I'm a fan of airships too and have been for decades, still I think I have to agree with your points. That said, some people obviously don't including those with money to chuck at the problem. What do you say to this report?
With lifting and speed specifications like that it'd be a game-changer if they ever pulled it off. It seems to me if its high proposed speed were ever attained in practice then it'd also be useful for passenger services for continental-sized distances (say 1000 to 2000 miles) where its potentially quick embarking/disembarking would be advantageous over normal air travel.
(I bookmarked this url some months ago, I think I may have even gotten it from a HN story.)
I'm extremely skeptical about that proposal. The sky crane is a nice idea on paper but in practice I don't think it will work. A fully loaded 20' shipping container can mass thirty tons (US). Even a light wind could turn a container on the airship's crane into a giant building destroying flail. There's also issues with static discharge that could be extremely hazardous and difficult to work around. Suggesting the airship will just use its crane to lift containers without extra infrastructure is really fantastical.
Then there's the fantastic promises of payload and speed. Even with their combination of hot air and helium for lift they would have to be ridiculously large to lift the proposed payloads. Until they've got an actual working full sized model I just don't believe their numbers. The Hidenberg was stupendously large and only had a payload of about ten tons using hydrogen, that's not even a single fully loaded 20' shipping container.
https://interestingengineering.com/ufo-russian-cargo-airship
With lifting and speed specifications like that it'd be a game-changer if they ever pulled it off. It seems to me if its high proposed speed were ever attained in practice then it'd also be useful for passenger services for continental-sized distances (say 1000 to 2000 miles) where its potentially quick embarking/disembarking would be advantageous over normal air travel.
(I bookmarked this url some months ago, I think I may have even gotten it from a HN story.)