Inside a Tech Billionaire’s Secret Airship Plan

[@BillMoffitt1]

I have been hoping for airships to make a comeback for 40 years. I actually think that using hydrogen is feasible with modern materials (i.e. don't surround it with something akin to thermite). I would love to take an airship cruise across the country... More likely, however is seeing airships in a lot of applications where we are using helicopters today. Heavy lifting (emergency, forestry, HVAC, etc.), "Loitering" surveillance (get rid of police helicopters), and tourism appear to be feasible markets.

[@HelloThere-xx1ct]

No. Every single airship the Navy has ever used crashed. Every single one. Some 133 deaths in total. There are no antique airships for a reason. They all crash and then their sister ships are scrapped.

[@kinngrimm]

there had been several attempts including bringing back the Zepelin ^^ in germany or for the military in the US by another company though

[@forloop7713]

​@@HelloThere-xx1ctso the sister ship didn't crash?

[@conniepoo]

@@HelloThere-xx1ct Airships will make a comeback, especially when shipping companies like Amazon use them for drone deliveries, which is a future I do see coming. Most airship crashes have been caused by flying into bad weather, which is human error, and the other crashes that weren't caused by human error can easily be prevented with modern technology and material improvements.

[@HelloThere-xx1ct]

@@conniepoo Lol other than the human error of flying into bad weather. Nothing will ever change the fact that airships are huge lighter than air sails which will always be susceptible to high winds and storms. It's really hard to make a transportation craft viable and profitable that can't operate in the same weather conditions as a similar plane or ship. This is why I would look to companies like JP Aerospace, which plans to use airships to launch objects into orbit at low cost, for the future of helpful airship tech.

[@ahoog69]

While I understand the value and purpose of having an airship for an emergency situation, I must admit that I would love to see someone come up with a luxury air cruise that lasts a week or so.

[@ManteIIo]

The ones that were build nearly century ago were all luxury ones if I am not mistaken, they basically were indistinguishable from being in a mansion and had furniture, grand pianos, art works on walls etc etc and when it came to tickets - they were wildly expensive as these crafts were made with intention exclusively reserved for upper class traveling and thus all this was needed in order for them to feel like on big comfy boat.

[@licencetoswill]

@@ManteIIo aluminium grand pianos.

[@cosmotect]

Just casually stroll across breathtaking sights over several days, sounds great. Then use the expertise to build ariships for Venutian atmosphere

[@krrk6337]

The longer you are up there, the more food and water you needed to carry, and that becomes unfeasible.

[@midgetman4206]

​@@krrk6337That seems like it would the perfect roll for a drone mothership. Have UAVs pick up the resources and fly back up to drop them off. Water? Harvest the water from the condensers that would already be on board for internal climate control. Minerals can easily be added in. Though I will agree that it is easier said than done.

[@emom358]

If it is kept affordable I would be happy to travel in an airship.

[@Chris.Davies]

No. No you would not.

[@The_Quaalude]

RIP 😂

[@xgtwb6473]

if we can smoke cigatettes i'm in

[@kateapple1]

Oh yeah, I’m sure a billionaire will keep it affordable 😂

[@googleuser3163]

​@@Chris.DaviesWhy? Airships are incredibly safe. Even when they used hydrogen there was only one civilian passenger airship disaster (Hindenburg) and even then more than half on board survived. You couldn't expect the same outcome from planes of that era.

[@solidorsharp3091]

I’m definitely an advocate of airship potential and returning citizens to our skies above.

[@TheCebulon]

I hope this time it will be a success. Would be so awesome to see them in the air again.

[@HardRockMaster7577]

Just avoid NJ.

[@Chris.Davies]

Yes, wouldn't it be amazing to see the single dumbest idea in transport make a return?

[@midgetman4206]

​@@Chris.DaviesDirigibles have undeniable utility. I think a role they'd be perfect for is in being UAVs. Their nearly limitless flight time can be quite useful in stuff like surveillance. On a much grander scale, they can work as a communications platform. Kind of like how they plan on using high aspect ratio, solar powered UAVs.

[@5t4n5]

You failed to mention a world wide shortage of helium. If everyone starts building helium balloons it begs the question "Where is all the helium coming from and at what cost will it be?" Like all commodities when there is a shortage, the more helium people want around the world the more expensive it's going to get.

[@airborne0x0]

Are they not proposing a fusion reactor to make helium from hydrogen yet?

