers and safety officers, with today's tech and air travel safety experience, work the problem for a few years and see how safe it could become. [1] https://www.airships.net/hydrogen-airship-accidents/ https://www.airships.net/hydrogen-airship-accidents/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incident...