NASA, Alaska officials see new uses for airships (Anchorage, Fox: construction, live)

[Glitch]

NASA, Alaska officials see new uses for airships

A California company will fly its Zepplin airship up Alaska's Inside Passage and all the way to Anchorage next year if it can line up sponsors. Lighter-than-air aircraft advocates say such vessels may one day be a common sight, delivering fuel or construction material to remote Alaska villages or food to hungry people on another continent.

...

Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell said the state is a "ready-made market for airship technology." Alaska has 200 villages off the road system that need lower-cost cargo deliveries. Airships also could provide alternative transportation for industries that want to cross environmentally sensitive wilderness.

Source: NASA, Alaska officials see new uses for airships | Fox News

If the cost is somewhere between surface transportation and air transportation, as they claim, then it could save bush villages, that are not on barge routes, a great deal of money. It might be a good idea for those areas of Alaska that are not very windy. It will be interesting to see how it handles the hurricane force Chinook winds during the winter months.

[Dreison Rhodes]

DANG!!!!! an idea that actually makes sense!

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by Glitch

If the cost is somewhere between surface transportation and air transportation, as they claim, then it could save bush villages, that are not on barge routes, a great deal of money. It might be a good idea for those areas of Alaska that are not very windy. It will be interesting to see how it handles the hurricane force Chinook winds during the winter months.

Wind is the first thing I though of. Much of Alaska is a very windy place. Wonder if they can even hold their own against a steady 60mph wind.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

Wind is the first thing I though of. Much of Alaska is a very windy place. Wonder if they can even hold their own against a steady 60mph wind.

Rain may also be a problem, particularly if they intend to come up the inland passage. Nothing like a temperate rainforest for producing large quantities of water.

If that thing crashes and I end up sounding like the Chipmunks for a week, I am going to sue somebody!

[Dakster]

LOL Glitch...

At least they don't use hydrogen anymore....

[rf80412]

I'd heard from somewhere about an idea to use airships to reduce the impacts of logging: drop the crew and their equipment down from above rather than driving them in, cut a select few trees, then hoist them all back up and return to base.

There are ideas for hybrid airships that use helicopter blades to supplement lift, like the weight of trees or cargo, while the gas is enough for the airship itself.

[Gunluvver2]

Recent studies have shown that it wasn't the Hydrogen in the Hindenburg that caught fire but the sealant coating the fabric. A Hydrogen fire or explosion is not a huge danger if you are UNDER it. However when you are 100 feet or more in the air and the structure burns and dumps you out the FALL and the sudden stop will kill you.
GL2

[Dakster]

GL2 - Having a fire and you are in balloon filled with Hydrogen is still not a comforting thought, either way.

[Gunluvver2]

Originally Posted by Dakster

GL2 - Having a fire and you are in balloon filled with Hydrogen is still not a comforting thought, either way.

That we can agree on Dakster. I would have to have a good fireproof parachute handy before I would even think about it period.
GL2

[spleenificus]

I just can't imagine lighter than air vehicles being viable in the AK I know.
Tooksook Bay and other remote villages have so much persistent wind that it would likely prove hazardous to airship use.
Just my .02.