I was just reading an article about using airships for heavy freight transport. I want to get a handle on what percentage of total freight tonnage is presently carried by air. I’m guessing it to be only one percent or so.
I remember reading an article in Trains a year ago or so that compared shares of total tonnage between rail and trucks. I seem to remember that it said trucks actually carry more tons of freight than trains. It wasn’t clear to me if that number included things like coal and iron ore. It would seem unlikely that trucks have the lion’s share it that is included.
Does anyone know the numbers for total tons and ton-miles of freight for trucks, rail and air?
In my opinion of course, I wouldn’t imagine that an airship would work because of the amount of fuel required would make it rather expensive. If the airship idea was to work the propulsion system would have to be futuristic.
“Airship” specifically refers to lighter-than-air craft – in other words, something that does not use engine thrust to generate lift. Typically the term is used historically to describe a dirigible (which is a lighter-than-air craft with a rigid internal skeleton) instead of a blimp (which is stiffened by its own internal pressurization, although part of that pressurization can be made at higher pressure in an inflatable ‘skeleton’ that gives some of the advantage of rigid frame without requiring much material in compression).
Some of the more interesting proposals involve using the heat from the engine exhaust to generate some of the lift, as in a hot-air balloon, or to shape the envelope so that some of the lift is derived from forward motion as in airplanes.
Very little freight would go this way vs. rail… or conventional air. Speed is not going to get much above what a good intermodal train can reach, and airships are notoriously sensitive to weather conditions. Note that FedEx Express is in operating difficulty, and much of the future planning of FedEx as a company is geared toward ground transport (ex-Roadway) and “internet” technologies that substitute for actual document shipping via ‘next-day air’.
There might be a niche for fast freight or special service between areas not well served by conventional airports. You’re still limited to lightweight power systems, very low tare weight, etc. My opinion is that, by and large, this idea is right up there with the old Popular Mechanics-style stories about using large cargo helicopters to whisk broken-down vehicles off highways during rush hour… technically possible, but not at all workable in day in, day out service.
Airships are very labor intensive and extremely large for the limited payload they can carry. The cost of ground handling facilities alone would make them non competitive with any form of freight transport I can think of. Unfortunately, the large rigid airships (dirigibles), most appropriate for heavier payloads, displayed a nasty habit of breaking up when all too common wind shear was present.
Until they design impulse drive at least for this Star Trek like cargo ship, I believe we should use the modes of transportation that we have. Can you imagine how bad it would be though. On Star Trek, they use advanced nuclear reactors to power the ship; with our technological know-how, we would end up being terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. I think that is something that can wait when we know what the hell we are doing say 4 or 5 hundred years from now.
“Damn it Jim I’m a model railroader, not a doctor”
A freight forwarder is an operation that gathers small shipments into truckloads for shipment. It makes money on the difference between the package or LTL rate that it charges its customers and the truckload rate that it pays for a trailer filled with “freight all kinds”. Forwarders have long been major users of piggyback services.
There are a couple of very successfull businesses that started as freight forwarders/ express companies who used to be the same company. Can you name them? Hint they are among the largest companies in their field today