How Airships Could Overcome a Century of Failure 

What are some niche applications that you think modern airships could serve better than alternative modes?

I love the no-nonsense, realistic perspective of the people building these things. They're not trying to pitch some fairy tale; they know it's tough, and they know there's lots of risks, but they still believe it's worth doing. I hope they succeed; I suspect they will.

My mum worked at Airship Industries in Cardington Hangers. Hard to believe how big these hangers are until you're inside. In the right condition's it would have its own small clouds inside at the top.

One of the biggest practical problems that I see for "air ships" is their vulnerability to weather.

There was an enterprise, I believe it was called Zeppelin NT, that flew sight seeing tours over San Francisco about ten years ago. I think it was like $500/hr for a seat and they are no longer in operation. A large airship essentially has to be monitored and attended 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, an expensive endeavor. Even in a major metro area there are only so many people willing to pay that much money for a ride in a blimp.

I have heard all those arguments before in the 1990s. I fell for it for a while, but the main problems are not solved (wind resistance, aerodynamics, changes in weight through fuel burn and payload), while the commercial applications are very narrow.

I'd pay to fly around in an airship, like a cruise in the sky, seeing inaccessible sights at slow speeds. Would be an absolute joy!

I conceived the idea of a heavier-than-air, helium-filled airship that would lift a payload by aerodynamic lift during my degree in aeronautical engineering, during the 1980s. On a long train journey not long after graduating, I did the basic calculations. The maths proved to be insurmountable. In the troposphere, the airship’s low airspeed, large skin surface, and large projected frontal and side areas made both steady winds and gusts a menace. A cross-wind or headwind of (say) 20 knots, would seriously affect scheduled operations. The problem worsened with flight duration. But that wasn't all. If the aircraft was flying at (say) 80 knots, generating lift for level flight, and there was a tailwind gust of (say) 20 knots, the decrease in lift would be severe. My hybrid vehicle faced serious wind shear problems during take-off and landing, and offered a nasty, bumpy cruise. In a place such as Britain, the periods during which acceptable weather would prevail throughout journeys would be a huge restriction versus conventional turbofan airliners. Due to its large area the envelope could bear a significant mass of rainwater, even as the water was draining off it. Snow and ice could be nightmares. I considered stratospheric flight, above the worst of the weather, but the low air density drastically cut the payload, posed a big problem for the ballonet (“swim bladder”) buoyancy control system, and necessitated cabin pressurisation. The airship could land as a substantially heavier-than-air vehicle, but as the payload was removed, it became lighter. This necessitated ballast, such as water, being pumped or loaded onto the airship as the payload was removed. If this wasn’t done, the airship began to suffer from the usual problem of all lighter-than-air vehicles, needing to be tied down. I figured the airship would have to be tied down between being loaded, but directional stressing problems would then ensue during thunderstorms and the like, necessitating the airship being parked in a hangar. At least a hangar would keep the seagulls etc. off the vehicle, which would be very difficult to clean due to its size. Flights that require just two or three meals in today’s turbofans, would need many more meals, plus greater provision for human, food, and other wastes, and legal working hours for flight and cabin crew would demand many more staff. The envelope would generate static electricity that could be discharged through wicks, but since it would be almost entirely non-conducting, special provision had to be made for lightning. (Conventional airliners are protective Faraday cages.) Productivity was a major issue. In the time my airship took to cross the Atlantic once, an airliner could make four crossings, but the airship could not carry anywhere near four times as many passengers, and in any case, why would they want to travel so slowly in a pitching and heaving airship at a low altitude across the menacing ocean, with only the roughest idea of their arrival time?! What was more, I discovered that while many companies want to dispatch freight quickly by jet airliner, and many more companies wanted to send freight much more cheaply by sea, there wasn’t an “in-between” market. In other words, there would be almost no demand to send freight that currently crosses the Atlantic in six or seven days, over the Atlantic in 36 hours by airship; if it had to arrive quickly, it would be sent by jet airliner. I concluded that while there are probably viable niche civil and military applications for a heavier-than-air airship, it would never be a big seller. It would make much more sense to develop biofuels to power conventional turbofans, or develop large 400 KTA turboprops powered by hydrogen. By the time I got off the train, I had dismissed the concept.

