Airships: The Comeback We've Been Waiting For?
Summary
TLDRAirships may be making a comeback thanks to innovators applying new technology to improve these old machines. While slower than planes and less powerful than freighters, airships have environmental benefits - they can be very fuel efficient. Companies like Hybrid Air Vehicles, Lighter Than Air Research, and Flying Whales are developing new airship designs and manufacturing techniques to make them cheaper, larger, greener and safer than ever before. However, significant challenges around cost, helium supply, public perception, and unproven technology remain before they can truly compete with or replace planes and freighters.
Takeaways
- 😊 Airships may offer a green middle ground between planes and freighters for transport
- 😮 New airship designs like the Airlander 10 hybrid plane/blimp aim for commercial use by 2029
- 😀 Electric propulsion could make airships 90% cleaner than planes
- 🚀 Google founder is secretly developing a giant 400 foot long airship called Pathfinder 1
- 🤔 Logistics and humanitarian aid are promising uses for modern airships
- 👷♂️ New manufacturing techniques make constructing airships cheaper and safer
- 💡 French company Flying Whales designing airships to lift huge awkward cargo like wind turbines
- 😟 Public perception and helium supply issues could limit growth of airships
- 💰 High costs may hinder widespread adoption of this technology
- 🤞 First commercial passenger/cargo airships could launch between 2025-2029
Q & A
What are some of the benefits that airships have over other modes of transportation?
-Compared to planes, airships are much more fuel efficient and produce fewer carbon emissions. Compared to sea freighters, airships can travel faster while still carrying heavy cargo loads.
What safety improvements have been made to modern airships compared to historical ones?
-Modern airships use helium instead of hydrogen for lift. Helium is much more stable than hydrogen. Also, overall vehicle safety standards have improved significantly over the past 100 years.
How does the unique shape of the Airlander 10 hybrid air vehicle provide advantages?
-The Airlander 10 generates up to half of its lift aerodynamically, like an airplane, from its shape and engines/wings. This allows it to combine desirable qualities of both aerostatic and aerodynamic lift.
What technology is LTA Research using to monitor the helium levels and integrity of its Pathfinder 1 airship?
-LTA Research has mounted LIDAR systems inside the Pathfinder 1's ballonets to continuously monitor them for punctures and accurately calculate helium volume.
How is the manufacturing process for modern airships like the Pathfinder 1 improved over historical methods?
-Historically, airships were built layer-by-layer with scaffolding, requiring dangerous high-altitude work. The Pathfinder 1 uses a rotating system and lasers to construct the airship more safely at ground level.
What is the load-exchange problem in airships and what are some proposed solutions?
-When airships unload cargo, they can shoot upwards due to decreased weight. Proposed solutions include releasing helium, using compressors to adjust lift, or using ballast like water or sandbags.
What applications are companies like Flying Whales proposing for large cargo airships?
-Flying Whales believes its LCA60T airship could transport unwieldy loads like wind turbine blades, energy towers, logs, and emergency vehicles over rough terrain.
What certification and timeline milestones have recent airship projects achieved?
-The FAA certified LTA Research's Pathfinder 1 for test flights. HAV claims the first commercial Airlander 10 will roll out in 2026 and has pre-orders. Flying Whales' prototype should fly in 2025.
How expensive are modern airships compared to other transportation modes?
-Modern airships are still estimated to be much more expensive than planes or ships to purchase and operate. This remains one of their biggest hurdles to widespread adoption.
What do you think the future prospects are for modern cargo and passenger airships?
-They fill certain niches well, but still face challenges like high costs that likely prevent them from fully replacing planes and ships anytime soon. Hybrid models may see the most success.
Outlines
😊 Introducing airships and their potential benefits
The first paragraph introduces airships, which sit between planes and freighters in speed and cargo capacity. It discusses their potential benefits - more sustainable, can carry more than planes, faster than freighters. It also asks if airships are poised for a comeback given new technology and innovations.
😮 Overview of recent airship developments
The second paragraph provides an overview of recent developments in the airship industry. It discusses the Airlander 10 hybrid plane/airship and innovations by Hybrid Air Vehicles like modular cabins. It also covers new players like LTA Research's 400ft long Pathfinder 1 airship and advances in manufacturing giant airships.
