I don't understand why it would catch fire and explode without any reason... Plus H2, if not pressurized does not explode is burns quickly upwards. Somebody who experimented this explained it in the comments.
Fire is not a problem for us. We can quickly move out of fumes or hot winds from the ground, we can go higher to observe its evolution.
The challenge would be wind. Windy days are the ones that are most at risk of wildfires.
We have the same incentive but not at the same level. Our aircraft consumes very little energy so it adds much less costs to stay in the air longer to collect more data.
Thanks for the insight.
For now we have no data/ML team. Our clients know this and for now are ok with it or on with getting raw data.
We have a nice runway already but it's definitely something we watch closely.
The EU is one of the strongest market in terms of regulation. Hard regulations, strong authorities. If we success in Europe we should be able to expand everywhere. We already have the support of the French civilian aviation authority!
Basically, the airship drone has more payload, more range of inspections, and less risks to fly (more visible for other users of the aerial area, and falls slowly to the ground in case of engine malfunction).
Client should pay at least 3x times as much to get the same service from drones. Again, it's not scalable using drones that's why our clients keep using helicopter on 90% of their missions.
There are approx 53 million miles of energy infrastructure on the planet (a new report was published today).
Regular drones can't be used to inspect that much (too many drones required, too many pilots, too much aerial and ground risk - when regular drone fall they are lethal).
Yeah, we're convinced that H is the way to go for LTAs.