Ought Nine for Oh-Nine: No. 3 – Hindenburg Redux (you know, minus the whole disaster part)
So, it turns out that hydrogen is a great idea for some things, but not for others. In fact, knee-jerk hydrogen car skeptics worry that fuel-cell vehicles might be like bombs on wheels (a concern having no scientific basis). Good to know that New Jersey’s Hindenburg disaster of some 82 years ago still reverberates through public consciousness. Though hydrogen won’t lead to the unwarranted automotive explosions of so many 80’s action films, it is a legitimately bad way to float zeppelins. Unfortunately, after the Hindenburg, the baby got tossed with the bathwater (save for the Goodyear Blimp).
Now anyone who’s bought a plane ticket in the past 20 years knows the increasingly prohibitive cost of flying. For those of us with an eye toward the polar icecaps, there is also increasing awareness of the detriment that jets are to the atmosphere. One solution is high-speed rail (which I love), but the globalized economy demands intercontinental travel and trade (I guess we could link rail over the Bering Strait…probably not).
Solution: Modern airships.
I know, I know…they’re a lot slower than planes, but isn’t that the reality we’re facing? Slower everything? Anyhow, airships could be far more comfortable, with on-board restaurants, private quarters and even an outdoor viewing deck (I swear, I’m not making this up). Travel from New York to London would be an overnight affair. Now if they could only get Captain Stubing…
Anyway, numerous companies are working on both passenger and freight airships, and we might see them in the skies within 10 years. Think I’m dreaming? Maybe, but people much smarter than I, including Anthony Perl at SFU, think it’s well within the realm of reality.
Here’s a clip of a concept airship called Manned Cloud created by Jean-Marie Massaud for ONERA:
Cool looking. I wish they’d set it to some music though.
Here is a less sexy, but real clip of the latest in airship design. At least there’s music, no matter how melodramatic.
No. 4 coming soon…