[@shannonjaensch3705]

The shortage of helium is no doubt a scare/fear propaganda. NASA is the largest consumer of helium as they use in their fake satelites (sateloons). Their old space shuttle external tanks were blimps and would have consumed a fair amount of helium.

[@5t4n5]

@@airborne0x0 Silly me, all the fusion reactors in the world producing all that unlimited electricity have come to the helium rescue. The airship can go ahead. LOL

[@shadowmeister5432]

@@5t4n5 Fusion Reactors might not be breaking even with making energy but they still can produce materials for use. Such as small scale fusion reactors that they want to use to make medical grade isotopes on site so they don't degrade during transport.

[@TheHatManCole]

I hear helium costs 67 times more than hydrogen. We must use hydrogen for the long term

[@PerfectInterview]

The basic problem with rigid airships is that they require a large volume to contain the lifting gas. Large volume = large surface area, and large surface area = high drag. So they are inherently slow and inefficient and are playthings to any sort of wind. Most airships from the classic era were destroyed during adverse encounters with weather systems. This airship is likely to meet the same fate unless they restrict it only flying on calm days.

[@licencetoswill]

weather modelling has improved a wee bit in 90 years, so yes that should be possible. 60 knots speed is worthwhile too, more than I was expecting.

[@ramdom_player201]

Technology and modern materials have improved a lot since the first airships. Also, while airships may be inefficient for travelling long distances quickly due to their drag coefficient, they are not inefficient when it comes to just being in the air. Unlike planes and helicopters, airships do not require much (if any) energy to stay afloat for their considerable size.

[@Swampwild1]

That is an excellent comment. Do you have any numbers about these losses. I know sailors deal with the same issues at lower speeds every day avoiding storms.

[@xiHasMilkx]

Errr except thats not how drag works, the volume is scaled at r^3, but drag is at r^2, so in reality, the larger you make them, the more efficient they become

[@cptbizzo]

​@@xiHasMilkxdamn, you saw the Veritasium video as well? 😂

[@schlirf]

With modern tech, the airship programs currently in development around the world might actually be logistics carriers of the near future.

[@Chris.Davies]

No. No they most definitely will not.

[@urgo224]

A 737 cargo variant can carry more stuff than an airship. Also with the limited supply of helium they would become expensive very fast.

[@JSDV9999]

Hydrogen works fine, the flammability problem was mostly a scam, it's not like jet fuel won't burn if a plane crashes.@@urgo224

[@timothinking9855]

We're sorry your package has been delayed by a thunderstorm....

[@schlirf]

@@timothinking9855 Or by a Gungho Beagle flying a doghouse?

[@glassesstapler]

solving a problem that doesn't exist, with nostalgic tech and way too much money to spare... a few things come to mind

[@TheeOnlyStolas]

You’re telling me you wouldn’t go on an airship cruise?

[@lokiaverro4196]

ah yes, disaster relief. "a problem that doesn't exist"

[@UhOhUmm]

@@lokiaverro4196 disaster relief with the cargo capacity of one container total.... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. What are you relieving? Two kittens?

[@lokiaverro4196]

@UhOhUmm what point do you think you are making? Do you think the objective just to move everyone to another place? Disaster relief involves REBUILDING. which involves communications and supply infrastructure. These can be hard to implement in a disaster zone. Hopefully, even yoy can inagine how this could be helpful for assisting disaster relief efforts.

[@cedriceric9730]

The problem IS airplanes fall out of the sky way too easily and helicopters are inefficient and loud. Their altitudes are also limited There will always be space for an airship in aviation

[@jaredspencer3304]

This technology, paired with the new shipping-container-sized nuclear reactors, would be game-changing in disaster areas, where transportation infrastructure is usually destroyed, as is the power grid, making recovery and medical aid so much more difficult.

[@TrogdorBurnin8or]

Helium currently costs about $15 per kilogram of sea level lift at perfect efficiency, and that price is rising. Prices are so extreme that there are threats by private industry to start harvesting the stuff again.

[@pi.actual]

I don't know, I've watched a couple of documentaries about the Goodyear blimps. They require a large dedicated ground crew to follow it everywhere it goes with specialized equipment and even when it's moored to the docking mast it needs a pilot onboard 24/7 to monitor it. If any significant weather approaches it needs to high tail it out of town. The only time it can be truly "parked" is in a hangar. A really BIG one.

