[ExI] How will air travel work in a green solar economy?

[Mirco Romanato]

Il 09/07/2014 20:21, Mike Dougherty ha scritto:
> On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 1:50 PM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Liquid Hydrogen would be a pretty good fuel for airplanes, so let’s see how
>
> Gaseous hydrogen was a pretty good fill for airships except for the
> whole exploding part.

Why use hydrogen (with all its problems) instead of using liquid 
hydrocarbons?
We have no problems storing them, moving them and we have a long 
experience in engines fueled by hydrocarbons.

> If we can make sufficiently strong areogels with an air-tight skin
> around them, might we be able to create vacuum balloon airships?

The problem with airship is they are slow and cumbersome.
I would see them used to haul stuff around as drones but people do not 
like to wait or waste more time than the bare minimum.
There must be a large difference in costs to have airships support and 
supplant airplanes.

Mirco