• stoly@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Dude dirigibles are STUPID EFFICIENT because they don’t have to fly. They just float so you only need some tiny little fans to move them in the direction you like. I really do wish they’d come back

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Airships; When you want to be as fast as an ocean liner, as cheap as an airplane, and as subtle as a train.

        • El Barto@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It can’t be just that.

          (I despise the “something something” meme, but that’s another story.)

          • jj4211@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Well, that’s a big one. Hydrogen is a much more available element to pump up an airship, and with hydrogen effectively off the table, then helium which if used at scale would be a problem, and it’s already a bit of a problem as it is.

            Aside from that, it forever shaped public perception, so airships have an uphill battle.

            But it’s still a thing, the butt-looking Airlander wants to bring back the airship. Their ‘10’ model however has half the cargo payload of a 737. Their more hypothetical ‘50’ would compete with an A300 on Cargo, which is respectable. However the top speed is 85mph, so 6 times slower than a typical cargo aircraft. However it may be able to tout versatility closer to a tractor trailer, they do still need a landing area, but not so much a runway. Tractor trailers are often used for long haul despite not being able to go 85mph, and definitely not ‘as the crow flies’.

          • lad@programming.dev
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            9 months ago

            Afaik, mostly for not being too efficient in a suboptimal environment. Also for having a limit on minimal size, but there has been an article somewhere, I’ll update if I find it

            Edit: haven’t found the article, but what I found is this. They fly relatively low (under 2 km), have a hard time going against wind, old ones also had trouble landing. Also contemporary ones are more of a hybrid of dirigible, plane, and helicopter, that probably makes them expensive, too. Existing airship infrastructure is also not suitable for them

            Edit2: oh, and some claim that dirigibles don’t work for commerce because commerce is too conservative, but it’s not too likely because there were news of dirigibles almost taking over the cargo transportation since like 1960s and it didn’t yet, so likely there are things to be solved