[@jaredspencer3304]

True, but airships used to cross the Atlantic and sail patrols into the Pacific during war time. They can definitely be built to be durable. I wonder if that's one of the primary differences between blimps and airships.

[@conniepoo]

@@jaredspencer3304 Yes, blimps are significantly more vulnerable to damage versus airships. A blimp behaves like a balloon in the air, it has a lot less mass than a fully rigid airship, though airships are still susceptible to bad weather as well.

[@jon6288]

Makes more sense to have a hydrogen-powered ship that also uses hydrogen as the lift gas… and make it a drone. Way higher lift capacity, dual-use bladders (fuel and lift gas), and no humans at risk if you make it a drone (almost nobody is going to want to pay extra to make a trip 8 times slower than a plane).

[@vincelibrandi]

Sure then all that is left is to call it Hindenburg and let history repeat /s

[@Charlie-UK]

You say that "almost nobody is going to want to pay extra to make a trip 8 times slower than a plane ". But the market for Cruise Ships is enormous. So 'Going Slow', is no impediment to making bucket loads of money. And who wouldn't want to sail majestically, far above the waves & over land. A carrying capacity of 150-200 people, is no slouch in avaiation terms. For a Full size Airship...

[@jon6288]

@@Charlie-UK People like cruise ships because they're floating resorts with pools and restaurants and theaters that also give you the option of going to check out a different coastal location every day or two. Even an enormous airship won't have the lift capacity for 1/100th of the amenities on a cruise ship. And these things would be even worse than cruise ships at handling bad weather, or carrying enough rafts if it had to ditch in the ocean, etc etc. A better comparison would be with long-distance trains... and even they have better amenities. And even then, the market for long-distance trains is incredibly small, unless they're high-speed and can compete with airliners. When they can't compete (think transcontinental amtrak in the US) the market is essentially nonexistent. Nobody wants to spend $3k to take a 6-day trip across the country. Maybe you do, but you're not representative.

[@eggplantandpeach]

Somebody put some handcuffs on Ashlee Vance. He's back! Don't let him leave..

[@SoCalFreelance]

Helium is a nonrenewable resource in limited supply.

[@DemPilafian]

Airships don't consume helium. Helium is not the fuel.

[@maxmeier532]

@@DemPilafian well, it will evaporate and the "balloon" has to be refilled regularly. Obviously.

[@cluebin8398]

@@DemPilafian Actually they do, it leaks out continuously. There is no known fabric that helium can't find its way through.

[@_zajlock_6635]

​@@maxmeier532evaporation = going from fluid to gas. What you probably meant was that it would just leak out.

[@thekraken1173]

So? A resource is supposed to be used.

[@Isaacmantx]

My grandfather was stationed on an airship shortly after the Korean War. They have always seemed so cool to me.

[@Gaster_021]

It’s nice to see these being brought back with the potential they had, if they find a better fuel or material for it it can eventuality become widespread

[@kevint1910]

the us had two or three helium airships the safety issue is less about the hydrogen being flammable than it is about airships being uncontrollable in high winds.

[@audiovideophile5317]

We're supposed to be running out of helium which is needed for various medical and industrial processes. So this is likely a waste of helium. Also it's the only element on the periodic table which is a non-renewable resource on Earth.

[@polohenry4666]

That's always be primary question when traveling, how virtuous will it make me feel

[@therealtwo2dee]

id love to see a come back of ridged body airships ive been obsessed with them since i was a child and some day id love to see one fly

[@HypeBeast764]

BILLIONAIRES YEARN FOR THE TUBES

[@DeanClark-g6y]

Fun fact, the early airships were floated on helium too. The Hindenburg was meant to be flown on helium but US sanctions on Germany meant that only Hydrogen was available.

[@jfeeney100]

Hmmm..... Interesting that this project has settled down in Ames Research Center. Long ago, LTA Air Ships were quite common there up until 1939. In the video you could see the stripped structure of Hanger 1. This is where the air ship Macon was based. This was a much larger dirigible.

[@knessing7681]

there's a Helium shortage right now and for years (it is a non-renewable resource and element unless you can siphon/mine it off another planet/moon in the solar system), it's going to be expensive to fill it up and the tickets to ride it is going to be expensive.

