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

[Mike Dougherty]

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.

If we can make sufficiently strong areogels with an air-tight skin
around them, might we be able to create vacuum balloon airships?
Also, if the skin is also a solar collector, is there enough surface
area on a blimp to power the fans that drive forward motion (let's not
worry about high winds/etc for the sake of this experiment)  For all
the same reasons Spike keeps proposing slow accelerating ape-haulers,
I'm suggesting air travel goes in a similar direction.

I know, let's not bet on nano-magical textiles - but I'm not betting
anything, just asking "what if?"