🤔 Challenges facing widespread airship adoption
The third paragraph discusses the remaining challenges for airships to overcome before mainstream adoption. This includes solving issues like the load-exchange problem, public perception post-Hindenberg, helium supply concerns, and the overall high costs of research, development, and operations.
😊 Signs of progress but unclear if airships will become mainstream
The fourth paragraph has a more optimistic tone, citing signs of progress like FAA airship certifications. But it remains uncertain if airships will move beyond niche applications. Continued innovation to reduce costs and improve public perception is needed before airships can compete with planes and freighters.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡airships
💡environmental impact
💡logistics
💡helium
💡automation
💡manufacturing
💡certification
💡public perception
💡cost
💡innovation
Highlights
Airships sit in a goldilocks zone between planes and freighters in speed and cargo capacity
Airships are much greener than planes or ships since they don't burn as much fuel
Fully electric airships like the Airlander 10 could produce 90% fewer emissions than other aircraft
The square-cube law means airships get better at lifting things as they get bigger
LiDAR mapping allows the Pathfinder 1 airship to monitor its ballonets and calculate helium volume
Modern manufacturing techniques like lasers and automation allow safer, cheaper airship construction
Airships can provide humanitarian aid by flying relief directly over rough terrain into disaster zones
The LCA60T airship can airlift awkward cargo like logs and wind turbine parts that helicopters cannot
The load-exchange problem must be solved before airships can make multiple trips while maintaining balance
Compressor technology to adjust lift may make load-exchange feasible in 5-10 years
Helium shortage is an issue, especially with key producer Russia limiting exports
Hydrogen could replace helium but still faces public perception and regulatory hurdles
High R&D, manufacturing, fuel and certification costs make airships expensive to develop
Recent airship prototypes clearing tests plus military and airline contracts show some progress
It's doubtful airships will fully replace planes and ships soon, but they may fill certain niches
Transcripts
Airships: the number one sign that you’re in an alternate universe, or a Miyazaki movie. While
they may seem like a bad idea, because they’re not as fast as planes or as powerful as freighters,
airships actually sit in a goldilocks zone in between them. There are some interesting benefits
that innovators are trying to tap into by applying new technology to these old machines. Are these
giants from a bygone era really ready to make a comeback and impact our lives? Are Zeppelins
the first step in the Stairway to Heaven? Or is this just another billionaires pipe dream?
I’m Matt Ferrell … welcome to Undecided.
This video is brought to you by Incogni, but more on that later.
We last talked about airships or Lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicles back in 2021. I’d say it's time to
check in and see if there’s been any progress or new innovations in the field. But first,
are airships safe? Aren’t they floating hydrogen balloons waiting to explode? Short answer:
No. Long answer: we’ve replaced the hydrogen with the much more stable helium. Plus,
safety standards for all vehicles have improved. I mean, just look at how far cars
have come in 100 years. Or better yet, planes! Longer answer: go check out my last video.
Then there’s this. Planes move people and goods around super fast
but they make up 2.5% of global carbon emissions by themselves.
In comparison, airships are much greener. Why? Because planes have to go fast to stay in the air,
which necessitates burning a lot of not-very-green fuel. In terms of sea transport, the mechanics of
water travel mean that while freighters can carry an awful lot. But it does take a lot of
oomph to move them, and that oomph comes from some of the dirtiest fuel in the world. Often,
the ships are registered in the places with lowest environmental standards as well.
Airships may sit in a happy middle ground. They can carry a lot more than planes, and move a
lot faster than freighters. And by surfing the prevailing winds, such as those that drive the
Gulf Stream, , they can travel at a respectable speed without burning much fuel at all. In fact,
a paper released in 2022 has already calculated the greenest paths for airship travel — routes
where they catch the best wind currents while absorbing the most solar energy.
If you caught our last airship video you probably remember this. I mean,
how could you forget? That’s the Airlander 10, AKA the Flying Butt, developed by UK-based Hybrid Air
Vehicles (or HAV). What’s up with the weird shape of this craft? It actually produces up
to half of the vehicle’s lift aerodynamically, i.e like a plane. Its four engines and auxiliary
wings help with that. These features allow the Airlander 10 to merge the best qualities
of a zeppelin and a plane. It definitely puts the ‘hybrid’ in Hybrid Air Vehicles.
