this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
As dawn breaks over Silicon Valley, the world is getting its first look at Pathfinder 1, a prototype electric airship that its maker LTA Research hopes will kickstart a new era in climate-friendly air travel, and accelerate the humanitarian work of its funder, Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
The airship — its snow-white steampunk profile visible from the busy 101 highway — has taken drone technology such as fly-by-wire controls, electric motors and lidar sensing, and supersized them to something longer than three Boeing 737s, potentially able to carry tons of cargo over many hundreds of miles.
This morning, the airship floated silently from its WW2-era hangar at NASA’s Moffett Field at walking pace, steered by ropes held by dozens of the company’s engineers, technicians and ground crew.
The first lesson its engineers hope to learn is how Pathfinder 1’s approximately one million cubic feet of helium and weather resistant polymer skin will respond to the warming effect of Californian sunshine.
At the start of September, the FAA issued a special airworthiness certificate for the Pathfinder 1 allowing test flights in and around Moffett Field and the nearby Palo Alto airport, and over the southern part of the San Francisco Bay.
That will involve a long, slow slog to validate the new technologies and to demonstrate, to the FAA and paying customers, that a new generation of super-large airships can match the generally excellent safety and reliability record of today’s commercial jets.
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Airship, tons of cargo? They famously suck at carrying anything of weight. The hindenburg could carry like 10 tons, and a regular zeppelin around 2 tons.
Helium isn’t exactly an abundant resource either, is it? I’m all for a future with a sky dotted with airships, but how could you possibly scale this up?
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I thought it was an abundant resource just not here, awkward places like the moon and sun.
Man I can't wait till we're able to harvest helium from the Sun! That means that we made to the big leagues.
Dyson sphere or ring world which do like better?
Dyson Swarm. Makes more sense to me.
Yeah, it's expensive as shit.
Hydrogen has about half the density of helium. The fire risk is notoriously unpopular, however.
Wide-spread adoption of airships would almost certainly have to use hydrogen.
The article says it can carry about 4 tons of cargo on top of the requirements to run the thing, but that's for Pathfinder 1. I'm trying to think of an actual real world use case for these. Outside of tours that carry around 50 adult passengers with no belongings, I don't see the practicality of it.
It’s completely impractical, which is why they’ll inevitably transition to luxury travel for millionaires. It’s faster than a yacht, but slower than a private jet, so it’s only useful roll is in carrying rich bastards to vacations that they aren’t in a rush to get to.
The equivalent of a cruise ship, that's really the only market. Except with a much lower passenger count and a lot less space, so a much higher ticket price.
Maybe a luxury air yacht for the ultra-wealthy who're bored with their ocean yachts?