Return of the Zeppelins

kfg writes: "While the world has focused its aeronautic attention on the Helios solar powered plane the Zeppelin NT has carried it's first paying passengers on a one hour "tourist" flight in Germany, the first Zeppelin to do so since the infamous Hindenburg disaster. This comes after its return from the Paris Airshow where it was an unqualified hit with attendees. I can't really tell you why but this news tickles me more than any other tech news in ages. Sometimes the oldest tech is the coolest. Oh yeah, tickets are $280 American." This is the baby brother of the Cargolifter model; CNN has a brief story.

The Power of Bad Media

[YIAAL]

Zeppelins have always made sense economically, and esthetically. But the fact that one is carrying passengers for the first time since FDR's first term shows the power of bad publicity. More people would have died in an airplane crash, but the powerful footage of a burning airship, together with the overwrought commentary of the on-the-scene journalist, has poisoned their rep for years.

Umm, it did too.

[Colin Smith]

The fabric of the skin may have been the ignition source but carrying half a billion cubic feet of hydrogen to fuel the blaze doesn't help when you have a spark.

No noise might be the keyword

[rorboz]

I am living near lake constanz, on the swiss side, however, and, what's more important, I am living even closer to the regional airport. This Zeppelin issue might become important because the swiss and german governement are depating about a flight route policy in the swiss-german border region. This is because a lot of people (germans and swiss) are feeling that jets are making to much noise.
Now, if such a zeppelin is making less noise and can be used to transport people closer to their destinations, well that might be bad news for the local airport.

Dammit!They're still saying hydrogen is dangerous!

[GPS Pilot]

Hydrogen is not to blame for the Hindenburg accident. It would have burned and crashed just the same if it had been filled with helium. The culprit was the highly flammable, electrically conductive aluminum-impregnanted outer skin. The fire had already consumed large portions of that outer skin by the time the inner gelatin-latex gas cells were breached. I repeat, hydrogen didn't even enter the picture until after the destruction of the vehicle was assured. Linky [iadfw.net].

Why does it piss me off so much when the media continues to misinform the public about this point? Hydrogen is a superior lifting gas, and the airship industry will be much more economically viable when the public becomes educated enough to accept its use. If you want to see these graceful behemoths transporting stuff over your city, get the word out!

It isn't competing against 747a.

[Colin Smith]

Totally different markets.

The nearest market would be the helicopter market or pleasure boat market.

Cargolifter OTOH, will compete with 747s for freight cargos.

http://www.cargolifter.com/

Hindenberg and the Death of Airships

[Catmeat]

People assume the Hindenberg caused airships to be abandoned. But even if the accident had never occurred and WW2 had never happened, airships would have definately died out in the 40's. The reason? Well the Hindenberg had 61 crew and could carry a maximum of 72 passangers. With that kind of ratio between people paying you fares and people you have to pay wages to, making it pay was always going to be tricky. Plus airships where hugely expensive to build. For example, the gas bags where made of a stuff called goldbeaters skin which is part of a cow intestine. You get roughly 1 sq.ft. from each cow so you can imagine how much it would cost to glue together several million of those with hopefuly leakproof seams.

By the late 30's, flying boats where already carrying passangers across the Atlantic. When land planes that could fly this far came along, airships would have had it. An 40's aircraft would have carried about the same number of passangers. Be twice as fast, only needed about 5 crew and would have cost about an order of magnitude less to build. You just can't argue with that.

relay stations

[jlemmerer]

While the Cargolifter is certainly a great thing for lifting huge payloads, i think that smaller, unmanned zeppelins could also be used as relay stations for say, world wide cell phone coverage. they can climb to great altitudes and, in contrast to a balloon, can head in any direction thanks to motor power. On the other hand side they are - at least as far i know - cheaper than the NASA aircraft.