Alexander Jablokov

View Original

Where's a heavy-lift cargo airship when you need one?

This story in the New York Times detailed how hard it is to move gigantic wind turbine parts to their final locations.  Either truck or train, the limits of how big they can be and still go under bridges and make road turns are being reached.

Where are the graceful lighter-than-air cargo vessels we were so long ago promised?

Like many science fiction writers, I cherish a sentimental attachment to those great whales of the sky, though in my more sober moments (I do have them) I realize that it was a historical accident that allowed them to flourish at all, and that they don't really make any sense.

Except for lifting and transporting large, cumbersome, heavy objects to remote or, it seems, heavily populated areas.  This seems like a perfect use.

I doubt anyone is going to finance the development of the things just for this purpose.  The various efforts of recent years all finally ran out of money and closed up shop.

Since I think wind turbines are a bit of a historical accident themselves, gadgets from the early phases of the Great Carbon Transition, the fad for them might not last long enough for them to provide a good motivation.

Of course, then the airship can be used to take away the gigantic parts once the turbines have become white elephants and need to be dismantled.