Hell, I wrote a paper in high school proposing this very thing back in the 1960s.
That’s not even half the length of the hindenberg.
what was ounce old is now claimed to be new. Reminds me of what W. C. Fields said about ‘suckers’.
I found this paragraph amusing.
“However he said he can’t see the ships replacing railways traditionally used to transport freight, but instead said the hybrid machines would be suitable for transporting very heavy loads in hard to reach areas like Canada and Africa.”
I didn’t think Toronto traffic got that bad.
I suppose there are a few things this design could be well-suited for. The Soviets developed all sorts of wild helicopter designs to service the areas that couldn’t be reached by ground transport and didn’t have the landing facilities for fixed-wing aircraft. So, this isn’t that different in that sense.
As a game-changer...I dunno. I get that it’s high-endurance, but 100 mph top speed dampens my enthusiasm a bit. Cruise speed is likely a lot less than that (I’m betting no more than half, based on what I’ve read on other next-gen airship designs).
I’m not an aerospace engineer, certainly. But this just looks like a niche vehicle, rather than the future of air transport and travel.
Ahhh, more surveillance. Wherever the battery powered drones are impractical.
The first aircraft with cleavage. Game changer.
Trendy phrase I’d like to see permanently retired: “Game changer.”
And every year or so “they” keep telling us that we are on the cusp of a major helium shortage and that we will run out of it in our lifetimes.
Now that I have reminded everyone of this, look at the picture of this thing and try to reconcile “helium shortage” with operating one or more of THOSE.
And let’s not pretend that once in a while there won’t be an accident that loses all of the helium in that thing.
“huge manatee” pic coming in 3, 2,...
I clicked on that link and my computer virus scanner went NUTS! Don’t go there...
blimp big deal
Oh, it's green. Well ok, just keep reverting the country back to the early 1900's,
then call it progress.
"... and it looks like a giant penis."
And haven't fancy blimps been on at least one Popular Science magazine cover a year for the past 30 years?