[@stevengreidinger8295]

Helium is supposed to be running out, and it's needed for medical applications. We may not be able to have thousands of Helium airships running around for that reason. If there is a helium expert, please chime in.

[@grantrennie]

Huge reserves of helium, large deposits found in Namibia in Central Africa and also South Africa, some found from gas seeping from the ground and some drilled into by companies looking for oil and gas for fuel, the helium is worth more. There are big reserves in many other countries but they hold it to themselves due to its usefulness or they aren't friendly with eachother to openly sell and trade the helium. Helium is a byproduct gas of radioactive decay starting off with radon and going through many stages of radioactive decay chain before arriving at radiologically inert helium, with a few stages of radioactive daughters of radon and helium along the way, this is due to large deposits of radioactive minerals such as uranium,radium and thorium deep underground, helium is also now extracted from most oil and gas wells worldwide where it used to be seen as a waste byproduct and vented away

[@gus473]

​@@grantrennieSo why isn't the entire NE United States dotted with helium wells? It's radon central, and there used to be oil wells in PA...? 🤔

[@njpaddler]

A short but densely-packed great little book is "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed" by John McPhee. The LTA concept in the early 1970's took a delta-shaped lifting body and proved itself airworthy in it's last prototype tests. The plan was to build them scaled up to gigantic size, and yes, among the visions was that of disaster relief with a cargo capacity beyond anything extant then or now, with vertical maneuvering thrown in, too. Sadly, the Aereon Corp. did not survive, but the lifting body design did, as NASA's Space Shuttle.

[@rexsolomon6325]

There is not enough helium to go around.

[@CharonSin]

Is a giant helium airship really feasible with the worlds dwindling supply of helium? Or a fleet of airships as this company plans on.

[@ErikPortland]

Agreed. We waste so much helium.

[@conniepoo]

Well, if we start getting fusion energy working, the byproduct is helium, and we are on the verge of that as well.

[@Shadow__133]

@@conniepoo"On the verge" 😂😂😂

[@Swampwild1]

That’s another major issue. Is fusion really the limiting factor?

[@HVM_fi]

@@conniepoo Eh, no. Amount of helium produced is minuscule, and we don't have working gird power reactors for decades. Test ship need 180 000 m^2 helium. As long we use natural gas we have source for helium. Helium content can be as high as 7% of the raw natural gas, and as an inert gas it is needed to be removed.

[@Krugzug]

Helium is the only element on the periodic table which is a non-renewable resource on Earth.

[@joaodecarvalho7012]

I think they should give hydrogen one more chance. It's cheaper, lighter, and has less leakage. The only problem is that it is flammable, but I think this can be solved with current technologies. And if there are indeed security issues, they could use remotely operated airships. Humans are too heavy for these things.

[@SodiumSyndicate]

There is no current technology that can turn Hydrogen into an inert gas.

[@mrwess1927]

Its funny how atoms work. ❤. The more protons in the nucleus with the increased mass one would think atomic size increases as we get more and more protons... but the nuclear forces of the positive nucleus are balanced with the electrons... the protons are positive and the electrons are negative. Each proton is +1 and each electron is -1 when you add up all the electrons and protons you get the overall charge for an atom.when the balance of electrons and protons are uneven you get a positively or negatively charged atom..... Neutrons are found in the nucleus and affect the mass of an atom but is neutrally charged so does not affect the charge, when adding charge components adding neutrons is like adding 0. Anyways, because larger atoms have more protons and electrons (generally) the attractive forces between the e- and p+ are greater reducing the radius at which the electrons orbit, that is until you reach the noble gases, complete the valence level and enter the next row on the periodic table of elements...

[@TrenchCoatDingo]

@@mrwess1927 and the answer is

[@bornjusticerule5764]

That scaffold looks great

[@MalcrowAlogoran]

The problem with helium is that the amount on Earth has an absolute limit, and the moment it leaks into the air, it rises through our atmosphere and escape to space.

[@GWAYGWAY1]

The trouble with airships is that they are displacement vessels, make it big enough to lift a load and if the load is removed the it must be ballasted with equal weight or it would be off to the stratosphere like a beach ball from the seabed. It is not a viable load lifter. Too big a wetted area to move at a decent speed without huge power to overcome the drag.

[@googleuser3163]

They can vent gas to account for increased buoyancy one the cargo is delivered, the problem is helium is too expensive and scarce to dispose of like that. The solution would be unmanned hydrogen-lifted ships.

