Cargo Airships Are Happening • Hacker News Board

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#131

Post by __MatrixMan__ » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:23 PM UTC

xg15 wrote: post #99

danpalmer wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s cool, but also a quite different business and operating model where storage and delivery multiplexing are much more of a thing than with air freight. The other problem is the drones. For this to work you’d be shipping either regular TEU containers or the air freight equivalent (not sure what they’re called but there’s a standard shape I believe), however no drone available today can move either of those. That…

Awesome idea, but as you say, seems more like a sort of "last mile delivery vehicle" than cargo transport. You could imagine some sort of futuristic flying Amazon warehouse/drone carrier: It would be pre-stocked at a distribution center, with packets already arranged in a way that they can be picked up by drones individually. Then it floats over a neighborhood while the drones deliver the individual packets to the ho…

I was thinking of these as an alternative to having a distribution center. They're just always traveling on a few routes determined mostly by prevailing winds, making big circles around the planet. If you live on one of those routes, you can last mile delivery directly from the warehouse as it passes overhead. If not, the drones are loading/unloading a train or some such.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#132

Post by patl » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:30 PM UTC

MichaelZuo wrote: post #117

Thorrez wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure about how they solve customs, but the picture shows an airship dropping cargo directly off at a warehouse (avoiding trucks).

How will the airship and its cargo clear customs at a random warehouse with presumably no staffing of border agents?

Maybe it's still a customs/border facility. It can just be inland now, away from the very expensive waterfront/costal property

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#133

Post by user_of_the_wek » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

Sammi wrote: post #65

Animats wrote: post #62

The article on the site is vague, but if you go to the company's site, and examine the images, you can get a close look at the airship design. The image on the web site [1] is higher resolution than the web site needs, and you can zoom in if you open the image directly. The cargo capacity of the airship shown appears to be four 20-foot containers, or 4 TEU. This is comparable to a B-747 freighter. Current new price o…

For the curious the search string you want is "Maersk cargo ships in Loch Striven".

I searched around a bit and it seems they have been gone from the Loch since 2011: https://inflatableboatjourneys.blogspot.com/2011/07/kyles-of...

Or maybe they are back? There aren't a lot of sources I could find.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#134

Post by ToucanLoucan » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

danielovichdk wrote: post #126

This reads as a technologist that has absolutely no clue about anything regarding the shipping or the logistics industry. I hope someone told these guys what the spent is on new (water) ships globally, because it points only in one direction.

[flagged]

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#135

Post by wang_li » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:41 PM UTC

ben-schaaf wrote: post #51

0xCMP wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're aware of all these problems because they do mention almost everything you said in the linked post thinking through the idea: https://www.elidourado.com/p/cargo-airships Obviously that was simply a post thinking through everything hypothetically and I didn't read anything that seemed like they actually had the best solution, but at least they seem to be aware of the challenges to landing and off-loadin…

Reading that article I see no proposed solutions to this sail problem. They mention wind as an issue for delivery times but not safety. There's also no acknowledgement that the "scaling law" that makes building huge airships lucrative also makes these problems worse.

You're failing to see the secret that is exposed by the fact that their Chief Engineer comes from hyperloop. They're going to dig tunnels connecting all their destinations and run the airships underground in a vacuum sealed network. No atmospheric drag at all! Bingo!

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#136

Post by VyseofArcadia » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:42 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #124

VyseofArcadia wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Crack engineer" means an engineer who is smart and capable. "Cracked engineer" means an engineer who is insane.

> (slang) Extremely good at something (usually a video game). >> 20 kills? Dude, you're cracked. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cracked

Except for the very online, I think meaning 5

> (slang) Crazy; crackpot.

is more common in every day use than meaning 4

>(slang) Extremely good at something (usually a video game).

Neither the Merriam-Webster dictionary nor the Cambridge dictionary[0] list meaning 4, further hinting that it is a use that is mostly occurring in niche online communities. Note that I'm not saying meaning 4 is incorrect[1]. There's no such thing. Words is words. Usage is meaning. But I think I am justified in my belief that it is still relatively uncommon.

[0] The OED wanted money to show me their list of meanings.

[1] Although it is almost assuredly a mishearing of "crack".

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#137

Post by closewith » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:42 PM UTC

MichaelZuo wrote: post #117

Thorrez wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure about how they solve customs, but the picture shows an airship dropping cargo directly off at a warehouse (avoiding trucks).

How will the airship and its cargo clear customs at a random warehouse with presumably no staffing of border agents?

Not that I put any credence into the idea in the article, but for your particular question, the same way it occurs now at airports - bonded warehouses.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#138

Post by 0xCMP » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:48 PM UTC

ben-schaaf wrote: post #51

0xCMP wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're aware of all these problems because they do mention almost everything you said in the linked post thinking through the idea: https://www.elidourado.com/p/cargo-airships Obviously that was simply a post thinking through everything hypothetically and I didn't read anything that seemed like they actually had the best solution, but at least they seem to be aware of the challenges to landing and off-loadin…

Reading that article I see no proposed solutions to this sail problem. They mention wind as an issue for delivery times but not safety. There's also no acknowledgement that the "scaling law" that makes building huge airships lucrative also makes these problems worse.

Right, I am not saying they're right or wrong (not something I would know anything about), but it seems they've been vaguely aware of the issues from the start. Namely, before the SpaceX engineer and starting the company.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#139

Post by hazmazlaz » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:50 PM UTC

Thorrez wrote: post #102

voidUpdate wrote: post #93

> "But for air freight service, end-to-end delivery takes a week or more, involving multiple parties: in addition to the air carrier and freight forwarder, at both the origin and destination, there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker, and an airport. Each touchpoint adds cost, delay, and the risk of theft or breakage." How does an airship solve any of those problems? Its still got to go through custo…

I'm not sure about how they solve customs, but the picture shows an airship dropping cargo directly off at a warehouse (avoiding trucks).

I guarantee that's not going to be a viable option. No nation, especially China or the USA, is going to allow an aircraft free access to land unknown cargo at a random warehouse without going through customs. It's going to have to land at some kind of airfield just like a cargo plane would.

Re: Cargo Airships Are Happening

#140

Post by CountHackulus » Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 2:50 PM UTC

voidUpdate wrote: post #93

> "But for air freight service, end-to-end delivery takes a week or more, involving multiple parties: in addition to the air carrier and freight forwarder, at both the origin and destination, there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker, and an airport. Each touchpoint adds cost, delay, and the risk of theft or breakage." How does an airship solve any of those problems? Its still got to go through custo…

The article isn't about solving those problems, it's about taking a few days longer to do the actual travel to save a bunch of money, since there's already massive delays on either end.