There are no good comparative studies simply because not very much work has been done on this. We will use all means of transport. For example, bringing oil into the communities on the coast I still see being done by ships, because it's very inexpensive to have them do that, and where we can use other modes of transport that are less expensive, we'll do that.
This will not necessarily replace everything we're doing. It will add to the things we are doing now, but it will change many of the things that are problematic, such as building materials and food supplies.
I suppose another thing is if you cannot get year-round, relatively affordable transportation in and out of a community, how do you ever create jobs in that community? How do you do things if you can't trade with the rest of the world?
One of the great economic development benefits of the airships will be affordable transportation to actually be able to have jobs and to move people and goods and materials less expensively.