this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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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

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[–] _Analog_@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (10 children)

Ha, yes let’s use a limited resource (helium) to save the earth!

No, I don’t have a better idea… and maybe the improvement is worth it. After all I’ll be dead in 100-200 years when helium runs out on Earth, but climate change is already having a huge impact.

[–] jasory@programming.dev 4 points 2 years ago (5 children)

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 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 1 points 2 years ago

Neither do naval ships.

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

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