Originally Posted by
Scuffers
Name me a large airship that has not suffered some catastrophic disaster?
1. Name me an airliner that has never crashed
2. The vast majority of the airships that you are talking about were totally different being both Hydrogen and metal structured.
Originally Posted by
Scuffers
Helo wise, how high do you want to go? (and to what end?)
and just how far do you need to fly? (V22 tiltrotor can do 1,000 miles)
1. Try hovering hot and high in a helicopter with a 10 ton load in one of the many countries where ground level is higher than the uk.
2.V22 is exactly the sort of niche product you decry airlander for being. Yes it goes fast but it's load is poor and it is uber expensive.
Originally Posted by
Scuffers
Global Hawk has something like a 40 hour on-station time, and a range over halfway round the planet.
Like I said, what's the killer-application?
Global hawk is as big and expensive and long endurance as you get, yet it carries a tiny payload in comparison, it is much more expensive and the endurance is much shorter.
Don't know about the killer app. Time will tell if there is one.
Nobody ever guesses the killer app in advance of any new technology. That's life.