I’ve always dreamed of a clubbing airship ever since I saw the one in just cause 2. Imagine a touring party airship that visits places like Greenland or Iceland.

I've been fascinated by lighter than air (LTA) for the past 60 years. It's undeniably cool and graceful. But there's lots of "buts." It's slow. It's slow because it has a huge volume. That huge volume is filled with an expensive gas that is getting rarer and more expensive. They leak gas. And in a surprise twist, that gas weighs a lot (has mass) that has to be moved. One pound of helium is about 2.5 cu yards (or meters), a million cubic yards weights about 400k pounds. Like a boat on the water, it's hard to start moving, it's hard to stop. They have a limited ceiling in the single digit thousands of feet making them susceptible to storms / turbulent ground winds. Most aircraft talk about power/weight ratio, with airships it is that plus power to volume ratio; you need power to overcome even light winds because of the huge surface area. They require huge hangars. They don't like snow and ice, and rain is not their friend. The fabric is sun resistant, but we all know how that goes. And on and on. That's why we keep hearing about the rebirth of airships only to have our hope and dreams dashed by financial reality and physics.

I live in an area where, on occasion, we get to observe the goodyear airships. One time a severe front blew through and the airship I was watching got caught in the turbulence. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that the airship when from standing straight up on its tail to pointing straight at the ground rolling back and forth. It was so jaw dropping that its hard to find words to describe it! Roller coaster is mild to comparison. The only thing I can think of is the Niagara rapids at full flow above the falls. Imagine being in a barrel through that and it would probably compare. If you look at all the footage touting these airships, they are always beautiful days with no wind. I don't believe they will ever be consistently viable due to weather concerns. They can't help but be a bobber on a river of air.

As a regional pilot that's been dealing with weather extremes

I've always thought airships had a home in tourism. Also, since we now have automation it seems reasonable for cargo airships be drones so they can use hydrogen (which I understand has better lifting power than helium).

This is a fantsstic option to forest keeping. Think about it: a slow moving, enviromentally friendly airship where a small crew of national guards can constantly supervise a whole mountaij range 24/7 more effectively than a rescue helicopter. It doesnt need big airways, nor constant costly refueling. Put this over Yellowstone national park, or any place where a lot of people go missing and you have a market. EDIT: Maybe blimps to safeguard deserts and do search/rescue? mountains have too much wind activity

I really want to see these projects succeed, there’s something magical about airships.

I feel like we're not really going to see the return of airships until someone comes up with a viable solution for operating in suboptimal weather conditions. This video kinda glosses over just how limiting a factor weather is to the viability of airships.

airship train sounds awesome, you could also imagine if you give major fire and wild life departments this could help against fires if you attach a water attachment system, this would be great also for farming to do a over look on crops.

Airships are soooo cool and seem to capture the imagination more than any other form of aircraft (besides maybe The Concorde). I sincerely hope to take a trip on one these someday, glad this industry is being revived

One problem is that unlike hydrogen, helium is a very rare and non-renewable resource with other very serious uses eg: MRI machines. Once it leaks away it is irrecoverable, so very aggressive helium conservation will have to be integral to the technology if it is to be a significant transportation option.

I love so much the idea and was impressed with what they had done. Look very interesting and easy. After going through this video, now I can understand it is almost impossible to break through so many aspects like cost-effectiveness, the profit margin, competition with the other modes of transportation, and most critical are the technical things in the ability to move up and down or confront different types of weathers or wind condition because it mostly depends on the relativity of weight. Just a slightly different in weight or force can affect the plane. Looks like it gonna take another decade to see it really flying in the air. Maybe when we ran out of fuel or energy sources.

