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

[Mike Dougherty]

On Jul 9, 2014 2:42 PM, "Mirco Romanato" <painlord2k at libero.it> wrote:
>
> Il 09/07/2014 20:21, Mike Dougherty ha scritto:
>

> 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.

My question is about engineering a balloon capable of displacing atmosphere
without using a volume of gas (and its weight) to do it.  Hydrogen is light
enough, but too dangerous.  Helium works (I guess) but going to something
lighter than hydrogen (vacuum/nothing) solves both weight and explosion
problems.
So maybe we're not making passenger blimps, but Amazon/Google/et al. are
planning drone networking.. maybe balloons could be viable?

Tethered in a mesh around the earth, could they provide a hanging rail
system?

idk, just thinking out loud.  :)
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