Last time we talked about the Airlander, they showcased the luxury sightseeing version of their
cabin, complete with a bar and lounge. Now, HAV has a modular gondola that they can configure to
haul cargo, or up to 100 passengers. This version of the Airlander is set to undergo flight testing
in 2026 and enter commercial service by 2029.. Currently, the Airlander uses four diesel engines.
This diminishes those green benefits we mentioned a moment ago. Butt HAV and their partners at
Collins Aerospace and the University of Nottingham think the Airlander will be all-electric as early
as 2030. An electric Airlander will produce 90% fewer carbon emissions than other craft,
according to HAV. If all goes to plan, this will make the Airlander the first large, zero-carbon,
regional aircraft on the market. The big news from HAV is that they’re developing
an even bigger butt. The appropriately named Airlander 50 will carry a whopping
50 metric tons of freight or 200 passengers. A fully electric version of the Airlander 50
is on track to debut in 2033. Obviously, the date is really floating out there.
But there are some new arrivals to the green airship scene. Before talking about that,
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Now let’s talk about some new arrivals to the green airship scene. First up, Google-founder
Sergey Brin and his California-based company, Lighter Than Air Research (LTA Research). LTA
Research may be new to me, but they aren’t new to the airship game. It’s been working on
airships since at least 2015. The team’s design was shrouded in secrecy until late last year,
when the Pathfinder 1 began conducting some early test flights. These were mostly indoors
or just a few feet above the ground, but the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has
recently given the Pathfinder 1 the green light to fly near the Palo Alto, California airport,
and over the southern part of the nearby San Francisco Bay. Though an impressive 400 feet
(121.9 meters) in length, it's only half the size of the Hindenburg. Maybe not the best thing to
compare it to … too soon? Still, it’s longer than three Boeing 737s, making it one of the biggest
aircraft in our modern skies. Size matters, especially when you consider the square-cube law.
What is that? Well, check this out. Planes get their lift aerodynamically,
which requires a certain amount of speed. Airships get their lift aerostatically,
or from the volume of gas in their balloons. The square-cube law states that as an object
gets bigger, its volume increases faster than its area. For example,
if you were to double the size of a cube, its surface area would quadruple, while its volume
would octuple. So as airships get bigger, they quickly get better at lifting things. This makes
the idea of creating jumbo-airships like the Pathfinder 1 very appealing, at least on paper.
Back to the Pathfinder 1. LTA Research has mounted a LiDAR system inside each of the Pathfinder’s
ballonets. Disappointingly, ballonets are smaller gas bags inside the airship’s rigid frame,
not bayonets used to ward off sky pirates. Anyway, LiDAR or (laser imaging, detection,
and ranging) works by firing out a laser pulse and then measuring the time for the reflected
light to return to the receiver. Doing so allows the LiDAR to quickly and accurately map its
surroundings. It has a ton of applications, from being the “eyes” of self-driving cars,
to helping us map the bottom of the ocean and Mars, to solar and wind farm optimization. LTA
Research is using it to continuously monitor the ballonets for punctures or other issues
and accurately calculates the volume of helium. This feedback should make the Pathfinder easier
and safer to pilot. A combo of diesel generators and lithium-ion batteries powers the Pathfinder,
though there's a plan to make it totally electric, just like the Airlander. LTA Research CEO Alan
Weston told Popular Mechanics in an August 2023 interview that they’re also considering adding
solar cells or hydrogen fuel cells to their Airship. Can’t get much greener than that!