Such a fantastic documentary. When I realized it was over, I was extremely surprised that these 20 minutes had already passed. Thanks to everyone involved in making this documentary! =)

I would love to do a "sky cruise" above the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe ect. I also like the idea of it being a flying cargo ship

I would love to see airships actually become a thing again, commercially. For some reason, the idea of airships has a nostalgic feeling to it, because of one of my all time favorite movie series Indiana Jones.

Hey I remember hearing about these airships transporting cargo in the 90s! I think Modern Marvels did a special on it. Glad to see that in over 20 years they have made a tiny amount of progress on it!

It does seem like a very niche endeavor. Things like an elevated electronic repeater system that can be used for observations, emergency communication or remote networking systems solves many of the weight issues. It also allows for more R&D with actual aircraft that are being positively used during a period of testing. Example would be airships orbiting a remote area or area of disaster constantly providing real-time information to and from a command center (not wartime). With two or three ships, you could provide 24 hour coverage. Also get lots of air hours with minimal personnel onboard.

i work years as a financial analyst, and let me tell you when i heard an investment only has "niche" application in the market, it gets the entire team nervous, especially when the investment also has a high price tag (in the case of "The Whale" already 5B euro development fee). there are a couple more things i want to add regarding airships 1. none existing infrastructure. currently no country on the planet has an experience ground crew to maintain and operate airship. in addition, there are no existing space to store and refuel the airship. literally everything will have to be build from the ground up. this alone is already very unattractive to the transport industry. as it was stated in this vid "the transport industry has very low margin." 2. another problem regarding "the whale" is vehicle maintenance vs transported value. the whale is 200m long, which requires an insanely large storage and maintenance facility. all that capital investment, at the end of the day, you get a transportation vehicle with a carry weight of 60t. that's extreme tiny compare to the size of the vehicle. anyone can do a quick research and see how much weight a 200m cargo ship can carry, there is simply no comparison. plus ship crews are widely available all over the world. 3. ease of operation. as mentioned in the vid, airship lose weight when cargos are dropped and the vehicle automatically gains altitude. it's just not practical to have 30t of water inside your airship all the time. imagine your airship flies to the destination, and before loading can start, the airship will first spend an hour or more unloading 30t of water. you certainly can't just open you loading bay and let all 30t of water randomly drop on the ground right? in the shipping industry, time is money. there is a reason why ship crew no longer get on shore free time when the arrive at a port. because shipping companies are paying interest and principles on those cargo ships every minute. personally, airship looks cool, but with the current technology, it's still not a viable transportation option.

Cargo to remote communities is where I think this will be great for. The price to ship will be very low compared to helicopter and plane deliveries with fuel.

I absolutely love this idea, reborn as it is. If I could contribute to anything to it including sweeping floors, I would do it. This is what we need IMO to be applied in so many ways to so many industries.

Love this! One idea is Carbon Offset by Expansion. In developed countries where there are increasingly taxes and fees associated with Carbon Emissions, companies could perhaps be convinced to plug some of their gaps with airship tech for that purpose. Repurposing their existing 'fast' transport for priority shipping and shunting slow-speed jobs to new airships; essentially sacrificing nothing while reducing carbon-per-ton emissions. In particular, heavy shipping could end it's dependence on sea routes and fly directly to and fro, avoiding canals and circuitous routes entirely (except where needed to avoid certain airspace, o/c) and could also, potentially, utilized high altitude, high-speed air currents (like the trade winds) to accelerate voyage times just as ships use oceanic currents. So, if the cost of construction and cost per ton for operation is reasonable, shipping companies could build airships instead of *new* cargo sea ships, cross-country trucks, or rail lines; to expand their fleets or replenish tonnage capacity in need of replacement. This would potentially cheapen the shipping costs to companies and even *shorten* shipping times in the case of intercontinental and remote target area shipping.

I spent two years at Bodensee, home of Zeppelin and I am fortunate to have acquinted with the staff of the Zeppelin Museum. About your video-It intruduced some new problems and solutions but it would have added to the overall aim of knowledge distribution if Russian, Chinese and other designs, R&D were included - at least mentioned.

