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Large, Slow Airships Could Move Buildings

Algorithmnast writes "The Economist has a short article on using big, slow-moving airships to move large objects without the need to dismantle them. The company mentioned, Skylifter, refers to the lifting ship as an 'aerial crane,' not a Thor weapon. It could easily help move research labs to new parts of the Antarctic, or allow a Solar Tower to be inserted into an area that's difficult to drive to, such as a mesa in New Mexico."

2 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Get the puns out of the way by smitty777 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nice attempt at levity.

    --
    "Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
    Albert Einstein
  2. Re:Absolutely Terrible Idea by DerekLyons · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Both you and the OP are correct in different ways - and aptly illustrate why this is such a bad idea.

    Buildings (and pretty much everything else on Earth) are mostly designed to resist compressive loads I.E. the force of gravity. Thus, if you want to move a structure using this method your pretty much have two major options: First, to move an existing structure you can build a heavy cage around it so you can lift it from the top. Second, to move a new structure you can design in massive reinforcements so you can lift it from the top. Both are expensive and add considerable parasitic loads to the structure and the lift.

    Not to mention, this idea has been floated a dozen times or more in the last fifty odd years, and always with the same result - a bankrupt company and penniless investors. While they've got some cool hacks in this scheme, they don't seem to have overcome the basic solution-in-search-of-problem problem. I.E. there doesn't actually seem to be a market.