"Incidentally, HAV originally planned to build it for the US Army (hence the UNITED STATES ARMY plastered on the vehicle in the vid below), but budget cuts kept it in the UK."
Wait, it was too expensive for the Americans so the British will buy it instead ????? SAY WHA ?!?!?
Not to mention that helium is a finite resource and being able to haul "10 tonnes of cargo 1,500 miles" is pathetic compared to things like, oh, I don't know, planes. Trains. Boats. A large enough number of donkeys.
Methinks airships have had their day.
Originally shared by Rich Thoma
The World's Biggest Aircraft Could Launch A New Age Of Airships
It’s called the Airlander 10: over 300 feet long, it’s a floating airship that’s 25 percent bigger than a Boeing 747. It’s 1,340,000 cubic feet in volume, and can soar up to 20,000 feet and move at 90 miles an hour cruising speeds. It’s made by Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a British company that wants to make quiet aircraft that also don’t pollute.
http://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-biggest-aircraft-could-launch-a-new-age-of-a-1709158109#
Well, helium is finite, but in the same sense oxygen is finite.
ReplyDeleteHelium is far scarcer than oxygen, true can be "mined" through cryogenic distillation. It makes up 0.4% of Earth's atmosphere by volume, so is not that uncommon.
In addition, there is some created through nuclear processes all the time.
Mining can be expensive and there is currently a worldwide shortage.
To me, this looks like a solution in search of a problem. From the capacity and range figures given, it couldn't transport a half a dozen pickup trucks cross country.
ReplyDeleteDavid Westebbe It does sound like something only the US Military would love and even they couldn't justify it.
ReplyDeleteDavid Westebbe Light than air craft have their uses. Look at the work Google is doing with Project Loon.
ReplyDeleteIf the thing were loaded with a few pickup trucks worth of RF communications gear, it could be useful. But yeah, as a cargo craft? Not so much.
Jordan Henderson: The shortage of helium comes mainly from US government having decided to dump its helium reserves at an unreasonably low prices. Must be some sort of privatisation kink again.
ReplyDeleteNo, helium was considered a strategic resource during the Cold War.
ReplyDeleteJames Karaganis: It's a pity that this is no longer the case. At the low price, gas companies just throw their helium at the sky.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, an alternative would be declaring helium release a form of pollution, and requiring companies to deliver it to a licensed helium disposal facility ?
In any case, there definitely isn't any kind of shortage of donkeys, which are a renewable resource, have infinite range and carrying capacity*, and their availability doesn't depend on US policy.
ReplyDelete* If you add more donkeys. You can't keep adding more airships because helium is limited.
Unfortunately, donkey carriage is not nestable. But you can always put small airships on top of a big airship.
ReplyDelete