4 ms·

While the engineering and innovation surrounding fast travel is interesting and compelling, I think that ultra-comfortable but slow-and-sustainable travel is mo

• Animats 1y ago
  The airship enthusiasts keep saying that, but nobody is flying luxury lighter than air yachts.
  • jMyles 1y ago
    My head goes to really kickass trains. Imagine a train roughly twice as wide as today's trains, where you can kinda bring your own small-house-size-module and travel about the world at 15-30mph. If this is too far a reach, then maybe self-driving motorhomes will fill a similar desire. I can definitely imagine a very lightweight motorhome - less like a bus, more like an overbuilt enormous e-bike - being viable, maybe even by solar power (say, 2 days to charge for every day on the road, something like that). I mostly live in a school bus, but too much of my time is spent driving, and those driving times are mostly a) on highways, and b) at speeds which represent a constant threat to everything around me. I'd love to have an autopilot to take us on country roads at much slower speeds.
  • qayxc 1y ago
    There's reasons for that. One of them being that literally no one even builds airships anymore. Blimps don't count. Another reason is helium being very expensive and the irrational fear of using hydrogen as a lifting gas.
    • Animats 1y ago
      Twelve Zeppelin NT ships were built. Some are used for tourism, some for advertising, and one was used for prospecting with a gravity meter. It's still a tiny niche.