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Comment by lachstar-x | Hacker News Reader

Hello gents! I have a burning question for you - what do you think about the idea of building a small airship that can be lived and traveled in? Sort of like a tiny house or vanlife, but in the air.

It's something I've always thought about since reading about it in science fiction books. What would the cost of something like that be?

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I've thought about the same kind of thing. I registered Dirigibuilding.com several years ago because of it.

One of the best things I see about dirigibles vs other aircraft is that volume is plentiful. Because you want to minimize weight vs size, larger rooms are better. I imagine a floating mansion rather than a floating van.

That is a great domain name! You're right about the room size, I suppose you would have to keep it either in the air or parked in nature when it's that size. Damn it, I want one even more now!

OP has mentioned a 60ft version of their autonomous airship would be in the neighborhood of a couple hundred thousand USD.

Thank you! And that would hold around 2 tonne if the weight scales up linearly, or is it cubed? Either way still cheaper than a house here in Australia

The final one we're building will be 60 feet and have a 650lb payload, so would have to be an ultralight house! And you'd also need a place to park a 60'x20' airship. Or I suppose you could just keep it in the air? There's actually a startup that's supposedly building air yachts like you're talking about. I forgot the name but I think they're 150-200 feet.

Thanks for the reply, yes I believe they are called Airlander

Rich people spend $200,000 to $300,000 on bus/coach size giant RVs, or 55-foot catamarans, so that's not beyond the realm of possibility.

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