Could hydrogen airships return as fast, cheap, green cargo transports?

I've shifted to highly pessimistic on airship technology.

There was an HN post a few months ago in which vulnerabilities and history were discussed at length: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28119943

Explosiveness of hydrogen is only one of numerous issues. Airships are large, vulnerable, delicate, and complex systems. Neutral-bouayancy craft such as airshpis and submarines (as opposed to positive bouyancy craft such as surface ships, or lift-based craft such as aeroplanes) are at unstable equilibrium, in which a deviation from stability tends toward a positive-feedback loop. Subarines at depth "want" to sink lower, airships at altitude to fly higher, until crush or rupture levels are reached.

Airships have exceedingly poor high-wind handling capabilities.

The final question is whether or not they're even ideally suited to the roles envisioned.

For global cargo, with relatively short tunnel crossings, it would be possible to provide a linked rail network from Tierra Del Fuego to Australia and South Africa, via the Bering Strait and Java Sea.

The submarine "floating tunnel" concept proposed for Norway's fjords might make for a viable transatlantic rail link. This is a proposal which has actually been made, and which would allow for crossings in from 2 days (at 100 kph) to a fairly attainable 10--15 hour crossing (320--480 kph), and possibly faster (using hyperloop-like designs). The slower rates would be quite sufficient for most freight.

And airships would hardly be any faster (top speeds are about 160--240 kph), with vastly lower capacities.

Aerostats seem like useful tools for reaching and remaining at high altitudes with low energy expenditure, but not much else.

Would be cool to see them return. The prohibition on flammable gases for lift seems bad to me. So long as the airships meet some safety threshold (which might be lower for cargo only ships or for autonomous ships - especially if they fly over low population areas) then I don't see what the problem is.

I wonder if they could first prove themselves in an area with less regulations.

Worth the read if you care at all for details in relation to green technologies.

> In his 1969 book about the early days of the helium industry, Mines employee Clifford Stebel admits that the hydrogen should not have exploded in this scenario, and hints that he tampered with it

> These airships could be immediately useful to the hydrogen industry, too; H2 Clipper says that if you're looking to export liquid hydrogen internationally, as many countries are hoping to do in bulk, its airships will beat rail, trucks, ships and even pipelines on price over distances greater than 1,000 miles – while delivering the H2 quickly to just about anywhere on Earth.

Much more interesting than the snarky question, Green yes, but what color is hydrogen when it burns?

Perhaps the next big scientific apparatus which needs to be moved, can be moved by airship? The article highlights advantages of avoiding cross-modal transfers.

> huge manatee

Eye-roll. So, trans-ocean shipping to start, perhaps not to the USA or only to coastal USA locations, like the SST/Concorde. Medium to low density cargos, time-sensitive, perhaps high-value. What is too heavy to ship by plane, but needs to go faster than by boat? I would assume the use of some kind of lightweight container module, more like a fiberglass "Pod" or an aluminum air(plane)freight container.

Not gonna be feasible with the windier weather we will experience over the coming century. Read about the fate of the US Navy’s experimental airships.

Looking at the pictures… where is the cargo stored?

No. Just no.