As dawn breaks over Silicon Valley, the world is getting its first look at Pathfinder 1, a prototype electric airship that its maker LTA Research hopes
Airship, tons of cargo? They famously suck at carrying anything of weight. The hindenburg could carry like 10 tons, and a regular zeppelin around 2 tons.
Helium isn’t exactly an abundant resource either, is it? I’m all for a future with a sky dotted with airships, but how could you possibly scale this up?
The article says it can carry about 4 tons of cargo on top of the requirements to run the thing, but that’s for Pathfinder 1. I’m trying to think of an actual real world use case for these. Outside of tours that carry around 50 adult passengers with no belongings, I don’t see the practicality of it.
Airship, tons of cargo? They famously suck at carrying anything of weight. The hindenburg could carry like 10 tons, and a regular zeppelin around 2 tons.
Helium isn’t exactly an abundant resource either, is it? I’m all for a future with a sky dotted with airships, but how could you possibly scale this up?
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I thought it was an abundant resource just not here, awkward places like the moon and sun.
Man I can’t wait till we’re able to harvest helium from the Sun! That means that we made to the big leagues.
Dyson sphere or ring world which do like better?
Dyson Swarm. Makes more sense to me.
Hydrogen has about half the density of helium. The fire risk is notoriously unpopular, however.
Wide-spread adoption of airships would almost certainly have to use hydrogen.
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The article says it can carry about 4 tons of cargo on top of the requirements to run the thing, but that’s for Pathfinder 1. I’m trying to think of an actual real world use case for these. Outside of tours that carry around 50 adult passengers with no belongings, I don’t see the practicality of it.