The optimism of airship advocates is based on scientific principles of which most people are only mildly aware. Understanding how helium or hydrogen gas allow an airship to float, and other principles of how airships work, enables us to appreciate what giant airships could do, if they were built using modern technology. Economic analysis of […]
Living under capitalism involves incessant technological change. Companies tweak their products, release new models, etc., but most of the changes are small, incremental improvements. Some, however, revolutionize lifestyles and the economy. Important new concepts become part of everyday language and change the world, as we know it. But to adopt and adapt takes decades. Careers […]
Article By Jeremy Deaton Photo credit: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images The proposed airships would move cargo more efficiently than oceangoing freighters — and produce far less pollution. The age of huge, ocean-crossing zeppelins came to an end in 1937, when the Hindenburg — the largest craft of its type […]
Article By Josh Dehaas The problems plaguing Canada’s isolated, fly-in First Nations communities are well-known: dependence on welfare and public housing, a high cost of living and few educational or employment opportunities. The best and brightest often leave for the South, while those left behind live with crumbling and ill-maintained infrastructure and experience high rates […]
Article By FÉDÉRATION AÉRONAUTIQUE INTERNATIONALE – WORLD AIR SPORTS FEDERATION Photo credit: FAI August 2019 marks the 90 year anniversary of the first round-the-world airship journey, made by German pilot Dr Hugo Eckener and his passengers in the rigid airship, Graf Zeppelin. The Graf Zeppelin was already famous, having already made a 71-hour, 6384.50km journey […]
Article By International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Photo credit: CC0 Public Domain Reintroducing airships into the world’s transportation-mix could contribute to lowering the transport sector’s carbon emissions and can play a role in establishing a sustainable hydrogen based economy. According to the authors of an IIASA-led study, these lighter-than-air aircraft could ultimately increase the […]
Article By Doug Bonderud Photo credit: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images The rock band or the doomed blimp? Hydrogen explosions and catchy melodic hooks have hijacked our thinking about the term “Zeppelin.” Visceral television coverage of the Hindenburg disaster — and its scale — have largely overwritten the more storied tales of these luxurious sky kings. Consider […]
Article By Adam Minter Photo credit: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images With China’s help, huge, balloon-like craft could revolutionize air transport. Just don’t call them blimps. When a massive helium-filled airship designed by Flying Whales, a French manufacturer, takes to the air for the first time in 2021, it won’t be against the backdrop of the Eiffel […]
By Dr. William Oliver Hedgepeth An airship, often referred to as a hybrid, is a helium-filled winged structure. The airship’s wings perform exactly like an airplane’s wings; they give the airship lift when it moves forward. But the airship does not require a runway or an airport to take off and land. It requires only […]
Transportation is now the biggest single source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, having recently passed electricity generation. Worse, zero-carbon transportation technology is only in its early stages — especially for air travel and shipping, which accounts for large and growing share of emissions. Steampunk fans and climate hawks alike want to know: what about airships? […]
