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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

> We simply needed to use H2 as a lifting gas and power source. The envelope of the airship becomes the tank!

How does that work in terms of density? A 'full' tank of H2 is still substantially heavier than air and an airship hull is a lot weaker (usually...) than a pressure vessel. Can you please explain this because it seems like I am missing something.

Also, how well does the airship deal with wind?

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The envelope is indeed weaker when compared to a hard carbon fiber tank. But, there is more than enough H2 in a the envelope for an entire day of flight. The airship is the most energy efficient aircraft and it's amazing how little energy it needs to fly at our cruise speed.

Concerning winds, we've made research and we aim to resist to 10 to 11m/s of wind speed. This would allow us to fly in 80% of regions of Europe, 80% of the time!

Interesting concept! Much good luck with this. Incidentally: helicopters do a lot more than just monitor, they also do repair jobs, transfer personnel and clear brush all of which might be avenues to look into.

Yeah! Helicopters make a lot of sense for now when it comes to transport heavy cargo (like for pruning trees near the lines).

How would your drone react to an unexpected bad weather/gusts (the 20% winds you want to avoid)? I guess you can’t just land anywhere ?

We have strong termination flight procedures and redundancy at this level!

If you dump hydrogen, you land.

But where ? On the power pole ? Within neighbor property ? For what I know you’re the first one to plan long distance drones (beside military), am I wrong ?

Yes, you're wrong. UAVs have crossed the Atlantic:

https://barnardmicrosystems.com/UAV/milestones/atlantic_cros...

Interesting, thanks for sharing! Though I’ll be less worried about a drone flying above the ocean than above properties and infrastructures. You’re gonna need a bunch of lawyers and public relations, but I guess the kind of industry you’ll work for can help on that.

Exactly

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