A 20 minute video talking about huge helium sinks but not once does it go into the reason helium is so expensive! There is a world wide scarcity going on for the gas, and with its use being critical in so many different industries already, with no new sources coming online, placing huge amounts of it in unproven niche transportation projects that will do little to curb overall emissions (as they say them selves, they can not replace the already entranched industry) sounds like lunacy to me. I do give it to them though, that airships do look fantastic.

Fascinating! I did talk to a person who flew across the Atlantic in the sister ship to the Hindenberg and they said it was unlike anything they've experienced since...an oceanliner of the skies. However the Macon, as well as others used by the US Navy went down in squall lines. They're sensitive to weather, particularly crosswinds. So I'm not sure how an airship is going overcome this problem. The Airlander looks amazing in the interior but it would cruise slow and storms might be a problem. I would have to think twice before boarding one. Do I really want to do this?

Excellent program guys, thanks.

*Great words to viewers here on Airship could overcome a Century of failure* and therefore so glad I Stumbled here with an *Exigent Question* (demanding immediate attention) on the Best ways to make dividends off my *250k* with low taxes. *Any Idea...*

2 problems. Helium is not a renewable resource and is already running low on earth. So need to find an alternative to that. And what does an airship do in high winds?

For loading and unloading cargo you could just lending the ship and attach it to a structure on the soil, it could make everything easier

Use A.I. to anticipate weather and wind patterns. Action- Reaction props ran by the program. When unloading or loading an airship drop a hose for relieving , or compressing/ add lift gas and balast. We have tons of tech now to apply to these ships. It makes sense to get into remote areas and keep costs low for resource retrieval.

I did some back-of-the-envelope math on what kind of airship would be required to emulate existing container ships. For a 500.000 tonne airship with 1 kg/m3 of lift and scaling the Hindenburg's dimensions and power, it would need to be 3.3 km long and need 650.000 Kw (870K Hp) to move at the same speed as Hindenburg. For comparison, A 500.000 tonne container ship needs ~80.000 Kw. It would also need half a cubic kilometre of helium, at a cost of $1.5 billion.

Hydrogen didn't doom the Hindenburg: static lightning and the flammable skin burned before the gas was engulfed. All they have to do is combine hydrogen / helium where the ratio isn't flammable if it leaks.

i think there could be a market for something similar to a houseboat but in the air. While the weight issue is a fairly straightforward answer to solving, an issue of concern would be how you have these not interfere with current air traffic. Personally, I would limit travel around high-traffic air corridors, and find some way to prevent interference with smaller aircraft. Perhaps places could have a designated flat, clear area near runways that is specifically meant for airship landing and parking.

Couple issues: 1. Can you outrun/outskirt a weather system? 2. Helium is safe, however very expensive. Perhaps a hybrid system with in inner bladder of Hydrogen… surrounded by the helium bladder, which acts like a safety cell.

Who ever named it flying buttocks has my respect.

At 6:33 - the passenger travel sounds intriguing, even appealing, especially with so much space to mill about and use restrooms without climbing over 2 other people. But such flights would have to be limited to sunny and relatively calm days. Airships have a lot of surface area for a given passenger or cargo load, so they are more vulnerable to turbulence, and they can't fly high enough to rise above storms. They'll take far longer to cross an ocean, and most passengers would not be pleased with flying in thunderstorms or other turbulent weather on long trips.

13:20 There is another solution to the lift difference problem. Earlier in the video you stated that this type of airship was a heavier than air build. Meaning that you need to use the propellers and forward momentum to keep the aircraft airborne. Why use that to counterbalance the cargo. Then scale it down when you unload? You could also use a combination of propellers and ballast to maximize efficiency. You talked about using propellers would defeat the purpose, but you would also note that you would only need to additional force while carrying the load. Not while traveling to and from the site to pick up the load. Again, propellers and ballast in combo should help alleviate the additional cost.

With Helium being a finite, mined resource and having read that we are quickly running out of stocks, combined with the fact that helium is used in medical equipment and scientific research, I think the feasibility of a sustainable airship industry would be seriously compromised.

