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rwpikul [2017-11-23 07:05:11 +0000 UTC]

Actually airships use as much energy per kilogram-kilometre carried as a cargo jet, if not more.

It's a myth that the Hindenburg disaster is why airships were abandoned.  They were already on their way out because airplanes could carry more, needed much smaller crews, got there much faster and were far cheaper to operate.  Airships have about three very narrow niches where they are even a decent choice, two of which don't actually involve moving cargo or passengers.

Those niches:  Airborne sensor platform, flying billboard and transport under the special case of "cargo too big for a helicopter, to somewhere you can't build an airstrip, that you can't reach by ship, that you either can't build a road to or wait for a seasonal road to open, and that an airship can actually reach¹).  Note that only one of those three is actually done, the first has been tested and will work but relies on geopolitical conditions that went away to be viable, (i.e. the Cold War ended), the third keeps being not quite a big enough niche for the once a decade or so attempt by some company to end in anything but bankruptcy or accusations of defrauding investors.


1:  The most common reason for meeting most of the others is "destination is in high mountains."

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