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Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo

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Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo

#81

Post by em-bee »

JasonFruit wrote: post #12

What I don't see is a discussion of how these airships would avoid the sort of weather-related accidents that destroyed the Shenandoah, the R101, the Akron, and the Macon. The Hindenburg disaster gets all the attention, but the bigger problem with the large rigid airships was their inability to avoid or weather storms. I'd love to see it --- I really would --- but I never see this point addressed.

according to the article, these newer ships could fly high enough to be above all the problematic weather. only take off and landing would be an issue. but at the speed they are flying, a few hours delay won't make much off a difference either.

Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo

#83

Post by szemet »

VonGuard wrote: post #36

This article doesn't seem to take into account that Helium is becoming scarce, and when used in airships, it's eventually just released and lost forever. NYT Article on the shortage: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/science/helium-shortage-p... We used to have a strategic Helium reserve in the US for zepplins and so forth, then it was just kept for chemistry and other purposes. I think we started selling it down un…

Why not use hydrogen, its cheap and zeppelins can be smaller and fly higher.

We will maybe better in avoiding accidents compared to 1937:

- have better materials

- can use it only for cargo with drones - no human should travel with them!

- should/can use routes to avoid cities, and should/could build some separate safe landing space

etc...

finally:

Hydrogen fires are less destructive to immediate surroundings than gasoline explosions because of the buoyancy of H2, which causes heat of combustion to be released upwards more than circumferentially as the leaked mass ascends in the atmosphere; hydrogen fires are more survivable than fires of gasoline or wood.[22] The hydrogen in the Hindenburg burned out within about 90 seconds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster

Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo

#86

Post by ummonk »

symplee wrote: post #40
ericd wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a company working on hydrofoils for cargo ships in one of the recent YC batches. No idea how it’s going, but they at least seem to think it’s possible to put foils on something large.

What about cargo torpedoes? I imagine you could fit an airplane load into a very large submarine/torpedo and send it at 200 km/h with a nuclear powered propulsion.

The fastest submarine of all time only went 75 km/h...

Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo

#87

Post by agumonkey »

melling wrote: post #4

All air travel combined emits 2.5% of our yearly CO2 emissions. That’s hundreds of thousands of flights a day. We could just eliminate all coal electric plants in the world and make a real impact. Then use that cleaner energy to power our electric cars.

I was looking for a curated list of the biggest co2 emitters.

The usual shows top 10 including china coal, Gazprom and india coal. But i'd like to know how things are evolving.

Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo

#88

Post by tonyedgecombe »

melling wrote: post #4

All air travel combined emits 2.5% of our yearly CO2 emissions. That’s hundreds of thousands of flights a day. We could just eliminate all coal electric plants in the world and make a real impact. Then use that cleaner energy to power our electric cars.

Emissions from air travel are set to triple by 2050.

Also that 2.5% doesn't take into account the affect of NOx on climate or contrails.

The IPCC estimate the effect of air travel is 2 to 4 times as high as that expected just from CO2 emissions.

Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo

#89

Post by agumonkey »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #46

Airplanes fly high and have tiny porthole windows. You can't appreciate the beauty of the earth. Zeppelins can have huge windows and fly relatively low. The experience of flight would be amazing -- focused on the beauty of the natural world. Zeppelins offer a low-carbon earth-conscious luxury good that the superrich should spend money on -- so that eventually it's affordable to the rest of us.

Do you know if Solar heated balloons are good enough for small trips ?

Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo

#90

Post by ShorsHammer »

VonGuard wrote: post #36

This article doesn't seem to take into account that Helium is becoming scarce, and when used in airships, it's eventually just released and lost forever. NYT Article on the shortage: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/science/helium-shortage-p... We used to have a strategic Helium reserve in the US for zepplins and so forth, then it was just kept for chemistry and other purposes. I think we started selling it down un…

It's the second most abundant element in the universe. Maybe we'll put in a tad more effort to explore it if Helium runs out.
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