I love the way these owners are realistic with their idea, really great product but they dont dream of the impossible but only the possible and ways to make the impossible possible in a client's perspective not theirs, really great job there !

I think it´s interesting to mention that Zeppelin developed the "Zeppelin NT" and most of it´s customers returned the Airships after leasing ended or even before that, because their business model failed. Okay, they "lost" one Airship in Africa to a heavy storm and later rebuilt it. The only companies flying these now are Goodyear and Zeppelin themselve. They don´t even attempt to join the Airship renaissance. The other company that tried to use an Airship for Cargo was CargoLifter. They had to file for bankruptcy later and the giant hangar is now housing the "Tropical Island".

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Have been reading articles and watching programs for ~40 years about the relaunch of passenger and cargo carrying airships. There's none being used yet. Reminds one of flying cars or fusion power. Weather ballons and observation airships never stopped being used. This is the niche where they are truly useful.

I really hope it works. Airships are beautiful, and having an environmentally friendly way of doing mass transit by air would be a big win. Trains are amazing, but as identified the infrastructure gaps can be served by this mode. But ultimately, I'm not intimately familiar with the economic case, I just want airships to make a glorious return for the sake of having airships again.

I love airships. ( I always imagined how cool one that looks like Thunderbird Two would look- especially if it was carrying one of those little yellow submersibles!)

Introducing a new method of transportation, the ABC or Air-Buoyancy-Carrier…merging a single track like a monorail to provide structural support to the engine connected to and pulling a light structure on the air. It can be built faster and cheaper than any road since it does not require as much concrete to be built. The buoyancy part is to provide structural support to the track any time it needs to connect two points separated by water.

It can have vacuum space to take in air from outside and breathe out while climbing up. Also efficient air cooling to compress the gas.

I think that there has been very little development within the shipping industry because large diesel engines are so cost effective. It might be simpler to create a ship with low emissions than build an airship.

As a fan of Tale Spin as a child. I am looking forward to the resurgence of airships... Giant, airborne air-cruise ships, offering the best views, maybe a small airport..

Mapping remote areas with a range of cameras and sensors, cargo, travel, looks like this has enough applications to work! Probably amazing to see in person! 👍

From Ethiopia I just love the idea and it can fix more problems

I worked at Airship Industries, and trust me when it was a small fun idea it worked .Alan Bond(Swan Later Australian entrepreneur) ran us well at a distance. Once we started down the airborne early warning (potential navy)contracts path, we started employing waves of designers in London and eventually sold out to Westinghouse it was game over after that ,a couple of months of late to no pay and the alarm bells rang.The skyship 600' were great (can't go wrong with Porsche 911 engines) and a fantastic original design. Fond memories-sorry about the original badly written 1st draft thanks for the comments

It occurs to me that one could use anchors, tie lines and dynamic control surfaces that act as anti-lift wings (like a spoiler on a car), for controlling payload drop off better.

Wow, that's cool! I hope to see such plans succeeding and use some of these services

Having a cruise on an airship count me in the longer the ride the better. I used to love those slow trains who had cabins and bars, you rarely find that stuff anymore unless you 4x the price on a speed train. I hope they manage, because cruse sea ships are getting a pain TBH.

My pals in medical-tech have been concerned about helium shortages/depletion for years. I wonder how that issue competes with the needs of this industry?

I think making airplanes greener and invest in rail seems easier and better I can see the utility of it but those are some major issues

In Australia where our trains are slow I could see blimps being useful. The price of boarding would be a make or break. It doesn’t need to be high luxury necessarily

With regards to offsetting the loss of weight when they unload, wouldn't it make more sense to just anchor them to the ground while they unload, then slowly loosen them up once they're done? Alternatively, if they're hybrid airships that require active engine support to stay afloat, you can always adjust the engine output to offset it.

