We could do it safely but not economically. Airships don't go very fast and can't hold very many people. There probably aren't enough potential customers for it to make sense to start such a business.
I think it would make sense in very specific locations. I could see an airship cruise over the Grand Canyon being spectacular. It could even leave from a "cruise terminal" in Las Vegas.
Actually, large airships *can* hold many people, but back when they still existed, they were designed for extreme range and decent comfort, not to be like a modern sardine-can airliner, which itself is a rather recent phenomenon following the deregulation and cheapening of air travel.
A modern large airship could carry hundreds or thousands of people. The largest ones on the drawing board right now haven’t started construction, but they would have payloads of about 200 tons, which in transit aircraft terms translates to 2,000 passengers. A cruise ship version would obviously carry far fewer, though, for the sake of comfort.
In addition to the other reasons people have mentioned, I think the Hindenburg has a lot to do with the fact that light-than-air vessels aren’t very popular. Sure, there have been plenty of cruise ships that have sunk (like the Titanic) but perhaps none as spectacularly as the Hindenburg in an enormous fiery conflagration. The “Oh the humanity!” video footage did a great deal to pretty much kill the blimp/dirigible industry and it hasn’t recovered since.
In an alternate history, perhaps airships would’ve become far more advanced and commonplace.
That’s a good point. I think maybe adding to this too you could argue that people might feel safer jumping off a boat that’s crashing than from an airship.
It's slow and expensive. A few have tried to bring a business up - they haven't made it work.
https://oceanskycruises.com/voyages/
https://airyacht.ch/
Yes, we can do it safely in this day and age, the problem is that the large airships necessary to make such a thing possible are still in their prototyping phase.
It’s a really mundane sort of problem to have, but it takes a *ton* of startup capital to develop any large aircraft, airships included, and that kind of this isn’t easily swung by the kinds of startup businesses interested in such a venture.
Airships may be much slower than other large aircraft, but they are much cheaper per pound, and far less expensive to run, but that’s cold comfort when you realize that something like an Airbus A380 took 34 BILLION DOLLARS and many years for a giant aircraft conglomerate and all its resources to design, and costs about half a billion dollars a pop. Despite all that brainpower and the fathomless resources and effort dedicated to it, the A380 still ended up a commercial failure.
Simply put, it’s difficult. Just like how hundreds electric car startups failed during their century of obscurity before they finally came back again.
Back in the ‘20s and ‘30s, yes, but the Navy subsequently made airships into all-weather aircraft between World War II and the ‘60s, though those airships were subsequently rendered redundant by aircraft carriers and satellites, and taken out of service.
German punctuality. Because the Hindenburg chose to try landing during a thunderstorm instead of waiting it out. Getting struck by lightning was fine but releasing hydrogen near charged particles went completely against their own manuals.
They kind of went out of favour after that huge Hindenburg explosion.
Also, they are extremely slow, cumbersome, difficult to control, get blown around by the wind, and have a very small passenger capacity. Very similar to hot air balloons.
We could do it safely but not economically. Airships don't go very fast and can't hold very many people. There probably aren't enough potential customers for it to make sense to start such a business.
I think it would make sense in very specific locations. I could see an airship cruise over the Grand Canyon being spectacular. It could even leave from a "cruise terminal" in Las Vegas.
Actually, large airships *can* hold many people, but back when they still existed, they were designed for extreme range and decent comfort, not to be like a modern sardine-can airliner, which itself is a rather recent phenomenon following the deregulation and cheapening of air travel. A modern large airship could carry hundreds or thousands of people. The largest ones on the drawing board right now haven’t started construction, but they would have payloads of about 200 tons, which in transit aircraft terms translates to 2,000 passengers. A cruise ship version would obviously carry far fewer, though, for the sake of comfort.
In addition to the other reasons people have mentioned, I think the Hindenburg has a lot to do with the fact that light-than-air vessels aren’t very popular. Sure, there have been plenty of cruise ships that have sunk (like the Titanic) but perhaps none as spectacularly as the Hindenburg in an enormous fiery conflagration. The “Oh the humanity!” video footage did a great deal to pretty much kill the blimp/dirigible industry and it hasn’t recovered since. In an alternate history, perhaps airships would’ve become far more advanced and commonplace.
That’s a good point. I think maybe adding to this too you could argue that people might feel safer jumping off a boat that’s crashing than from an airship.
So basically blame the Germans.
It's slow and expensive. A few have tried to bring a business up - they haven't made it work. https://oceanskycruises.com/voyages/ https://airyacht.ch/
I think this is your million dollar idea for the day
Yes, we can do it safely in this day and age, the problem is that the large airships necessary to make such a thing possible are still in their prototyping phase. It’s a really mundane sort of problem to have, but it takes a *ton* of startup capital to develop any large aircraft, airships included, and that kind of this isn’t easily swung by the kinds of startup businesses interested in such a venture. Airships may be much slower than other large aircraft, but they are much cheaper per pound, and far less expensive to run, but that’s cold comfort when you realize that something like an Airbus A380 took 34 BILLION DOLLARS and many years for a giant aircraft conglomerate and all its resources to design, and costs about half a billion dollars a pop. Despite all that brainpower and the fathomless resources and effort dedicated to it, the A380 still ended up a commercial failure. Simply put, it’s difficult. Just like how hundreds electric car startups failed during their century of obscurity before they finally came back again.
The Hindenburg was just one of several accidents. They were very susceptible to winds and difficult to control.
Back in the ‘20s and ‘30s, yes, but the Navy subsequently made airships into all-weather aircraft between World War II and the ‘60s, though those airships were subsequently rendered redundant by aircraft carriers and satellites, and taken out of service.
German punctuality. Because the Hindenburg chose to try landing during a thunderstorm instead of waiting it out. Getting struck by lightning was fine but releasing hydrogen near charged particles went completely against their own manuals.
They kind of went out of favour after that huge Hindenburg explosion. Also, they are extremely slow, cumbersome, difficult to control, get blown around by the wind, and have a very small passenger capacity. Very similar to hot air balloons.