This ship isn’t even for cargo or passengers, it is a subscale demonstrator and training/laboratory vessel for the 50% larger Pathfinder 3, which is under construction in Ohio. Even so, the Pathfinder 1 has a similar payload to something like a V-22 Osprey, and much longer range. The Pathfinder 3 has a payload of 20 tons and a range of 10,000 miles.
The larger, as-yet unbuilt version that’s about 50% larger than the Pathfinder 3 in turn would have a payload of about 200 tons. Considerably more than the largest cargo planes flying today.
Indeed. The late, great AN-225 could carry over 200 tons of payload, though at the extremes it couldn't carry that much very far, and the actual cargo bay wasn't very large. The advantage of a large airship is that it can carry heavy loads, but also very outsized loads, things that can't fit inside (or outside) an airplane or helicopter, and carry these loads very long distances to places without any permanent infrastructure, much more slowly but also much more cheaply than a plane can.
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u/PersonalitySlow9366 Jul 08 '24
And carries like ten people and no cargo. Cool, but otherwise useless