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Airships have always fascinated nerds and always will, but whether there is a niche that airships can fill which airplanes, helicopters or ground transportation
by rob74 3y ago
Airships have always fascinated nerds and always will, but whether there is a niche that airships can fill which airplanes, helicopters or ground transportation can't still remains to be proven. A German startup (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter) tried something similar 20+ years ago, but only got as far as building a giant hangar (which is now a tropical theme park - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands_Resort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands_Resort) before they ran out of money. So LTA Research has already surpassed them...
- gumballindie 3y agoI would imagine airships are easier to autopilot and could be used for setting up automated warehouse to warehouse deliveries - including loading and unloading cargo, establishing a continuous flow of goods.
- brucethemoose2 3y ago> warehouse to warehouse deliveries Maybe, but smaller blimps don't have very much throughput compared to trucks, much less rail. A Hindenburg sized megablimp that can actually carry a lot (but still way less than rail + trucks) is logistically difficult. Seems like the niche is more point-to-point, where a large cargo needs to get somewhere unusual or unscheduled, and kinda quick. Something too big or too cheap for a helicopter, and maybe where a manned truck would not work or have a similar cost.
- ianburrell 3y agoArticle says 4 tons of payload. That is one truck load. Might even be a panel truck.
- mschuster91 3y agoPerfect for wind turbine blades - their ever increasing length makes shipping them a pain, but they are very lightweight.
- brucethemoose2 3y agoYeah, thats the perfect application. Maybe prefab structures too? All but the smallest dwellings are too bulky for roads.
- brucethemoose2 3y agoOh I missed that. Its more than I expected from a "small" prototype blimp.
- Turskarama 3y agoThis one is also somewhat of a prototype though, the plan is to make much larger airships in the future.
- bobthepanda 3y agothere are automated mining trains, today. https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/stories/how-did-worlds-biggest-robot https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/stories/how-did-worlds-bigg... if you are building new then an automated isolated railway network is not hard to achieve; and with any airship infrastructure you are pretty much building new anyways.
- bluGill 3y agoNot just mining. A number of public tranist trains run.fully automated.
- lock-the-spock 3y agoIndeed, e.g. Paris metro is fully or nearly automated as they wanted to reduce the risk of driver strikes.
- c-smile 3y ago> warehouse deliveries Main problem here is that it is a floating device. As soon as it unloads 4 tons of cargo it gets pushed up with 4 tons force upwards. And you'd better do not release helium to compensate that - it is quite expensive. Without solving that problem airships are mostly for travel...
- Gare 3y agoThere are many routes where cargo needs to be moved both ways
- didgeoridoo 3y ago4 tons of water is smaller than a cube 6ft on the side. Water flows where you want it, it’s disposable without special procedures, and is literally available anywhere out of the tap. This doesn’t seem like the hard part. Edit: sibling comment points out that helium can also be compressed. I don’t think “too much lift” is an intractable issue.
- jakemoshenko 3y agoDo they not compress the helium they have internally? Seems like an obvious solution so I must be missing something.
- imtringued 3y agoYou need a large compressor and carry the energy around.
- Turskarama 3y agoWhen loading/unloading you just tether it to the ground. If you must fly it without a specific cargo you probably just fill it with water.
- burkaman 3y agoThe niche I'd like them to fill is low-carbon intercontinental travel. Right now the only option is hitching a ride on a cargo ship, which is very slow, expensive, and only low-carbon in a marginal sense, and the prospects for long-distance electric planes or actually-sustainable aviation fuel seem pretty grim.
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]
- GhostVII 3y ago> only low-carbon in a marginal sense What's the issue with this? Cargo will always need to be shipped around so as long as the marginal impact is low that seems fine?
- mschuster91 3y agoCargo ships burn incredibly dirty fuel, the working conditions are bordering on modern slavery, and it isn't sure if some cargo travel routes will stay viable in the near future - the Panama Canal has issues fitting the latest and greatest ("Postpanamax") ships and it's dealing with severe water shortages, and the Suez Canal is under threat from Iran as well as from a repeat of the infamous Ever Given incident.
- narrator 3y agoThere are a lot of people working on converting cargo ships to ammonia fuel. This will at least burn clean producing only nitrogen and water with appropriate engine tech. The ammonia can come from green hydrogen, so it could be 100% clean tech and ammonia doesn't have the problem of needing to be compressed and has good energy density.[1] [1] https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/worlds-first-ammonia-fueled-container-ship-to-launch-by-2026 https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/worlds-fir...
- mschuster91 3y ago
- brokencode 3y agoSince it’s Sergey Brin funding the venture, I don’t think running out of money is any real concern. So maybe they’ll be able to pull it off this time, assuming it’s even possible. From what I recall, strong wind is kryptonite to any lighter than air vessel. I’m not sure how they plan to solve that problem, but I’d be really impressed if they do.
- zzzeek 3y agowont run out of money but IIUC we might run out of helium
- brokencode 3y agoJust fill it with Hydrogen then. What’s the worst that can happen?
- keepamovin 3y agoOh the humanity :.(
- oceanplexian 3y agoAviation is a great way to turn a large fortune into a small one, even for the richest people on Earth. DOD estimates the F-35 will cost $1.7T in total development cost The Concorde was a couple billion, Howard Hughes pretty much spent his fortune developing aircraft that turned into a flop.