[@СоюзниксОкинавы]

@@googleuser3163 ... And releasing a lot of flammable hydrogen intp the air... YEAH!

[@googleuser3163]

@@СоюзниксОкинавы If it's vented through multiple small exit points spread across the hull of the ship then it poses no threat. This was never a problem with historical airships that used hydrogen and it wouldn't be a problem now.

[@darkflamestudios]

I always heard about these and saw pictures and recreations in cartoons, but I have never seen a real airship. Its incredible how people think modern society is something to celebrate, when all the best stuff was in the past, and they are just making the world worse while keeping the knowledge of these technologies for themselves.

[@RedBeard1400]

We need airships! I'd love to look up and see hundreds of airships!

[@timothyschwinghamer5248]

I hope that perhaps we could build these in Alberta, Canada, to enable distribution of food to the North. Shipping food by road and train is not necessarily possible over the soggy melting tundra.

[@СоюзниксОкинавы]

Are you sure that it would be easy to fly over it?

[@Swampwild1]

This is an excellent point. Canada should be involved in the development. If this were feasible it would solve so many issues for northern communities. Winter roads are threatened by climate change and building permanent roads is unbelievably expensive. We need to make sure research on cold conditions is conducted.

[@Swampwild1]

I imagine it would give ignorant politicians a opportunity to ridicule anyone supporting the idea, but we have already learned how to ignore Pollievre.

[@СоюзниксОкинавы]

@@Swampwild1 Here is a many problem in flying airships in cold environments.

[@ykozfk1406]

I would like to see a transportation competition with Chinese balloon drones.

[@sanjuansteve]

I think the helping people in disasters bit is just an excuse for billionaires to feel better about themselves as they keep adding more billions to their bank accounts.

[@martinheinzbecker9754]

My super professional opinion: WOW!!

[@DaKindnes]

Certify it. Carbon fiber does not work experiencing compression. Only strong against tensile load.

[@marlbankian]

Airships should use the Jet Streams as much as possible.

[@npalmi88]

BRING BACK AIRSHIPS!

[@jamesblair9614]

They are at the mercy of the weather, to a far greater degree than any other air craft, plus, the infrastructure for landing and storing plus ground crew needs, these are the same problems that plagued the original airships, and still have to be addressed.

[@mysteriousfleas]

Helium is such a precious resource we can't afford to use it on floaty things such as dirigibles. Hydrogen is a disaster waiting to happen for a multitude of reasons and despite the best contingency plans put in place by engineers who knew the risks back when dirigibles were popular. I've always loved airships they're a sight to behold, we had a huge one flying around my city in 2005, it was crazy to see but I don't see them coming back the way they once were.

[@sweetdragon36067]

After flying as a sardine in commercial aircraft, these would be like taking a cruise ship in the sky.

[@kubeckjay1137]

Is there a wait list to ride on it?

[@jcsmith725]

I would love to see a day where manufactured goods travel by airship from country to country to compliment the massive cargo ships on the sea.

[@SodiumSyndicate]

Not happening, they are too susceptible to weather anomalies.

[@Flowrazornapalm]

@@SodiumSyndicate 1. who cares about the weather when the airship is way faster ? you can sit out couple of bad weather days and still be faster 2. much more individual by the destination it can reach

[@SodiumSyndicate]

@@Flowrazornapalm In those couple of days you could send the goods by train which can handle normal weather anomalies easily.

[@massimookissed1023]

The Airbus A400-m has double the range and 50% more lift capacity. Oh, and it already exists.

[@sloughone1]

A400-m needs a runway!

[@yoan4152]

Do you think i have seen a blimp ? It was a sphere around 5 meters and no cord or any moving part on it. Just a smooth and clean sphere going horizontal and around 300 meter above the ground....

[@The_Quaalude]

Watching this explode live is gona. Be crazy ☠️

[@MicPGTS]

😂

[@googleuser3163]

Impossible for it to explode, it's filled with helium

[@zeppelinkiddy]

A year later this airship after being filled with helium was walked out and then put back, Pathfinder stillremains a hanger queen. and has yet to make an actual flight. Can anyone tell me why?

[@Guitar6ty]

Airships could have a great future as touring vehicles. They should be built as a delta wing design which would mean less problems for workers to build it as it would not be as high as the sausage shape. Also as a delta wing it would have a large area to put printed solar panels on.

