3 ms·

Luckily, we have much better weather forecasting than we did last time we tried airships for realsies.

bobthepanda 2y ago
Severe turbulence in clear conditions is increasing due to climate change: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulence-climate-change-singapore-airlines https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulenc...
- imoverclocked 2y ago
  Turbulence for an airliner is going to be experienced differently for an airship. I'm not sure what to expect, TBH, but the difference between a plane moving at Mach 0.8 and an airship moving at 80 mph will definitely be real.
- mike_hearn 2y ago
  There has been no increase in air turbulence accidents per passenger mile over the past 30 years despite a quadrupling of air traffic (so more chances to encounter turbulence). https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS2101.pdf https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS2101.... After normalizing the data by annual flight hours, there was no obvious trend over time for turbulence-related Part 121 accidents during this period [1989-2018]. The BBC article cites a modelling paper. In a conflict between real data and a simulation, real data should win.
dudisubekti 2y ago
But even then, forecasted storms mean more delay to the already-slow airship. Also the airship is simply too slow to dodge any sudden severe weather, even if they saw it coming hours before.
- imoverclocked 2y ago
  Perhaps. Airships will likely want to travel along jet streams since the wind speeds can outpace the airspeed of the airship. The neat thing here is that weather that will be problematic can be predicted days in advance, not just hours. Even 2 hours gets you pretty far in an airship in wind-calm, especially compared to (say) container ships. When you aren't in wind-calm, you can probably take advantage of winds by choosing your altitude wisely.

Severe turbulence in clear conditions is increasing due to climate change: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulence-climate-change-singapore-airlines https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulenc...

imoverclocked 2y ago
Turbulence for an airliner is going to be experienced differently for an airship. I'm not sure what to expect, TBH, but the difference between a plane moving at Mach 0.8 and an airship moving at 80 mph will definitely be real.
mike_hearn 2y ago
There has been no increase in air turbulence accidents per passenger mile over the past 30 years despite a quadrupling of air traffic (so more chances to encounter turbulence). https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS2101.pdf https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS2101.... After normalizing the data by annual flight hours, there was no obvious trend over time for turbulence-related Part 121 accidents during this period [1989-2018]. The BBC article cites a modelling paper. In a conflict between real data and a simulation, real data should win.

dudisubekti 2y ago

But even then, forecasted storms mean more delay to the already-slow airship. Also the airship is simply too slow to dodge any sudden severe weather, even if they saw it coming hours before.

imoverclocked 2y ago
Perhaps. Airships will likely want to travel along jet streams since the wind speeds can outpace the airspeed of the airship. The neat thing here is that weather that will be problematic can be predicted days in advance, not just hours. Even 2 hours gets you pretty far in an airship in wind-calm, especially compared to (say) container ships. When you aren't in wind-calm, you can probably take advantage of winds by choosing your altitude wisely.