Sergey Brin's Airship Aims To Use World's Biggest Mobile Hydrogen Fuel Cell (techcrunch.com) 15
Sergey Brin's secretive airship company LTA Research and Exploration is planning to power a huge disaster relief airship with an equally record-breaking hydrogen fuel cell. From a report: A job listing from the company, which is based in Mountain View, California and Akron, Ohio, reveals that LTA wants to configure a 1.5-megawatt hydrogen propulsion system for an airship to deliver humanitarian aid and revolutionize transportation. While there are no specs tied to the job listing, such a system would likely be powerful enough to cross oceans. Although airships travel much slower than jet planes, they can potentially land or deliver goods almost anywhere.
Hydrogen fuel cells are an attractive solution for electric aviation because they are lighter and potentially cheaper than lithium-ion batteries. However, the largest hydrogen fuel cell to fly to date is a 0.25-megawatt system (250 kilowatts) in ZeroAvia's small passenger plane last September. LTA's first crewed prototype airship, called Pathfinder 1, will be powered by batteries when it takes to the air, possibly this year. FAA records show that the Pathfinder 1 has 12 electric motors and would be able to carry 14 people. That makes it about the same size as the only passenger airship operating today, the Zeppelin NT, which conducts sightseeing tours in Germany and Switzerland. The Pathfinder 1 also uses some Zeppelin components in its passenger gondola.
Hydrogen fuel cells are an attractive solution for electric aviation because they are lighter and potentially cheaper than lithium-ion batteries. However, the largest hydrogen fuel cell to fly to date is a 0.25-megawatt system (250 kilowatts) in ZeroAvia's small passenger plane last September. LTA's first crewed prototype airship, called Pathfinder 1, will be powered by batteries when it takes to the air, possibly this year. FAA records show that the Pathfinder 1 has 12 electric motors and would be able to carry 14 people. That makes it about the same size as the only passenger airship operating today, the Zeppelin NT, which conducts sightseeing tours in Germany and Switzerland. The Pathfinder 1 also uses some Zeppelin components in its passenger gondola.
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The moon has LOTS of helium.
The moon has lots of helium-3 which is even more valuable than the kind that's put in balloons.
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You can theoretically make helium and the by-product is energy, lots of energy.
An airship packed with hydrogen (Score:2)
Private "disaster relief" (Score:2)
BTW - The actual definition of fascism isn't someone that's conservative or someone you don't like -- It's an economic model where traditionally state-run institutions are owned by private interests.
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It's high-profile advertising. If they can prove that they can carry out humanitarian missions then it can also handle humdrum cargo transport.
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Making money isn't what motivates someone with $88B. Once a person is super rich, while they must maintain their wealth to keep their status, they need to seek out other means to increase their status. Especially among their peers. For them once you've met one guy with $88B, meeting a richer one with $100B is not significantly more impressive.
Every Billioinaire (Score:1)
Every billionaire needs their far-out wow project, just to keep up with the Joneses.
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It's not clear if you're applauding that he's putting his wealth to work or not.
Advertized ID Collector monetized link (Score:3)
Anyone has a non monetized privacy invading tracker link to the poster's article?
https://techcrunch.com/2021/02... [techcrunch.com]
That redirects to https://guce.advertising.com/c... [advertising.com]
and redirects a 2nd time to: https://guce.techcrunch.com/co... [techcrunch.com]
and redirects to: https://consent.yahoo.com/v2/c... [yahoo.com]
Consent bullshit since guce advertising already collected my privacy for profit.
it's only 2000hp (Score:1)
Hydrogen and electricity: what a great match! (Score:2)
"Although airships travel much slower than jet planes, they can potentially land or deliver goods almost anywhere."
If memory serves, a hydrogen airship made a particularly spectacular delivery at Lakehurst, New Jersey a while back. I wonder if rumours are true that Brin is having trouble choosing a name for his airship. The leading candidates at present, apparently, are Columbia and Challenger, with Titanic a close third.
What's it going to look like (Score:2)
if it hits the ground.