Originally Posted by
tdracer
It's difficult to see any rational business case for Airlander. They've done little to address the Achilles Heel of all large airships - they are highly vulnerable to severe weather and need a large and expensive "safe harbor" that they can retreat to when things turn nasty. This requirement is completely contrary to the stated commercial purpose of providing heavy lift capability in remote locations - where any sort of potential safe harbor is likely to be days away if the weather unexpectedly turns.
Large airships are and will remain a commercial dead end unless someone can figure out a way to address their vulnerability to severe weather.
Yep, if you scroll though the press releases on their website, you'll see that there is a lot of ink expended on nothing more than the process of getting it out of the hangar to the mooring mast and back in. Practice drills, they've held, techniques they've used. Modifications and improvements of their equipment .... yeah, about that: If getting your aircraft in and out of your home hangar is a newsworthy process, then your plans of operating in remote areas are just silly fantasy.