Is Sergey Brin Building the World’s Biggest, Climate-Friendly Aircraft

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is the ninth-richest person in the worldand he loves airships. Now new details have emerged about Brin’s secretive airship company, LTA Research and Exploration (which stands for “Lighter Than Air”). SFGate reports:Although back in 2017 the word on the street was that Brin intended the aircraft to serve at least in part as a luxurious “air yacht” for his family and friends, the LTA website states only humanitarian goals: “LTA airships will have the ability to complementand even speed uphumanitarian disaster response and relief efforts, especially in remote areas that cannot be easily accessed by plane and boat due to limited or destroyed infrastructure.” Unlike jet planes, airships have the ability to land or deliver goods almost anywhere. In addition, the LTA site says that their airships are intended to serve as a zero emissions alternative to airplanes, used for both shipping goods and moving people. Climate change has made airships sound more appealing to scientists in recent yearswhile slower than airplanes, airships are faster than cargo ships and have fewer emissions than both boats and planes. In fact, airships produce 80% to 90% fewer emissions than conventional aircraft. They’re going to be hugeand they’re not going to be cheap. “It’s going to be massive on a grand scale,” a source told the Guardian in 2017, estimating that Brin’s airship would be about 650 feet long… A recent job description posted on the LTA website revealed the company’s plans to build a 1.5-megawatt hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system. TechCrunch reports that one airshipnamed Pathfinder 1has already been built, and could be ready to launch from Silicon Valley as soon as this year.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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