Some of the biggest advances made by LTA Research are in the manufacturing process. Historically,
companies would put up a mass of scaffolding to build an airship layer by layer. This meant
workers were performing delicate operations at great heights,
and injuries were common. As you can imagine, this made building an airship
expensive and dangerous. As for how they used to build them, Alan Weston said:
> “In the old days, people were climbing up 100-foot ladders.” -Alan Weston
With that in mind, LTA Research developed a “rotisserie-chicken-style” system that rotates
their entire airship skeleton. This allows the air-shipwrights (which, by the way, is
probably the coolest job title ever) to do their thing safely on the ground. The process
involves using lasers to measure the position of every tube and joint on the airship. The
lasers work in tandem with actuators to carefully shift the hulking airship just
a couple of millimeters at a time. LTA Research is confident that by combining
this tech with modern alloys they’ll be able to construct their airships more easily and
cheaply. Considering the price tag airships have historically had, I hope they’re right.
Especially because of this. How are you going to get a massive amount of emergency
vehicles into a place like this? Natural disasters don’t tend to spare the ports,
roads, and runways. It's a logistics nightmare, lives are on the line,
and every second counts. Yet Airships like the Pathfinder 1 can just float over any
and all rough terrain and land where they’re needed most. Nothing else really fills this
humanitarian niche (at least at a large shipping scale), so this application is particularly cool.
Speaking of humanitarian applications, let's talk about another fresh face on the scene,
the French startup Flying Whales, and their LCA60T. Not exactly a catchy name — but when
is French ever catchy to an Englishman? In any case, this company is designing a
literal flying hospital called Flying Care. The idea is to use vertical landing features
to bring doctors right to the heart of a problem. Now that’s a housecall! While this
idea is very neat, it wasn’t the reason why Flying Whales designed the LCA60T. This was.
You see, the French Forestry Service has a problem. It's difficult to move people
and cargo through their mountains and forests without disturbing them. Why not fly over them in
an airship? But say there’s no landing zone, even for a big balloon. Perhaps the cargo’s too big for
the LCA60T’s 96-meter-long hold. (Nope, still not a catchy name.) In a scenario like that, though,
the airship can deploy “transport underslings” to reel in smaller objects and airlift bigger ones.
And this got the Flying Whales thinking… If the LCA60T can tackle big, unwieldy cargo like logs,
it can probably handle other big, unwieldy things. I could have probably phrased that better … but
I’m talking about energy towers and wind turbine parts. Physically transferring monolith-like
construction pieces to their installation site is a huge undertaking. It requires years of careful
planning and logistics. Currently, helicopters handle the most awkward parts of the journey. But,
based on its benchmark tests, Flying Whales claims that its airship can haul three times the payload
of modern helicopters, with 15 times less carbon emissions — all while being cheaper to produce.
This sounds very promising, so why aren’t the skies full of airships already? Well,
there’s still some science and engineering riddles we’re going
to have to solve before airships make the jump from steampunk to solarpunk.
Arguably the most pressing issue is the load-exchange problem. Airships have enough
lift to haul heavy cargo, but what happens when you drop that cargo off? How do you stop the
airship from shooting upward like a runaway party balloon? The easiest way is to adjust your lift
by releasing enough gas to zero out the cargo you just dropped. This would be acceptable with
hydrogen, but belching out expensive and rare helium just isn’t going to fly, financially
speaking. Especially if you’re making multiple trips per day, as a commercial plane does.
Therefore, the simplest way to handle the weight-exchange problem is by using
ballast. Let’s say your airship wants to pick up 5 tons of lumber,
so it sets off with 5 tons of water already onboard. As you pick up lumber,
you release the water. Hot air balloons already do this with sand bags. Easy,
right? Well, only theoretically. Dynamically accounting for every pound in real time is
tricky. A miscalculation or sudden gust could lead to a very expensive and dangerous mistake.
Here’s a very cool possible solution. Use a compressor to squash that helium closer together,
and voila, the airship has less lift. This technique is actually already in
use for underwater remotely operated vehicles (or ROVs). Understandably,
it’s a lot trickier to pull off in the sky. And air compressors with
these abilities are just too heavy for most airships right now. In a 2022 video,
Bloomberg asked Flying Whales CEO Sebastien Bougon about compressor tech, and he said he thinks this
technology will be viable sometime in the next 5 to 10 years. I hope he’s right. Nobody wants to
add yet another name to the list of revolutionary tech that will forever be “5 to 10 years away.”
There’s also the problem of public perception. When most people hear the word “airship,” chances
are the Hindenburg disaster is immediately at the forefront of their minds. Will airships,
especially commercial passenger airships, be able to overcome this negative public image?
