Originally Posted by
Scuffers
No matter if it's in a car or a blimp, you still need to physically hold/contain the battery cells, and to make out weight is unimportant to Tesla is laughable.
I didn't say unimportant, I said lower priority.
Just like in a sports car the weight of the engine is less important than it is in a light aircraft.
It's a perfectly valid point. In a sportscar rigidity is rather more important than in a soft blimp.
Deliberately misquoting me is rude.
Originally Posted by
Scuffers
The plane that went round the world did not have 1+Mw of panels on it, and light as they were, they still weigh something, as will the interconnects, supports, etc.
No, it had 66Kw over an area of 269.5 m2 at 135 micron thick. Not exactly heavy duty.
Airlander has more than 3500m2 to play with on top.
To be fair, I doubt that the durability is there yet, but the photovoltaic area of research moves very quickly at the moment.
Originally Posted by
Scuffers
then we get to the motors, they themselves might be light, they still need to be cooled, that adds significant weight.
Totally depends how they do it. Huge numbers of small motors seem to be the way ahead in current thinking on flying electric aircraft. No cooling required.
Originally Posted by
Scuffers
then consider just how much electronics/control gear required, it's cooling, weight of wiring, etc etc.
These are problems for any aircraft of any type. To try to suggest that they are somehow worse for an aircraft that gets upwards of 60% of its lift for free is disingenuous.
Due to the lack of load on control surfaces compared to an airliner, all runs can be much lighter.
Originally Posted by
Scuffers
as for reliability, current breed aero engines are hardly unreliable.
Nope, I didn't say they were. I said less reliable and more maintenance.
Originally Posted by
Scuffers
I'm not against solar power, just please pick a practical application for it.
I've got to say, that I struggle to find a more obvious application than a long endurance blimp.