A former neighbor of mine now works at http://flying-whales.com/en . Spot on the topic. They plan to specialise on special fret counting in dozens of tons, plus clever engineering to quickly transition between cargo on-the-ground to cargo airborne, and on arrival, airborne to on-the-ground.
Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
71–80 of 198 posts
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah dude if everybody started using paper straws we would make a significant dent in plastic waste and oil production.
Well, then design a decent paper straw, figure out production/sales/logistics and sell it to me at a cost that won't make a huge difference, since I don't care whether I spent $5 or $15 per year on straws. And if you say it's not realistic, than pick a realistic goal and start working on it.
Im pretty sure it was sarcasm on his side.
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eliminating the majority of generation does not enable the electric vehicle market.
Eliminating coal generation overnight would be...impractical, but if it drove up electrical costs, that would send market signals to bring more renewables, utility battery storage, and natural gas generation online. NREL did some research about 5 years ago showing you could move ~75% of the US light vehicle fleet over to electric with no additional generation capacity, so the generation slack is there.
We should just introduce a tax for pollutioners. Big enough to make going green an economical adventage.
Problem is all of the world politicians are a corrupt scum. And this is the only reason we didnt do that already. We have means to stop polluting. We just choose not to stop.
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#74Airplanes 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.
I got to ride on the Airship Ventures Zeppelin NT over the SF Peninsula and South Bay back in 2012. It was as awesome as you may guess.
There were a couple of windows we could open, and a seat in the back with a big panorama window behind it.
We were in the same cabin with the pilots, and they were happy to show us how the zeppelin worked and make little detours if there was something we wanted to see. We even got to meet the CEO of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin who was visiting that day.
Here are some photos, including Larry Ellison's house, NASA wind tunnels, and other local sights:
https://geary.smugmug.com/Flying/Airship-Ride/
Alas, Airship Ventures shut down operations at the end of 2012, but Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei still runs passenger flights out of Friedrichshafen. If you ever get to Germany, you won't regret taking a Zeppelin ride. If you're a pilot, you can even take a two-day training course and fly it yourself!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship_Ventures
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftschiffbau_Zeppelin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Zeppelin_Reederei
https://zeppelin-nt.de/en/zeppelin-flights.html
https://zeppelin-nt.de/en/experience-the-zeppelin/pilot-for-...
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#75A former neighbor of mine now works at http://flying-whales.com/en . Spot on the topic. They plan to specialise on special fret counting in dozens of tons, plus clever engineering to quickly transition between cargo on-the-ground to cargo airborne, and on arrival, airborne to on-the-ground.
Off topic but I couldn't help but find it funny that a French airship company is called Flying Whales given that one of the best known songs by French metal band Gojira is called Flying Whales.
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#76Airplanes 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.
> Zeppelins can have huge windows and fly relatively low Also they are constrained by weight, not volume, so there's plenty of legroom. The Hindenburg had private cabins, a lounge, a bar, and a dining room (and a smoking room!). More like a cruise ship than an airliner.
Well, if you are willing to pay 15k+ USD for a ticket, airlines like Emirates or Etihad have those things too.
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except we're not demi-Gods, able to decide what to do at will with the entire planet. Pursuing some serious efforts in one area can't be turned down simply because there's something else that could be done in another area.
On the contrary, the rational way of solving a complex problem that cannot be addressed entirely is to break it down into smaller ones, estimate their individual cost/impact/risk and start with the most cost-effective options. In fact, people who actively shame others for eating meat, having vacations, and raising kids, are doing exactly that. Except, instead of optimizing the ecological impact, they optimize their o…
It might be some sort of at-first-glance rational thing to do, certainly not very efficient.
There are a lot of people on earth, working in parallel or asynchronously should be a lot more efficient than fixing problems synchronously one-by-one and reassessing in between?
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#78This 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…
Should just use hydrogen. We learned how to safely fly airliners full of jet fuel, we can solve the safety problem with a bag full of H.
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#79Anyone have a non-paywalled version? Frustrating to only be able to read the first paragraph.
Re: Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo
#80This 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…
Should just use hydrogen. We learned how to safely fly airliners full of jet fuel, we can solve the safety problem with a bag full of H.
Is it feasible to design the aircraft so in the case of an accident it can release the hydrogen and safely glide to ground level?