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Cargo Airships Are Happening

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Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#41

Post by danielheath »

maw wrote: post #38

If you can pick up goods directly from a customer on one side and deliver them directly to a customer on the other, you can actually beat today’s air freight service on delivery time. I didn't understand this part, specifically how you could beat today's air freight. Why wouldn't airships be subject to the same (ahem) overhead at either end? Competitive enough on speed while being less expensive makes sense, though.

Airships don't require a runway; a century ago they could moor to skyscrapers, or ships at sea.

If (big regulatory issues here) you can deliver directly from one site to another, you eliminate trucking goods to the source airport & from the destination airport. A 3 hour dirigible flight is slower than a 45 minute cargo plane flight, but buffering at a warehouse to loading / unload a truck (twice) could easily add 2-3 days latency.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#42

Post by nielsbot »

fernly wrote: post #37

Maybe a smaller issue than wind, but something is wrong with this claim: "If you can pick up goods directly from a customer on one side and deliver them directly to a customer on the other..." How do you handle customs inspections and duties on imports? As TFA states, in current air freight, "there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker..." Freight has to go through the warehouse on arrival in-country s…

Yeah--I came here to highlight this too. I think all the legacy systems around international shipping won't permit direct to consumer pick up and delivery. Unless someone can show me an existing example?

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#43

Post by mr_toad »

fernly wrote: post #37

Maybe a smaller issue than wind, but something is wrong with this claim: "If you can pick up goods directly from a customer on one side and deliver them directly to a customer on the other..." How do you handle customs inspections and duties on imports? As TFA states, in current air freight, "there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker..." Freight has to go through the warehouse on arrival in-country s…

> How do you handle customs inspections and duties on imports?

Probably no different from private airfields, you have to file customs paperwork before arriving, and they can send inspectors out.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#44

Post by maw »

danielheath wrote: post #41
maw wrote: post #38

If you can pick up goods directly from a customer on one side and deliver them directly to a customer on the other, you can actually beat today’s air freight service on delivery time. I didn't understand this part, specifically how you could beat today's air freight. Why wouldn't airships be subject to the same (ahem) overhead at either end? Competitive enough on speed while being less expensive makes sense, though.

Airships don't require a runway; a century ago they could moor to skyscrapers, or ships at sea. If (big regulatory issues here) you can deliver directly from one site to another, you eliminate trucking goods to the source airport & from the destination airport. A 3 hour dirigible flight is slower than a 45 minute cargo plane flight, but buffering at a warehouse to loading / unload a truck (twice) could easily add 2-3…

That makes it make more sense. Thanks.

You're right that there are big regulatory issues still.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#45

Post by mmooss »

nielsbot wrote: post #42
fernly wrote: post #37

Maybe a smaller issue than wind, but something is wrong with this claim: "If you can pick up goods directly from a customer on one side and deliver them directly to a customer on the other..." How do you handle customs inspections and duties on imports? As TFA states, in current air freight, "there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker..." Freight has to go through the warehouse on arrival in-country s…

Yeah--I came here to highlight this too. I think all the legacy systems around international shipping won't permit direct to consumer pick up and delivery. Unless someone can show me an existing example?

Some international logistics businesses pickup from and ship directly to customers. They are well-practiced in avoiding customs delays and have extensive experience with non-traditional transport, such as semi-submursibles.

Seriously, if a Toyota supplier in Japan delivers parts daily to a factory in Ohio, do they go through regular customs or is there some other arrangement? Can they fly directly to an airfield near the factory?

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#46

Post by csomar »

fernly wrote: post #37

Maybe a smaller issue than wind, but something is wrong with this claim: "If you can pick up goods directly from a customer on one side and deliver them directly to a customer on the other..." How do you handle customs inspections and duties on imports? As TFA states, in current air freight, "there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker..." Freight has to go through the warehouse on arrival in-country s…

Also the customs exist at both ends. Usually, you have to do preliminary enforcement too. That’s what DHL does at least. Still, most of your time “wastage” will happen at customs and there is no technological innovation for that. There is no way any (or most) governments will allow you to by pass them.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#47

Post by nevi-me »

mmooss wrote: post #45
nielsbot wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah--I came here to highlight this too. I think all the legacy systems around international shipping won't permit direct to consumer pick up and delivery. Unless someone can show me an existing example?

Some international logistics businesses pickup from and ship directly to customers. They are well-practiced in avoiding customs delays and have extensive experience with non-traditional transport, such as semi-submursibles. Seriously, if a Toyota supplier in Japan delivers parts daily to a factory in Ohio, do they go through regular customs or is there some other arrangement? Can they fly directly to an airfield near…

That feels like a different scenario. Intuitively I would expect some pre-arranged clearance process that is valid for some period to avoid say daily paperwork lodging. Even the inspection process could be streamlined if there's some trust between the authorities and the regularly shipping parties.

It still doesn't address the case where a random small business receives a container full of their latest items from a supplier.

The first thing I funnily thought of with direct-to-customer was narcotics. If countries don't inspect goods coming in (assuming that countries with a risk of narcotics being shipped out have already lost), then it makes for a great muling opportunity, or just wholesale shipment.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#48

Post by panick21_ »

frickinLasers wrote: post #7
metalman wrote: post #4

Cargo airships will not happen,in any land based area where wind happens,ie :anywhere this has been hammered flat on numerous aviation engineering forums the only way around the guaranteed ground handling debaucle is to engineer mega structur masts for anchoring,which will need to have a circular pad underneath,where the cargo would have to follow the LTA,as it pivots in the wind so back to a debaucle,with lots of sm…

I'd bet a bunch of former SpaceX engineers will figure out a solution.

There are tons of dumb startups that were created by former SpaceX people. Having worked at SpaceX doesn't magically turn you into a superior person that can solve all problems. But having worked at SpaceX is a great way to convinced investors to give you money.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#49

Post by dudisubekti »

imoverclocked wrote: post #26
satisfice wrote: post #21

The article said nothing about weather hazards or the fact that it’s a big fat target for a war drone to bring down. It’s not just an easy target to hit, it’s a symbolic target. Airships were abandoned because very large objects falling out of the sky did not appeal to the public… and too many of them fell. Extremely severe weather brings down relatively tough aircraft, but once on the ground or in hangars they are r…

Luckily, we have much better weather forecasting than we did last time we tried airships for realsies.

But even then, forecasted storms mean more delay to the already-slow airship.

Also the airship is simply too slow to dodge any sudden severe weather, even if they saw it coming hours before.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#50

Post by dudisubekti »

MitPitt wrote: post #39
satisfice wrote: post #21

The article said nothing about weather hazards or the fact that it’s a big fat target for a war drone to bring down. It’s not just an easy target to hit, it’s a symbolic target. Airships were abandoned because very large objects falling out of the sky did not appeal to the public… and too many of them fell. Extremely severe weather brings down relatively tough aircraft, but once on the ground or in hangars they are r…

> too many of them fell How many of them fell? Tried searching this up and barely any fell. Very few deaths too.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents

This list is quite comprehensive I think

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