“Turtle” Airships Hope to Mix Novelty With Philantrophy
July 4, 2008 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Transportation
The idea is simple apparently: use an airship, take advantage of its spaciousness (compared with aircraft) and turn it into a pretty well-stocked humanitarian platform.
Instead of flying to a major airport at a large city where supplies would have to be loaded onto trucks or helicopters to carry disaster relief, airship can fly directly to any location on earth and deliver humanitarian aid quickly to the exact place it is needed. Airships can deliver help to the most remote locations, even if roads are destroyed as in an earthquake, or flooding.
Are Airships Still a Danger?
Ever since the Hindenburg caused Herbert Morrison to exclaim “Oh, the humanity!“, people have been wary about airships. But the combustible hydrogen that helped the German airship burn so quickly is no longer vogue in the airship world. People have long realized that Helium provides the same air buoyancy, without the flammability.
Yet the criticisms of airships remain. While they provide more cargo carrying capacity, they are slow (and supposedly require more fuel to move around at a decent speed). Still, if they can carry so much to help so many people, shouldn’t this initiative be given some consideration?
Source: environmentalgraffiti.com
Big splash…hope it is not the sound of promise hitting reality. CG images are as free as electrons, and ideas are no more costly. The website tells me there is no follow through in making this a reality. Hope I am wrong again.