Ask HN: Where are the Zeppelins?

6 points·tenpoundhammer··5 comments

It seems like a highly efficient way to transport people and goods. At this point in my life, I had hoped to the see the sky filled with them. I'm just disappointed in society for not coming through on this one.

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The business model of selling rides, which the Zeppelin company operates in Europe, didn't work out for recent startup Airship Ventures, even though there are more good weather days for flying in California.

Unfortunately, the bad economy, combined with the price of helium rising 10x in the last few years, eroded the business model to the point where they could no longer operate. Afaik their ship was disassembled and shipped back to Germany.

Airships have the potential to carry Heavier loads, since there is essentially no limit to the size (no road/tire/landscape issues) - the gas bag can be built as big as you can conceive.

They can fly high above weather and be immune to local conditions - until they have to dock. Then even a moderate wind can delay/prevent landing and taking off.

SO the blocking problem is, you can't schedule Zeppelin service reliably. And in this day of FedEx/overnight/guaranteed delivery, the Zeppelin can't even get in the game.

Airships are slow and have a small payload. Thus, ships and rail on one end and jets and trucks on the other.

This is correct, to add, a reason why they are slow is the large frontal cross sectional area which means terrible aerodynamics.

The Hindenburg accident happened and fixed-wing aircraft were a better solution for most scenarios.

I think that even though airships are using safer gases these days, the images of the Hidenburg plummeting to the ground still sit in people's minds.

By the way, for those interested in figures, this is the state of the art in regards to airships:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin_NT

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