Airships are very little used these days, because it is believed that this is an outdated and unreliable technology. But this is just a stereotype about airships! Modern variations of this transport may well be technologically advanced and reliable. For example, how solar airship HALE-D, which is intended to replace some types of satellites.
The cruise airship from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the High Speed Solar Airship cargo airships, and any vehicle from our review of modern airships prove that the world has not yet abandoned this type of transport, that it has a future! Moreover, a very diverse future!
Another proof of this is the HALE-D airship, developed by Lockheed Martin to replace some types of satellites. For example, military and telecommunications.
After all, this airship will be able to fly at an altitude of twenty kilometers and have an overview of an area with a diameter of about a thousand kilometers, which will allow you to control this area, always know what is happening on it and in the airspace above it.
In addition, HALE-D can be used as a weather observation platform as well as a telecommunications dispatcher and transmitter.
Moreover, the HALE-D airship does not need a pilot at all - it can be oriented in space through a GPS receiver, while its equipment can be controlled using a computer installed on the ground.
Moreover, the HALE-D airship does not need any recharging either. After all, the outer layer of its shell is a film of the thinnest solar panels that allow generating electricity from the Sun (and at an altitude of twenty kilometers their efficiency will be much higher than on earth) and powering the engine and HALE-D equipment from them.
The HALE-D airship has two distinct advantages. First, it looks very amazing! And, secondly, its launch costs dozens of times less than launching a satellite that could perform similar HALE-D functions!