Re:The giant hangar poised for an aviation revolution
by WalterBright on Monday June 27, 2022 @02:17AM
(#31891176)
Um, airplanes also burn now and then. An awful lot of airplane design is expended trying to keep them from catching fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zeDsSJmcpM&t=211s
One advantage to a hydrogen fire is it burns up and away. A kerosene fire drips and burns down onto whatever the airplane crashed on.
Re:The giant hangar poised for an aviation revolution
by scheme271 on Sunday June 26, 2022 @10:24PM
(#31889970)
Yeah, a major issue is that there's a shortage of helium with the supplies being rationed so that enough of it can be conserved for medical and other essential needs. Is there going to be enough to supply these airships at a price that makes it viable?
Re:The giant hangar poised for an aviation revolution
by arminiusreturns on Monday June 27, 2022 @12:23AM
(#31890562)
> A fleet of these could replace truckers before autonomous trucking becomes safe enough to put on the road alongside human drivers.
They are already on the roads, especially in states with govs who are willing to be lax on regs in exchange for the jobs.
If the airships are completely autonomous and you don't care about a small percentage of them exploding (<0.0001%, away from population centers), then hydrogen is orders of magnitude cheaper than helium.
A fleet of these could replace truckers before autonomous trucking becomes safe enough to put on the road alongside human drivers.
If they're better than rail, you could convert freight trains to commuter or rip up the lines and reclaim the land.