[Kelteseth]

Interesting! Living in Friedrichshafen (Germany) the birthplace of the Zeppelin, I'm wondering if this would be a valid option, because the Zeppelin NT that is used here in the summer uses only Helium AFAIK. The Zeppelin NT has an emergency drain that would essentially mean releasing 7.400 m³ worth of helium. I will definitely ask a family member that works at Zeppelin what he thinks of this research!

[rendall]

Awesome! Could you do us HN readers a favor and tell us here what he says?

[Kelteseth]

So I had a brief conversation with Arthur Brauchle (Head of electrics and avionics)and we talked about some problems with the idea:

- Laws: You are currently not allowed to use anything besides pure helium

- Osmosis: Natural separation would occur, so you would need to make sure to mix helium and hydrogen constantly.

- Cleaning: They have to constantly monitoring the humidity of the helium and have to remove it with a specialized machine on a humid day. This would not work with a mixed gas (with the current design).

- (Speculation) Do not mix it in the first place: Create a sealed off hydrogen balloon in a helium balloon. This would have other problem like different expansion based on temperature. The devil is in the details here...

[b112]

Thus began the squeakiest death cries of all caught in the horror.