Greentext

This was nowhere near the only deadly airship disaster, nor was it the last, but that’s not really what ended airship travel. With the advances in airplanes by the end of World War II, lighter-than-air ships just couldn’t compete. Even postwar piston aircraft were cruising at more than 3 times the speed of most airships with range to make nonstop transatlantic crossings, and once the jet age really started to take hold in the ’50s it was all over. I mean, by the ’60s multiple countries had started supersonic passenger aircraft programs. Not a lot of success there, but still there were nowhere near enough customers to support commercial service on airships when faster, cheaper options existed.

planes crash every day

in 2021 there were 21 commercial* plane crashes, zero fatal.

*couldn’t find data including non-commercial flights. i welcome corrections citing such data :)

edit: i think i am wrong, see roscoe’s comment below

It wasn't just one zeppelin. The US Navy experimented with airship aircraft carriers and both of them were lost in stormy weather. They're giant bags of gas, which means that turbulent air is a big problem.

The Empire State building had a airship mooring point at the top, but the constant updrafts meant the airship would be pointing nose-down while unloading.

They're just too unwieldy in all but the most calm conditions that there's not much use for them beyond writing "Ice Cube is a pimp" in the sky.

They kinda suck, and this isn't likely to change.

The Hindenburg was 245m long, carried around 50 crew plus 60 or so passengers. It needs all that length to have enough volume to lift that many people. The laws of physics are a limitation here; even figuring out a vaccum rigid air ship would only slightly improve this (it's a neat engineering problem, but not very practical for a variety of reasons). Maybe the crew size could shrink somewhat, but the fact is that you've got a giant thing for handling around 100 people.

An Airbus a380 is 72m long and carries over 500 passengers and crew.

The Hindenburg made the transatlantic journey in around 100 hours. You could consider it more like a cruise than a flight--you travel there in luxury and don't care that it takes longer. You would expect it to be priced accordingly. In fact, given the smaller passenger size compared to the crew size, I'd expect it to be priced like a river cruise rather than an ocean cruise. Those tend to be more exclusive and priced even higher.

Being ground crew for blimps was a dangerous job. You're holding onto a rope, and then the wind shifts and you get pulled with it. This could certainly be done more safely today with the right equipment. Don't expect the industry to actually do that without stiff regulations stepping in.

Overall, they suck and would only be a luxury travel option. Continental cargo is better done by trains. Trans continental cargo is better done by boats. There isn't much of a use case anywhere.

planes crash every day

what?!

They are kind of impractical nowadays. Nobody wants to get somewhere slow.

For recreational "travel for the sake of travel" it'd be kind of cool. I'd wager that a zeppelin "sky cruise" would be more environmentally friendly than a traditional ocean cruise, and offer way more diverse views. That'd be a real sweet vacation, actually.

Some 15-minute explainer channel (maybe HAI) had a video about risk perception recently, and I think this would be a pretty good example.

That particular one exploded because the US had an embargo against Nazi Germany for the much safer helium rather than famously combustible hydrogen

Zeppelins are just expensive and slow.

Anon could ride a blimp. They're a thing.

https://zeppelinflug.de/de/zeppelin-fluege/rundfluege-ab-essen/muelheim

Never. They're just too impractical. Now solid-frame airships on the other hand? They'll probably never get off the drawing board.

I'm not sure trains derail every day.

There are companies trying to bring airships back. The Airlander 10 is expected to be flying flights over Spain in 2026.

Zepplins were also the first major aerial recon device and they were experimental bombers in WW1 in the same way tractors were fitted with armor forming the first experimental tanks.

The USS Akron was a bigger (repeat) disaster, and was also the first zepplin aircraft carrier.

*edit: corrected like half a dozen fat finger typos I missed the first go. Eesh.

One of the google guys is building a blimp company:

https://www.domusweb.it/en/sustainable-cities/gallery/2023/11/14/the-gigantic-founder-of-google-sergey-brin-new-generation-travel.amp.html

If you want to experience what modern zeppelining would be like hire a hot air balloon. That's all they'd exist as, a luxury curiosity like the horse drawn carriage that's been long since passed as a viable competitor in the transit market.

Jet aircraft basically destroyed every economical case you could possibly make for Zeppelins as anything but an alternative way to do balloon tours.

I just think they’re neat, a niche market of city sightseeing via rigid airship would make lots of money IMHO.