I feel like seeing such an affliction happen to so many of the richest people at once is what killed interest in the zeppelin
I always felt that was too reductive, one crash killed public interest? No more like it killed that tiny market’s interest
I think it could be done better, safer, and cheaper now
Post WW II we had transatlantic flights taking over and creating the modern aviation industry. With iconic planes like the Lockheed Constellation (which first flew in 1943). Initially those would have been similarly luxurious. And this is also not that different from what a Concorde ticket would have cost later on. And of course Concorde flights were also discontinued after a crash. Not unlike the Hindenburg.
These days, there's a business and first class section servicing the rich with similar pricing. This never really went away.
It would give anyone pause thinking of flying in it.
After the war, planes were better and faster.
The crash just sealed its fate.
It was not really one crash, but a series of crashes.
R38 broke up in the air over the UK. Roma crashed and burned in Virginia. Dixmude exploded mid-air over Sicily. R101 crashed and burnt in France. R100 was declared a failure and broken up. USS Akron crashed, and so did the USS Shenandoah.
The modern Zeppelin NT handles better. Remember Airship Ventures, which used to have an airship touring over Silicon Valley? They had one. Unfortunately, they launched the service in 2008, during the recession. Then the price of helium doubled. So that operation shut down. The NT was fly by wire with steerable fans, which gave it enough maneuverability that it could be landed without a big ground crew. Here's the Airship Ventures craft landing at Moffett Field.[1]
DARPA funded Lockheed-Martin's Skunk Works to build a more maneuverable airship. The result was the P-791.[2] This could be taxied out of a hangar, flown, landed, and taxied back in, all under its own power. All the propellers are on two-axis gimbals, and the flight control systems is constantly adjusting them to keep it level. It has hovercraft-type air bags as landing gear, so it can suck itself onto the ground when needed under windy conditions. All the propellers are on two-axis gimbals. Worked fine, but no military need at the time.
I'm surprised that no billionaire has an airship yacht yet. You need an airship-sized hangar anywhere you want to go, though, so there are not many destinations possible.
When people ask me what would I do if i won the lottery i tell them that I would build a liveaboard airship. Would need to win multiple lotteries probably, and also the liveaboardness would need to be very minimalistic but still it would be awesome just even the journey to get there.
I'm not so sure. What killed most Zeppelins was bad weather.
A lot of trends were cut short by the world wars
A lot of things I like from the 1890s and 1900 early aughts just stopped being made or were never explored fully, and then I remembered “oh yeah, everybody died” and its like the first time in hundreds of years that something so broadly affected so many socioeconomic classes in so many places at once
happened again in the late 1930s
Ah, peanuts! Chump change!
Somewhere recently saw a review of the Titanic, lots of pictures (taken BEFORE leaving England!) with the mention that the 1st class fare was $100,000. And that the ship cost $1.5 million to build.
That's a ridiculous cost structure. What was going on?
A quick check suggests the passenger manifest has, OK, 8 first-class passengers.
It sounds like the ship is expected to turn a profit by the time it makes its second voyage. Really?