I thought of this too. Respectfully, Id use a candermeran design, having 2 air ships with the passager area hanging on the bottom, for an increase stability. Imagine a 747 body in a triangle structure with 2 air ships above. The weight on the bottom would also give stability in heavy winds. Youd have reversible electric propellers on the front and back of each of the air ships, to give roll pitch yaw ect. You could also add long wings down from the higher airship parts, to increase stability and give a stabile platform for landing. It would be slow but you could carry heavy cargo efficiently. Added lift might be able to be achieved by having tungsten wires inside the airship parts to heat the inert helium, causing the helium to expand and create more lift. I could draw you a diagram to better explain it.

I think an air ship passenger liner would be pretty awesome. I think people would enjoy flying in between major cities that are close together. You make it fun and luxurious. Like a party in the sky

The curse of one extremely effective radio guy on the Hindenburg crash despite the low death toll vastly exceeded by top passenger railway crashes and much greater airliner deaths following WWII made people way more scared of airships. Yes the fire part scary but that airplanes as well. It just shows how lack of context in reporting shifts things massively in similar way tons of people scared to death by airliners while the trip to the air port way more dangerous.

Years ago I worked with Wearhouser Corporation and the row crop growers of Santa Maria, California. The goal was to transport produce from central California to Japan in 3 days. Air freight is expensive and refrigerated containers take from 1 to 2 weeks. Every thing showed it was very economical. Japan paid high prices for fresh and perfect produce. Never found out why it did not proceed.

Import things to consider: Helium is rare and too important to be used carelessness. Luxury flights aren't worth. Look at 979 concord and ticket price was one of the major reasons it failed. While the rich is the most likely to fly they still are a very little portion of the people that fly.

It's just an enormous kite! I get scared landing a plane in bad weather but imagine it in an blimp 😳

What an exciting venture, let's hope airships do make a comeback, I've enjoyed this documentary thank you

I’ve been working on 27 patents that fix every problem talked about here. My dream is to revolutionize aviation with airships. I’m blown away that I never see any of these videos have any of my ideas already. I just need to save enough money working as a pilot for fedex then I’m going to fund a larger prototype. I have smaller models I have one large enough to fly me around with no fuel consumption. Fully electric. Pure solar 10 hour flight time. I keep in mind worst case scenarios like sandstorms, fire etc.

While the whole airship as a luxury passenger thing is silly, I really like the idea of it being used in the way that Flying Whales wants to. Im really not sure exactly how economically viable it is to design and build this thing, but ideally it does sound like a decent idea. I could see something like this being used in areas that our infrastructure hasn't been developed. Who knows, though. I'm still skeptical about how viable it is.

I know that there is little comparison with the hydrogen dirigibles of the past (such as the R101), but even with the greater lift of hydrogen and the sheer size of those dirigibles, their speed (even in calm conditions), their pressure height and their surplus lifting capacity were all severely limited.

A lot of places are cloud seeding because of droughts. But they use airplanes that could only be kept airborne in one area for a limited period and carry a very small capacity. They should look into blimps and airships for this task.

Just think if you had thin flexible film solar cells on the top to run electric motors and light weight solid or semisolid state aluminum sulfur batteries or whatever is nonflammable. Though the airship could store hydrogen from electrolysis of water for lift. Or store it in light weight carbon fiber tanks and use stored power for fuel cells in a loop.

I do not see it very practical for passenger transport, but it can play major role in cargo transport.

This was my 8th grade project and my sophomore project. A couple years ago, did a flying shipping company that got hydrogen from collecting water vapor in the atmosphere and then use electrolysis to obtain hydrogen.

If you could use space heaters in the middle of the blimp envelope that are controlled from inside of the cockpit. Then the space heaters could heat the air occasionally inside of the blimp, and it would help control the level of lift. Plus it would be cheaper than using helium.

I think if this ever happens it will only ever be specialised cargo, not passengers. You can carry loads that won't physically fit into an airliner and can unload directly where it is will be installed - no airport required. I don't think it will ever do passengers commercially because it is impossible to make them safe enough to get certification - they are too vulnerable to weather for a start. Pure freight can get away with a bit more risk (maybe give the crew parachutes and - for close to the ground - zip lines 🙂). And with bespoke cargo you can usually wait for the right weather before picking up your load.

