Why don't we just ban modern commercial shipping.

[NewportNewbie]

In things like these....

The engines are VERY efficient...travel at 100 mph...WAY faster than a tanker and can hold HUGE amounts as they can be scaled up to be HUGE.....I actually was talking to a developer of one of these and the upside is HUGE...ALOT more efficient than tankers and will speed up shipping.

[kd3pc]

Originally Posted by NewportNewbie

In things like these....

The engines are VERY efficient...travel at 100 mph...WAY faster than a tanker and can hold HUGE amounts as they can be scaled up to be HUGE....[/IMG]

to be able to carry what one tanker carries, it would take quite a few, even more for what a current ultra carries in weight.

BUT, you are thinking outside the proverbial box, and that is what it will take to solve our current problems.

[NewportNewbie]

This is the one I have seen...Lockheed Martin developed, and can carry 300 freight containers at a time....not sure what a freight ship carries....



Here is the youtube link for it...

P-791 Hybrid Air Vehicle - YouTube

[SVAuspicious]

Originally Posted by NewportNewbie

This is the one I have seen...Lockheed Martin developed, and can carry 300 freight containers at a time....not sure what a freight ship carries....

A lot more. Since there are 20' and 40' containers (and some odd 32' ones kicking around the third world) a twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) is used for measuring volumetric capacity. Anything less than 3,000 TEUs is considered a feeder ship (little coastwise tramps feeding into and out of major ports). The big container ships run 16,000 TEUs or more.

Airships could (maybe) change the economics of shipping to the tiny places on the edge of the transportation system (Bahamian and Caribbean islands, some of Central America, inland in South America) but they sure won't be a fundamental change driver to global shipping in our lifetime.