In my simpleton mind, I cannot understand why we do not use more blimps for transporting goods. Seems engines and fuel could be done with solar, also seems like they could be automated. Is it simply not cost effective? Is it dangerous even though modern blimps use helium? Eli5.
In: Engineering
We don’t use solar/electric for planes either, because Lithium batteries are really heavy and solar panels don’t generate nearly enough power. Solar is good when you can have acres of it soaking up sunlight all day long, it’s not effective at powering a vehicle.
Electric or gas, planes just work better. They’re **way** faster, and their forward speed directly generates lift so they can carry more than a balloon too. Planes are already mostly automated, as much as a blimp could be (I assume).
Finally, not much get shipped using planes either. The vast majority of global shipping is on ships, and then trains. Air is used when speed is worth the higher cost – we don’t need a cheaper, slower air option.
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