As a former blimp mechanic, I can say unequivocally, airships are a thing of the past. Bad weather, freak winds, rain and snow are all capable of destroying an airship in moments. Not to mention the fact that helium is a VERY limited resource that cannot be manufactured, and has MUCH better uses. The average is a blimp lost once a year due to a squall line, a snow storm, or similar weather events that happen almost every day.

Nick Allman, COO of Hybrid Air Vehicles, finally gets some global press coverage and the message he wants to tell the world is the pilot of the airship will have an amazing view. I wonder why no one is buying into this.

Perhaps they could fill it with water or sand or concrete blocks to regulate constant weight. E.g. for each tonne of cargo you put in, you take out a tonne of ballast. This way it stays on the ground.

A luxury airship trip over the top of the earth would be dope.

That would be mouth drool levels of epic. I definitely want to see the reintegration of genuine rigid or semi rigid airships(not just blimp) in my lifetime. Ugh that would be so freaking awesome

I lived near to Cardington, it really was mind-blowing to see the Airlander flying over during testing! Shame they crashed it! They won't be the first or last airship company to set up, go to Cardington, spend huge amounts of cash, almost succeed, then fail! Sad but that's how it's been so far!

I would LOVE to travel this way!!

Awesome!! Since childhood I wanted to make and fly in one!

The viability is intriguing, to say the least. I could see the upper skin being covered with newer, flexible solar panels providing electricity, and perhaps air condensing intake aspects for collecting water for use in shower or dining needs, using energy from the solar grid for heat and engine needs. A lot of conceptual possibilities if research progresses. It would be interesting to see this option progress, especially with the western nations pushing so hard to convert to 'green energy' solutions.

One of these that could run safely and effectively on solar would be soo cool and fun IMO.

Frankly, this will not work for luxury travel or long-distance travel, but the best application for such a product is a bus system inside the city or town to town. The speed of this aircraft is low, so this aircraft can be used as a bus inside the country. For example, towers near each train station; people buy a ticket and go to the top of the tower where air buss land people leave or enter the aircraft, and it takes them to the next destination. In this way, it reduces the load on a city-to-city train station and helps more people work in and live outside the city.

Here’s why we should bring back airships. First off, yes they are vulnerable to weather conditions and can crash. BUT this is also generally the same with planes as well. Airships had less crashes per miles than planes and are more energy efficient. They are also much more I guess roomier? I would rather take a 1 1/2 day zeppelin journey in my own cabin than a 17 hour plane journey. Yes planes can still be used for business flights and such but zeppelins would have been much safer today if we had kept using them. They were a new technology and by today they would have been the safest thing ever. We shouldn’t have abandoned them

When thinking airships I can't help but think about the cross section of these things... how even a small wind could push it and create a ton of turbulence... not sure how stable you can get even with thrusters. As a passenger I would probably be terrified. Not to mention the ground crew have logs over their heads hanging when they are being loaded. Now for the French whale, they say one of the technologies needed would be compressors for helium that are efficient. Why not then just go down that road? Build these compressors, be the first one to. Then you can sell the tech to other companies or use it directly.

I've been wanting to ride in a zeppelin ever since I was a kid so I hope these companies are a success.

The wow factor of airships, comes from it being a mega structure seemingly suspended in air making minimal disturbance. and the disappointment is finding that there isn't a cabin for people in that huge space being taken up, but that its instead, just air.

I don't yet see airships getting round the crosswinds problem. As one commenter has said we could use air compressors to take weight on board. We also need propellors that can turn through 360 degrees.

If people wanted slower travel from one landmass to another, people would rather just use a cruise liner or a ferry. Blimps and Zeppelins won't see a surge in passenger service for a very long time. However, they could prove valuable for lifting cargo to specific sites that are difficult to access via other means; if they could fix the issue with wind direction.

inside the middle of an air ship is zero g ... you can make a second inner middle skin with air or cargo if surrounded by pressurized float skin with more voluem

This could work really well well in Indonesian and coastal Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Papua) where the provinces are separated by large bodies of ocean.