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Victoria Falls: A Post-Collapse American Nation Quest [Down With Victoria!]

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Especially since coal and oil are likely more expensive than wind and solar anyway, so there isn't much of a point.
Not with reopening of St. Lawrence at least.
 
uju32 said:
@PoptartProdigy
This is probably below the level of abstraction for this quest, but just out of curiosity, did the rest of the world get around to using cargo airships for air freight to reduce the costs of moving bulk cargo by air?
Because I was looking, and it seemed like the exact sort of thing you'd use to move wind turbine components.
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I had not even considered it.
 
what would the consequences be if Russian fired a nuke at Detroit and were unapologetic about it?
 
PoptartProdigy said:
I had not even considered it.
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I literally just stumbled over it just now.
According to the two articles I dug up and included from The Week and Reuters, Lockheed Martin is currently offering it to oil and gas companies as well as logging companies, and is proposing it's use in natural disasters where ports and roads have been disrupted.

Being able to move 50 to 500 tons of freight from point to point, depending on the airship design, at 30-70 miles per hour, would significantly reduce the cost of civilian air freight that isn't critically time sensitive. Won't be anywhere as cheap as sea freight, which remains king, but it would simplify things like moving wind turbine blades and solar panels.

Possibly even moving bulk military supplies to landlocked countries.
Or shipping them back out for repairs and refurbishment. 500 ton cargo capacity would allow you to import, or export, 8 Abrams at a time.
Or three 160-ton wind turbines, amounting to about 6MW of generating capacity.

Useful capability to have.

EDIT
Turns out the Victorian fondness for airships IC wasn't so dumb after all. Crazy, not stupid.
:p :p :p
 
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Whatever the price of nuking Chicago, I doubt Russia's willing to pay it. We are not worth it, and won't be worth it for a long long while.
If Russia ever wants to drop pretenses and squish us, they'll just send in some divisions of VDV and that'll be more than enough.
 
Anime_Fan35 said:
what would the consequences be if Russian fired a nuke at Detroit and were unapologetic about it?
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Er...almost certainly apocalyptic. MAD, remember. Any number of potential casualties are worth having the ultimate in border control, is the idea. If Russia fired a nuke, it would be...incredibly...unlikely for nobody else to shoot at them the second they detected a launch.
uju32 said:
I literally just stumbled over it just now.
According to the two articles I dug up and included from The Week and Reuters, Lockheed Martin is currently offering it to oil and gas companies as well as logging companies, and is proposing it's use in natural disasters where ports and roads have been disrupted.

Being able to move 50 to 500 tons of freight from point to point, depending on the airship design, at 30-70 miles per hour, would significantly reduce the cost of civilian air freight that isn't time sensitive. Won't be anywhere as cheap as sea freight, which remains king, but it would simplify things like moving wind turbine blades and solar panels.

Possibly even moving bulk military supplies to landlocked countries.
Or shipping them back out for repairs and refurbishment. 500 ton cargo capacity would allow you to import, or export, 8 Abrams at a time.
Or three 160-ton wind turbines, amounting to about 6MW of generating capacity.

Useful capability to have.

EDIT
Turns out the Victorian fondness for airships IC wasn't so dumb after all. Crazy, not stupid.
:p :p :p
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Huh.

Maybe, then.
 
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PoptartProdigy said:
Er...almost certainly apocalyptic. MAD, remember. Any number of potential casualties are worth having the ultimate in border control, is the idea. If Russia fired a nuke, it would be...incredibly...unlikely for nobody else to shoot at them the second they detected a launch.

Huh.

Maybe, then.
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Huh. That should make for interesting ramifications.
They are much slower and more vulnerable than aircraft though, so you don't want to use them in a combat zone if you have any alternatives.
But for civilian use, or for peacetime?

That really could make it significantly easier to move in imports of technology and machinery.


Oh, shit, I completely forgot about Project Loon.
en.wikipedia.org

Loon LLC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
loon.com

Loon - X, the moonshot factory

Learn more about Loon, X's moonshot in expanding connectivity with stratospheric balloons.
loon.com loon.com
Google company. Stratospheric balloon-deployed LTE mobile phone/internet service.
Solar-powered with battery backup, with altitudes at around 18000-25000m (59,000 to 82,000 feet), well above normal aircraft flying altitudes.
They used them in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and are currently beginning some rollout in Kenya and Sri Lanka.

I really should do a written round up of cheap and rapid deployment systems designed for use in developing countries.

EDIT
PoptartProdigy said:
I had an interview today.

And was hired on the spot.

The job search is done! I have saner employment! RAISE THE FUCKING ROOF, FOLKS, BECAUSE MY LIFE JUST GOT WAY BETTER! :D
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CONGRATULATIONS!
Here's to saner working hours and more time with family.
 
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uju32 said:
Huh. That should make for interesting ramifications.
They are much slower and more vulnerable than aircraft though, so you don't want to use them in a combat zone if you have any alternatives.
But for civilian use, or for peacetime?

That really could make it significantly easier to move in imports of technology and machinery.


Oh, shit, I completely forgot about Project Loon.
en.wikipedia.org

Loon LLC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
loon.com

Loon - X, the moonshot factory

Learn more about Loon, X's moonshot in expanding connectivity with stratospheric balloons.
loon.com loon.com
Google company. Stratospheric balloon-deployed LTE mobile phone/internet service.
Solar-powered with battery backup, with altitudes at around 18000-25000m (59,000 to 82,000 feet), well above normal aircraft flying altitudes.
They used them in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and are currently beginning some rollout in Kenya and Sri Lanka.

I really should do a written round up of cheap and rapid deployment systems designed for use in developing countries.

