imagine how much landing space you would need for servicing these giants. not feasible unless we are in mongolia
Does Zig Forums like airships?
Dominic Stewart
Jack Reyes
Now that you mention it, they could work very well on borders. I'm that putting a series of outposts with good surveillance and rapid response teams would be cheaper and more effective than buildings walls and fences.
Hunter Howard
You are giving me flashbacks to the train threads.
Have recon airships placed along the train line, maybe move them along the route when the weather permits it. They report on any movement close to the line from above, and as long as there are not trees growing right next to the tracks (a simple deforestation cut would be required, but that would need to be maintained as well) the airship could have a good view for a couple of kilometers down at the tracks.
A Litening pod weighs 208 kilos, getting it off the air won't require a large envelope at all. Powering them could be accomplished with the same power-lines as used for the trains. As they are high up already they can also collect data on the current meteorological situation, relay the info to a ground system, and automatically moor when the weather gets too bad.
The whole detection could be automated as well. The camera pans along the train line constantly, and if it spots a thermal signature bigger than a large bird it sends an alert. At which point a human operator takes control of the airship, takes a look at the threat, and decides if a response team should be send out to investigate further.
Jayden Powell
How on earth did I forget to upload the image?
Cameron Cooper
They dont need a runway, so could theoretically land on the sea.
Im more interested in commercial applications than military…
Ethan Martinez
>not deploying high flying autonomous solar stealth blimps to take pictures of the Syrian civil war from above and selling the intel to the highest bidder
Weak.
Elijah Murphy
then you eliminate their main adventage over ships
which is retarded
Bentley Campbell
Their advantage over ships is that they dont have to go through sea locks or around continents, ensuring two to three times shorter routes. Also theyre up to ten times faster (20km/h vs 200km/h). All this results in far faster shipping times for a similar fuel cost.
There are a few kinks to work out, but drone airships are the future of commercial transport.
Justin Lopez
That sounds incredibly, especially if you look at the possible political consequences. You basically couldn't embargo even landlocked countries if you don't have the willingness to shoot down aircraft, even if said aircraft is just a drone airship. And that is quite a big step to take in this pussyfied world. Even better, it has no reason to fly low and stop anywhere other than the destination, so you could carry basically whatever you want. E.g. you could load up one with enough matériel to arm a whole division and send it to the middle of Africa to trade it for raw materials.
Parker Perez
They're faster and travel shorter distances, but you're more limited in what you can store in them.
After 9/11, the US has been pretty keen on the idea that they'll shoot down anything in their airspace not designated to be there and ask questions later.