AUG 05

The blimp was being touted as a rich person's toy, but there are a number of real useful applications for this kind of craft. It could be used by researchers investigating things such as the diversity of life in tree canopies, places that researchers cannot now easily reach. As we noted previously, "no other aircraft can accomplish the seemingly straightforward task of picking off the top-most leaf from a particular tree."

It also could help solve "last mile" problems in a instances of shipping heavy, bulky items where roads are not in place and the cargo is too heavy for helicopters to handle. Logging, done using these blimps, could be done with far fewer roads cut through the forest. More selective logging of non-farm forests could be carried out with a greatly reduced impact on the surrounding area. Similarly, airships like this would allow larger pieces of equipment or segments of buildings to be fabricated at a factory and delivered directly to the site. At present, transportability limits many things to a size that can be carried down the highway. We're making pieces that are not more than one lane wide. But if wider and larger pieces could be delivered more directly (transported either from the factory or from container ships or other sources where the size is not constrained), less field fabrication and assembly would be needed and costs could be lowered.

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yourmom
written by your mom, November 12, 2007

your mom

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A 2 blimp garage
written by Winnipeg Hotels, March 13, 2008

Yes, but we would have to build ginormous garages for our personal blimps, clearcutting forests just for the lumber. Not to mention the square miles of vinyl siding...

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n00bs
written by r4ndomn4me, May 21, 2008

All you have to do is let the air out and it will fit in the space between your SUV's

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written by E, November 05, 2008

Blimps aren't filled with air. You'd need a system to transfer the helium from the blimp to a container and store it there in liquid form until you need the blimp again. Take into account the time required to fill/empty the blimp..

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written by jd, October 17, 2009

Well you don't need to store it in a new huge garage. It can be stored in a shed or in an existing garage. Clear cutting isn't the only way to get lumber, no need to go worst case scenario for lumber. It is a renewable resource, but that's neither here nor there. There is no need to transfer helium from the blimp to a storage container because this blimp uses hot air. It's a hot air airship, not technically a blimp.

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