EDIT

CONGRATULATIONS!
Here's to saner working hours and more time with family.
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Its not very cheap but in terms of clean energy air transport and aerosats Solar Ship is a future option. Completely non fossil fuel and cheap to run but with expensive start up costs.
 
uju32 said:
Huh. That should make for interesting ramifications.
They are much slower and more vulnerable than aircraft though, so you don't want to use them in a combat zone if you have any alternatives.
But for civilian use, or for peacetime?

That really could make it significantly easier to move in imports of technology and machinery.


Oh, shit, I completely forgot about Project Loon.
en.wikipedia.org

Loon LLC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
loon.com

Loon - X, the moonshot factory

Learn more about Loon, X's moonshot in expanding connectivity with stratospheric balloons.
loon.com loon.com
Google company. Stratospheric balloon-deployed LTE mobile phone/internet service.
Solar-powered with battery backup, with altitudes at around 18000-25000m (59,000 to 82,000 feet), well above normal aircraft flying altitudes.
They used them in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and are currently beginning some rollout in Kenya and Sri Lanka.

I really should do a written round up of cheap and rapid deployment systems designed for use in developing countries.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So what you are saying is that Victoria's blimp fleet is actually reasonable? I don't know how I feel about that
 
uju32 said:
Being able to move 50 to 500 tons of freight from point to point, depending on the airship design, at 30-70 miles per hour, would significantly reduce the cost of civilian air freight that isn't critically time sensitive. Won't be anywhere as cheap as sea freight, which remains king, but it would simplify things like moving wind turbine blades and solar panels.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Would it be cheaper than comparative overland transport?
 
Lupercal said:
Its not very cheap but in terms of clean energy air transport and aerosats Solar Ship is a future option. Completely non fossil fuel and cheap to run but with expensive start up costs.
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Never heard of this before.
This would have been very useful in South America and in large swathes of Africa in the last forty years. Especially the heavy lift versions, like Nanuq and Tembo; anything from 5-50 tons of cargo carried for up to 800km without needing to refuel does have significant applications.

Whachamacallit said:
So what you are saying is that Victoria's blimp fleet is actually reasonable? I don't know how I feel about that
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Yeah.
Especially given as part of their economy involves forestry, up in Quebec. Moving bulk machinery for that sort of industry gets better when you can simply dump it anywhere there is sufficient clear space.

They also get to skimp on maintaining a road network up in Quebec, which will get regularly wrecked by winter weather.

And bad roads has the desirable side effect of making it more difficult for Quebecois civilians to get around and organize, while allowing the Vics and their Russian corporate overlords to continue extracting value from these territories without investing in infrastructure that might allow the occupied peoples to make trouble.
 
Whachamacallit said:
So what you are saying is that Victoria's blimp fleet is actually reasonable? I don't know how I feel about that
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Victoria is ironically one of the few places where an airship fleet doesn't actually make nearly as much sense - between the St.Lawrence, the Atlantic and the large amount of fairly easy access to rivers throughout the area (Quebec at least, not sure about the American bits) waterway shipping can easily reach a much larger proportion of their territory than most countries can boast. That means there's less of a benefit from using airships rather than more conventional methods.

Secondly, airships are most useful for big/bulky items as well as bypassing logistical bottlenecks inherent to major port facilities - Victorians being decidedly anti-industry and anti-trade means there's much less demand for stuff like airships in their territory.
 
uju32 said:
North Korea, at 25 million people, consumed 15,000 bpd as of 2012, when their population was 25 million.
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How'd you get figures for Best Korea(/s)? I would have thought the great leader classified them.

uju32 said:
Google company. Stratospheric balloon-deployed LTE mobile phone/internet service.
Solar-powered with battery backup, with altitudes at around 18000-25000m (59,000 to 82,000 feet), well above normal aircraft flying altitudes.
Click to expand...
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That sounds remarkably like a lower and slower moving Starlink setup
 
CthuluWasRight said:
Would it be cheaper than comparative overland transport?
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Where you have a good,well maintained road network? All indications are no, not if you're moving normal bulk cargo that can fit in a truck.
But if there are bad or nonexistent roads and infrastructure, or difficult terrain, or it's very large or weirdly shaped cargo, or it's stuff that would benefit from being moved fast? Then yes.

At least, in the current day.
The article I read was talking about cheaper costs than transport helicopters at a minimum for Lockheed's hybrid airships.
Costs might have dropped even further in the 2070s.

And the SolarShips I don't really know enough about.
But they are at least cheaper per weight than current air freight.
me.me.here said:
Victoria is ironically one of the few places where an airship fleet doesn't actually make nearly as much sense - between the St.Lawrence, the Atlantic and the large amount of fairly easy access to rivers throughout the area (Quebec at least, not sure about the American bits) waterway shipping can easily reach a much larger proportion of their territory than most countries can boast. That means there's less of a benefit from using airships rather than more conventional methods.

Secondly, airships are most useful for big/bulky items as well as bypassing logistical bottlenecks inherent to major port facilities - Victorians being decidedly anti-industry and anti-trade means there's much less demand for stuff like airships in their territory.
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Forestry is a major component of the Quebecois economy, along with mining.
And there is significant Russian involvement in Victoria. Airships would allow said corps move machinery straight from Boston port, or possibly even from Russia, into work camps in the middle of bumfuck nowhere without passing through port infrastructure.

Fascists lie.
Mr Tebbs said:
How'd you get figures for Best Korea(/s)? I would have thought the great leader classified them.
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Lol.
Mr Tebbs said:
That sounds remarkably like a lower and slower moving Starlink setup
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Predates Starlink; Google started working on this around 2008.
But yes. One of the names for long loiter airships, balloons and UAVs like this is atmospheric satellite.
en.wikipedia.org

High-altitude platform station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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