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Cargo Airships Are Happening

(www.elidourado.com)
220 points elidourado | 4 comments | 14 Oct 24 16:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.002s | source
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voidUpdate ◴[15 Oct 24 13:00 UTC] No.41848119[source]▶
> "But for air freight service, end-to-end delivery takes a week or more, involving multiple parties: in addition to the air carrier and freight forwarder, at both the origin and destination, there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker, and an airport. Each touchpoint adds cost, delay, and the risk of theft or breakage."

How does an airship solve any of those problems? Its still got to go through customs and such, and still go through local truck delivery

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danw1979 ◴[15 Oct 24 14:59 UTC] No.41849317[source]▶
It doesn’t. The author is dreaming that airships might be able to just drop cargo off anywhere and I guess customs just happens in software somehow.

Nor is it clear how they are refuelled, or how they are immune from the same fluctuations in fuel cost as conventional cargo aircraft.

But what is clear is that you should “possibly invest” in his syndicate which is funding all this…

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1. dbingham ◴[15 Oct 24 17:19 UTC] No.41850785[source]▶
Airships could potentially be electric and solar powered. That would insulate it from fuel cost fluctuations. It would also resolve the issue with refueling.
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2. sn9 ◴[15 Oct 24 18:09 UTC] No.41851329[source]▶
Or you could just have a Terraform fuel plant synthesizing fuel colocated with every landing site.
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3. perilunar ◴[16 Oct 24 04:15 UTC] No.41855543[source]▶
The fuel plant doesn't have to be colocated with the pickup/delivery sites — you can do a fuel stop en-route if needed.
4. calmbonsai ◴[16 Oct 24 20:24 UTC] No.41863472[source]▶
Is that you Casey? If so, though we disagree on the future of Airships, I love what Terraform is doing.