Comment on 'Windmill': China tests world’s first megawatt-level airship to capture high winds

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frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

Hydrogen wouldn’t burn inside the balloon, because there’s no oxygen. If a fire started on the surface of the balloon, then it doesn’t really matter if it’s helium or hydrogen. Hindenburg would have happened no matter what it was filled with. IIRC, there’s an argument out there that hydrogen actually saved people in that case, though I don’t remember the physics of it all.

There’s some safety issues involving working with it on the ground, but you can mitigate that with procedures. Helium has an asphyxiation risk, especially when you’re working with enough to fill a blimp, so it’s not like it’s totally safe there, either.

Historically, the really bad thing with blimps/dirigibles is how the ground crew can get thrown into the air when they’re holding it down with rope and a gust of wind suddenly picks up. Hard to find numbers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more deaths involving ground crew operations of dirigibles than the 35 people who died on the Hindenburg.

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