Helium Investment Reason #8102: Airships
So, Lockheed Martin came out with an airship a little while ago, and I'd like to just take a second to completely freak out about airships in general.
It's so beautiful! It crashed. But last year, developments in Control of Static Heaviness (COSH) supposedly overcame the historical airship setbacks.
I just think they're really handsome:
Tiago Barros' Passing Cloud!
Vincent Callebaut's Hydrogenase Airship/Castles!
Jean-Marie Massaud's Manned Cloud!
Rune Kirt and Mads Thomsen's Knarr Cargo Airship!
etc.
These are all touted as being sustainable, and that's only partly true - - a lot of the models use helium, which is usually derived from natural gas. And, solar panels as they stand now happen to be pretty carbon intensive to produce. (This will of course change with *graphene*!)
But besides that, they can fly below other air traffic levels, handle massive cargos, easily access infrastructure-poor areas, house ballrooms, and form the dreamiest trailer park I've ever seen.