[@ralphgiles4754]

Excellent.....all the best.

[@jonnyh5858]

Shout out nick Mullen for dreaming of rigid airship revival

[@Oblivionsurveyor]

Airships are still the future, the Concepts can only be improved and ultra safe with efficiency. I want to see one that has a retractable sail for when at higher altitudes.

[@sirelliott3753]

4:50 "at least the passengers will feel virtuous" That's the selling point?

[@eugenemoyers8631]

Where do I sign up for a ride? It's high time we brought back dirigibles. Modern technology (radar, better weather forecasting, composite materials) can make better, stronger and safer ships than back in the thirties. And, there are some real applications where the y can be useful.

[@cedricmeralo9361]

Thank you

[@punkdigerati]

So "Cuben fiber"/Dyneema Composite Fabric shell?

[@CASTSTONE]

Over 200 tons of cargo? I find that extremely hard to believe. That's like 2000 people and their luggage.

[@emmanuelm361]

I think that smart people are waking up and realising that Air Ships have a huge advantage regarding the "scale" of things. One of those things could be a platform that launches ships into space. Thanks for the share and keep it going 😉

[@jcasa12]

From my understanding, Lighter than air vehicles lost favor, not because of technology, practical use or cost. It was safety, a sudden gust of wind could send them crashing. There is an old photo of an air ship in the USA, moored on a tower, a sudden gust of wind sent it vertical.

[@Fractal379]

It self-corrected and none of the 35 staff inside were injured, but yes it got blown a clean 90 degrees, awesome ride!

[@jcasa12]

Best theme park ride of its day.

[@Dimaz42]

Sergey gave a codename for this airship: Kirov airship

[@clubsport9334]

Can these things actually survive in bad weather. Tiny engines couldn't push that huge sail area through strong winds!?

[@evertoaster]

Not as bad as you might think. They can do 70 mph so could stand a fair breeze.

[@leosalazar6869]

Count von Zeppelin must be happy to hear that the sky giants are going to fly again

[@onastick2411]

I'd like to know, and this is never answered, could Hydrogen be used as the lifting gas, safely, given we now have modern (and presumably) flame proof materials and better ways to fight fires.

[@danhunters8226]

Think use as luxury cruise ships and yachts is the most probable viable market for these.

[@hosermandeusl2468]

Q: how many MRI's would it take to fill his balloon?

[@peternorx]

Any chance of you doing a , comparison on this, Flying Whales LCA60T and HAVs Airlander 10? For me Airlander is the best of 'em. LTA seem to be targeting highest potential pay load, FW seem to putting forward one model and focusing on cargo, Airlander i believe have in the pipe line the 50 & even possibly 100 with a vision of multi missions, cargo, passenger, coms/loitter. I understand Airlander 10 is about to go into production. I'd like to hear how they will deal high wind/stormy weather, it was a problem for the original zeppelin's. I think these craft will be very complementary to existing aircraft, being able to operate at 10% of emissions & without the infrastructure required for current air transport vehicles.

[@peternorx]

Just checked Airlander 10 due to start production 2026, with the aim of 12 units a year.

[@scupking]

A 480 foot long vehicle that can only hold 10 people? Doesn't seem that efficient...

[@NoidoDev]

I only skipped through, and missed the comparison to other failed projects, to show what this one does better. The other issue is, Helium is rare and should be used very frugally.

[@zeppelinH0]

Very nice Video, I hope for more. Greetings from Germany, Black forest.

[@kevin3434343434]

ooof, could you imagine getting caught in a strong thunderstorm in one of these?

[@Shivaho]

I'm Just Wondering if a Wing Shaped One Would Be More Aerodynamic & More Efficient & Maneuverable? With the Top of the Wing Covered in Solar, They Could Heat the Air Inside Like a Hot Air Balloon & Not Need as Much Helium.

[@googleuser3163]

Airships are already the most aerodynamic shape possible. There's a reason a drop of water is shaped the way it is.

[@rasmokey4]

I think bringing back these majestic airships is a Grand idea!

[@sixhundredandfive7123]

One of these days I have to do the calculations to see how many dirigibles it takes to lift a container ship aloft.

[@sandbridgekid4121]

Taussigs immediate ancestor was a famous US Navy Admiral.

