[masklinn]

> Presumably the load and the craft arrives on a truck

Nah they're absolutely gigantic and usually semi-rigid (especially if you have solar panels on top).

SkyLifter seems very cagey about the purported crane's dimensions (couldn't find anything on the subject), but the Airlander 10 (which I understand only lifts 14t) is 90 x 43 x 26... meters.

IIRC the rule of thumb is that you need 1m3 of helium to lift 1kg, to lift just a 250t payload you thus need 250000m3 of helium.

According to skylifter's "design" page the lenticular envelope has a height of 1/4th the diameter (3 units wide, 0.75 units deep). For a cylinder that's 108m wide and 27m high, so taking in account the lenticular shape we might be closer to 120m/30m (400ft wide by 100ft high). That's the size of a baseball field, and 14 stories high.

And that's only taking the payload in account, not the solar panels, not the cabin, not the engines, ...