Or will the ghost of the Hindenburg forever haunt the tech’s legacy? That’s an important question,
and we won’t really have an answer until we actually have a few more airships flying around.
The use of helium should make most people feel safer but helium has its own issues. While helium
is the second most abundant gas in the universe, it's quite hard to come by on Earth. It’s mostly
found deep under our crust which makes it hard to extract. And it’s primarily found in just four
countries, making it vulnerable to supply chain or market hiccups. One of the chief producers
of helium is Russia, and the ongoing war in Ukraine has seen Russia curtail its sales of
the precious gas. Think about that the next time you want to do that squeaky voice gag! We could
always switch back to hydrogen, we know a lot more about it and have better safety procedures
now. Hydrogen is less dense than helium and a lot cheaper, making it less of a bummer to release for
load-exchange reasons. But the United States has banned its use in military aircraft since 1922,
following another, pre-hindenburg zeppelin disaster. That ban is still on the books. And even
if the ban were lifted tomorrow, hydrogen balloons might still scare away potential passengers.
At the end of the day, though, the biggest hurdle facing airships remains the same ol’
for just about everything: their high cost. R&D is expensive. Establishing new manufacturing
techniques and fabricating the airship is expensive. Airship pilots are rare;
there's only 17 certified, full-time airship pilots in the entire United States. Then
there’s the fuel. Filling even a small airship (think Goodyear Blimp) with enough helium for
just one trip is estimated to cost up to $100,000. And even if it all goes to plan,
you still have to prove it's safe to the FAA. Here too,
the song remains the same. Certification is a long and expensive process.
Nose to tail, the whole thing is costly, and this is going to be reflected in the
ticket prices. Back during their heyday, a transatlantic zeppelin trip was two days
faster than a cruise and about 5.5 times more expensive. And they’re still pricey
today. Granted, there’s no data yet on modern passenger or cargo ticket pricing,
but there sure is for luxury skycruising. OceanSky Cruises, a Swedish airship service,
claims it will be flying luxury tours of the North Pole aboard the Airlander 10 starting
in 2026. The price? A mere $200,000 USD. For totally unrelated reasons, you can donate to
my Patreon here. Jokes aside, the high prices may have done more to kill the zeppelins than
the safety issues in the past. Would this be another case of history repeating itself?
I promise it’s not all pies in the sky. Despite all these challenges,
airships aren’t _that _ far away, even if only in the history books. Remember, the FAA recently
certified the Pathfinder 1. Sure, it’s just for test flights. But every airship certified
helps set a safety standard for other airship companies to follow. It normalizes the process,
opening the door for more vessels in the future. Meanwhile, HAV boasts that the
first commercial Airlander 10 will roll off the assembly line in 2026. Some airlines,
like Hibernian and Mel Air, have already pre-ordered their Airlanders. And the United
States’ Department of Defense (DoD) awarded HAV a contract last December. They're thinking
about using the Airlander 10 in a maritime logistics support role. So it might not be
too long before we see naval or coastguard LTA craft again. And though Flying Whales is still
in what it calls the “de-risking phase,” its prototype should take flight in 2025. It seems
like we’re going to be seeing these first deployed in market segments that can foot the hefty bill.
Will these not-so-antiquated airships be our future, or or has the ship sailed on airships?
They really do look like they’ll fill their niches, but it’s highly doubtful that they’ll
ever fully replace planes and freighters. There are still significant challenges for
airships to overcome before that’s even a possibility. Will companies like HAV,
LTA Research, and Flying Whales be able to handle these challenges in a way that makes
financial sense? Will Airships ever get over their Hindenburg-related image problem? Or
will it all go down like a lead balloon? That all remains to be seen. A sky filled
with green airships might not be too far off — at least as long as they can keep the prices down.
Instead of rambling on, what do you think? Jump into the comments and let
me know. And be sure to check out my follow up podcast Still TBD where we'll be discussing
some of your feedback. Thanks to all of my patrons, who get ad free versions of every
video. If you’d like to support the channel and get in on early videos, ad free versions,
check out the link in the description. I’ll see you in the next one.
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