The Container-Hauling Blimp

Could blimps be profitably applied to regular containerized freight? It looks like yes, but the required scale is still pretty big.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• airship
• blimp
• cargo
• containerized
• TEU
• barge
• interface
• road
• highway
• rail
• train

[craigrmeyer]

You're wrong in claiming that helium lifts half as much as hydrogen per volume, candr.  Less, but not that much less. And as for not using hydrogen anymore, that's not in stone, but rather a business decision. What's nice about working strictly over the sea is that the same aircraft rules don't apply, so the choice between hydrogen and helium can be a logical one, either way.

[craigrmeyer]

About the nuclear-powered angle, I had never considered the angle about using waste heat to provide lift, instead of using a lifting gas like helium or hydrogen. THAT is curious. Of course lightweight nuclear power has yet to be a reality, but who knows.

As far as I understand, solar-powered blimps are an impossibility because they're heavy. Weight, power and power REQUIRED all scale together, so you never catch up.

[craigrmeyer]

Sure, people have been talking about applying blimps to problem X Y and Z for a century. (Though shipping containers weren't around in the First World War.)

What I find particularly interesting and "new" about this one is the element of using the barge as the load frame, so that:

1: the interfacing with the world is conventional.

2: the turnaround time between unloading and loading is cut to minutes.

[boinkboink1968]

As for the skin you could use glassfiber-reinforced ETFE. (The same as used on the Olympic swimming pool in Beijing and the Allianz Arena).

And you could also consider reinventing the standard sea-container with other materials than the steel they use right know , which would in turn also give a weight reduction.

[boinkboink1968]

Nuclear could be a possibility but then you should consider a thorium reactor of submarine proportions, condensers to extract the moisture from the clouds and convert to hydrogen, these airships would roughly be the size of three times the Hindenburg possess a rigid frame made out of either s-glass or kevlar tubing ( i don't know the specific weight ratio but I am certain it would be smaller and sturdier than the 1930's Duraluminium equivalent ).

[candr]

The Hindenburg, one of the largest aircraft in history, had a working payload of 112 tons. This is after you take out the fuel, frameing and engines. Could increase this with new engines and new material. However, you have to remember we no longer use hydrogen for lifting, so the ship would have to be twice the size of the of H to lift the same 112 tons.

[etellurian]

YouTube recommended this video. Transporting hydrogen made at sea could be another application for blimps

E-T.

[frankensteinmoneymac]

YOU HAVE CONVINCED ME SIR!!!! I shall take TWO of your wonderful flying machines!!!! One query if you do not mind....May I strap the two ships to my feet, as if they are shoes and then might it be possible that I myself may be able to walk to town on the AIR ITSELF!!! Bravo! I would say! Look at me, all of you poor earthbound souls! I am Walking on the ether itself! Oh My! How the women would swoon, and faint because of me! ...........wow I need to stop taking strange drugs & posting to clips.

[randommagnum]

I also have to say that it would be practical, by comparison, to make that long-dreamed-of bridge across the Bering Strait and do it by train (which I already figured was a waste since we have ships). If trains average only 40 mph, that is a waste...but if you can make them faster and more logistically efficient, and maybe even burn bunker-C fuel (wiki: GTEL) then you may be onto something.

Don't get me wrong; I do like airships...I just see them doing something different than this.

[randommagnum]

BTU/ton/mile isn't the only cost; you've got to look at all operating costs over ton/mile, which are huge with airships — everything from lifting gas, to maintenance, to staffing, to regulation, to insurance — and then there are the issues of stability, regularity, safety... Finally, how much speed do you think one of those babies can make? The already not-cost-effective nature is made worse the faster you go.

When you think airships, think specialized applications where they can compete.

[gumby1008]

a cross ocean rigid airship, could be nuclear powered, that would drop the fuel costs, using the pure nuclear heat for lift, so a hot air blimp, or alternatively solar assisted