[@lukasfoerster9316]

As much as I love these videos and the technology it really appears ignorant that there was no mentioning of ZEPPELIN NT, whose predecessor did not only invent the technology, but who has been building and operating airships, not blimps, for many years now - both for tourism and other uses. In a way that's very american ;D

[@valleyhack]

This is a short version of a much longer video that is coming soon. I take a ride in the NT in Germany. Hang tight.

[@lukasfoerster9316]

@@valleyhack Chapeau for registering these suggestions! I am really looking forward to the Zeppelin NT video :D 2 Min.

[@karlmckinnell2635]

Airship hangers are pretty cool 😊.

[@xxrenagaderayxx9005]

I prayed for the return of airships

[@laiqhifza2095]

Realy awesome congratulations all the Enjneers technical staf even little working people in this air ship congrats from all the world's. People stay blessed

[@Bare36]

Well,if a Graf Zeppelin was built almost 100 years ago and made 1.7 mil. Kms,without crash landing,i don't see,why today couldn't be built better airships (airyachts)...to cruise above earth..oceans,jungles,deserts,earth's poles...today we have radars,weather forecast,lightweight engines..there is everything to make better stuff.

[@Zulu4impi]

As soon as he said.... reducing carbon footprint....danger... danger Will Roberts.... danger. I understand it's for ESG funding but seriously folks

[@mogreen19]

But will it implode like the Titan? Does this Blimp actually have safety standards?

[@markos.5539]

So a derigible?

[@randomman057]

as if an airship that can only transport 10 people could be used in heavy lift scenarios for disaster relief. The complexity in its build process surely leads to astronomical costs. This is about as bespoke as it gets and exemplifies why Airships went the way of the dodo in aviation.

[@moonshapedabsolution]

Airships have a seriously bad reputation of crashing/exploding to the point of hilarity when you look it up 😂

[@vishalpratapsingh]

Definitely there is something more to this or it's just a very very wealthy person wanted his childhood toy to see in real world.

[@invaderraven1]

Billionaire blimp yacht

[@gumarkuk]

imagine deliivery drone swarm out form airship to deliver package

[@gargoyle7863]

So sad the similar Carolifter project went bankrupt. They were 20 years too early. I think we could use its cargo capacity for building wind turbines in remote areas without the necessity to build access roads first.

[@shanewilson2484]

It could be used to deliver large wind turbine blades to land sites for blades that are too big to be delivered by road.

[@skeptibleiyam1093]

To places that are picked specifically because of consistently high winds?

[@zapfanzapfan]

Air ships would be really useful for lifting and delivering things that weigh more than the 20 tons the heaviest helicopters can lift.

[@diamondbaka]

not that sustainable since we have a limited supply of helium

[@EinfachFredhaftGaming]

Filling it up with helium when we are constantly running put of helium seems odd

[@virginiamandias1009]

The US commissioned 4 airships, lost 3 with a significant fraction of their crew and only decommissioned one. This fact had nothing to do with hydrogen, and everything to do with the fact that the extraordinary large volumes and lightweight necessary to fly with a lifting gas is a configuration fundamentally flawed in the reality of Earth's troposphere. The fact that with a cost of so much blood, modern wealth keeps chasing the dream regardless of the history, is merely a breathtaking testament to the incompetence of modern wealth. The fundamental physics has not changed an iota

[@russell7489]

Hard to imagine basing this in Africa, there's little support for anything there much less hi tech anything. Are they thinking of basing in EU to run supplies down to Africa. 60 mph is 1,200 miles a day, in 3 or 4 days could be anywhere in Africa. What would they do, fly in a support crew and any equipment needed to dock it and wait for it to arrive? just drop ropes and hope locals can figure out how to hang on, let go, etc until it settles.... Hurricane and Typhoon zones? Well, where to base it that won't end up with it being shredded along with it's hanger? Again, fly in? Where from US to carribiean islands? The air fields are almost always open right away and islands so small distriubting from airfield no big deal. Fly from EU to SE Asia - that's like 5 - 9 days if trying to miss big mountains. I'd like to hear more how hes worked out with non profits logistics of using this. He has done that. He does have such clients signed up?????

[@WimalSamarasinghe]

How does an airship that moves soslowly get to a disaster zon that needs emergency supplies?

[@chikkipop]

By being stationed in the region already.

[@alexandrepereira3902]

How will the find helium cheap enough to multiply these flying ships?

[@Man_fay_the_Bru]

The Shanendoah comes to mind