The world’s largest aircraft breaks cover in Silicon Valley::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

  • jasory@programming.dev
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    8 months ago

    I concur. This is really fucking stupid. The only actual advantage that airships have is loitering time, and solar aeroplanes can already loiter for months albeit with a small payload.

    If you really care about the environment, make it an unmanned post and use more efficient (because it’s lighter) and abundant hydrogen. Chance of explosion is pretty low, and if it does who cares.

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      8 months ago

      I mean, don’t airships also have the advantage of not needing to expend energy for lift, just forward motion? A solar plane doesn’t have to worry about this either I suppose, but an airship is much easier to make have useful cargo capacity than a solar plane.

      • Jamil@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Neither do naval ships.

        I can only see this being useful over land and short distances.