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Comments (15)
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Save/ShareUnlike airplanes, airships are lighter-than-air vehicles—similar to blimps but faster. Airships wouldn't need airports for takeoff and landing, allowing them a wider range of places to pick up and drop off passengers.
Airships also have the potential to be less damaging to the environment than airplanes and cars, although this hasn't been proven yet.
In October, a company called Aeros began developing a working prototype, using funding from the military's research agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Here's a simulation of what it would look like:
Unfortunately, airships are unlikely to be a budget travel option, at least not at first. Current designs require costly equipment, and Aeros is pitching their first airship as a vehicle to transport executives, most likely between the U.S. and Europe.
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What a Way to Go.....
Beam me up Scotty...
Posted By W.V.Lootens on December 12, 2007, 11:09 PM
An idea whose time has past.
Posted By WF Mason on December 17, 2007, 12:11 PM
WOW!!! I can't wait for this type of travel to become more than an executive type of travel. It looks wonderful.
Posted By Joanna Thon on December 17, 2007, 12:33 PM
In the words of McDonald's, I'm lovin' it.
Posted By Alden on December 17, 2007, 1:12 PM
Remember the Hindenberg???
What happens during turbulence - if people are up walking around, it's an accident waiting to happen.
Although it does look much more comfortable and civilized than being crammed in a plane like a bunch of sardines.
Posted By LondonLinda on December 17, 2007, 3:06 PM
The Hindenburg was filled with flammable hydrogen. Modern airships use inert, stable Helium.
Turbulence can be forewarned with modern Doppler Radar or other wind velocity sensors. (Used at airports to warn aircraft of dangerous wind-shear.) That would provide adequate warning for passengers to find secure seating.
Posted By Broadleigh on December 17, 2007, 4:51 PM
After growing up seeing the Hindinburg & the Zepplien in Indy Jones 3 movie, Im Game to GO.
Imagine flying from CA to HI in this or HI to the Phillpines @ lesure speed.
Or to carry Bulk cargoes overseas.
Nice.
Major job source.
Have inland Airship Ports.
Pure cargo ports & or for both.
Take airship to Alaska then board cruise ship into the Arctic, OR
Airship to Guadalacanal & take cruise ship Island hopping to Islands from WW2 days all the way to Tokyo Bay.
Wild
ALL In style & luxury.
Lets GO.
Need to add some Rental Planes for fun outside airship.
See 1930s US Navy airship USS Macon & Los Angeles experiments.
Biplanes used trapeze to sling into airship afterflights.
FYI.
Posted By stephen russell on December 17, 2007, 9:24 PM
I failed to notice mention of the speed of this aircraft. How long would it take to get to London from New York City, for example? It does look as comfortable as an ocean liner.
Posted By Trish Taylor on December 18, 2007, 1:21 AM
Hi, Trish, Thanks for your comment. It's not clear how fast they could be, but the Aeros model being designed will probably only move at 100 miles an hour. Obviously, that would not be fast enough for a U.S. to Europe route. But if a working prototype is built by 2010, perhaps they'll find ways to speed it up soon afterward.
Best,
Sean
Posted By Blog Editor on December 18, 2007, 8:49 AM
Hey Gang-A little reminder-100MPH is about FIVE TIMES as fast as a cruise-ship! So what we are looking at here is a transport mode that is somewhere in between the fast jetliner mode when you've GOT to be there in five or six hours, and the ocean-going mode where you must take five or six days! Getting there overnite in comfy surroundings doesn't sound that bad to me.
Posted By IndyMO on December 18, 2007, 4:48 PM
all sources of helium will be exhausted by 2010
Posted By kuyhn on December 19, 2007, 5:04 PM
How do you figure that all sources of helium will be exhausted? It's in the atmosphere. When they deflate the blimps at the Macy's parade, say, it returns to the atmosphere.
The Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen, which is explosive. Helium isn't.
You can save time by not having the monster waits at the airport that you now have.
This will make air travel cheaper by lowering the demand, which is why I support the electric car, even though I'd never buy one. The tree huggers that will will lower the demand for fossil fuels, so the price will drop.
Posted By James Michalek on December 20, 2007, 8:01 AM
Sounds like an excellent idea! Board in New York at 5:00 PM, have a leisurely dinner, take in a movie, then sleep comfortably with your wife in a king size bed, awaken and have breakfast before arriving in London at 9:00 AM! If they can make the price reasonable, it will sell! Meal orders could be taken in advance, with reservations. It might continue on to Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, Vienna, or Rome. What would we expect across the Pacific, 2 or 3 nights? Can't it be designed to at least make 200 MPH?
Posted By E K KADIDDLEHOPPER on January 2, 2008, 9:59 AM
Unfortunately for me, this is a form of air transport that i will not see in my lifetime. Of course it looks great. Let's hope that when, or if, it becomes a real travel option that it will not be another Concorde.
Posted By c d on January 7, 2008, 8:04 PM
Helium is very likely to run out. It is a by-product of natural gas fields, and only a few fields with very special geological features have it. While helium is abundant elsewhere it is prohibitve to trap from the air and this won't be happening. One of three fields that processes the stuff is already out of action and is expected to run out in eight years anyway. Only two more small sites (including in Australia) are expected on-line soon. Even the guys who sell party balloons are already offering sticks instead of helium, so what happens if lots of folks start flying airships?
Posted By Steve from Oz on July 16, 2008, 12:02 AM