Some independent researchers believe that a century of airships awaits the inhabitants of the Earth in the future, and Russia will play a key role in this matter.
Indeed, why at the beginning of the last century, faced with the choice of aircraft or airships, mankind chose a less reliable, less economical and less promising way to travel by air?
The real benefits of airships
Let's immediately figure out what are the advantages of airships over airplanes:
- in comfort, if we talk about passenger flights. The airship is comparable to a cruise ocean liner, in which the cabin and all other amenities could be of the appropriate level, and not be limited to seats for bus-type passengers, as we have on the plane today (we will not talk about VIP-seats and VIP-planes, this is absolutely another conversation). In addition, the airship can carry several thousand passengers on board at once, which cannot be said about an airplane, even the largest;
- in carrying capacity, in moving a large number of people through the air at the same time, cheap freight in general. In the case of the development of airships that do not need any airfields, their low cost of flights, modern road, rail and even sea freight transportation could simply disappear or be reduced to a minimum. At the same time, the goods would be delivered to any point of the Earth quickly (express delivery), cheaply and without any problems - is this not the dream of modern merchants, businessmen and even scientists;
- safe, which we mentioned in passing above. With modern technologies (not to mention future or missed possible ones, if scientists worked to improve airships, not airplanes), the reliability and safety of these air vehicles is many times higher than that of airplanes;
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- in the economy, which we also mentioned. Airships, scientists say, consume significantly less fuel than airplanes, especially when calculated per kilogram-kilometer;
- in the absence of the need to build expensive airfields with their huge and literally "golden" runways, which means not only cost savings, but also the ability to land the airship almost anywhere. It can just hover above the ground - and that's it: unload-load, take-send passengers;
- in unlimited time in the air, and so on. It seems that researchers who are seriously studying this issue today will name a dozen more advantages of airships over modern aeronautics.
Doubtful disadvantages of airships
There is an established belief, supported by skeptics, that airships have given way to airplanes for the simple reason that they have many shortcomings. Let's see if this is the case:
- too low flight speed. However, today we can build these huge aircraft that are able to rise into the stratosphere - 20-30 kilometers, and there they can reach speeds of up to 2 thousand kilometers per hour (this is according to modern estimates, not to mention future opportunities). Therefore, comparing airships of the beginning of the last century, which could not overcome the speed of more than 150 kilometers per hour, is naive and even to some extent criminal;
- poor maneuverability. Also not true. Today, the airship does not have to be built in the form of the former gondola, it can be given almost any shape - this is facilitated by modern materials and today's technologies, not to mention future ones. A modern airship with jet (ion) engines will behave in flight and during landing no worse, and many times better than a modern helicopter (we do not take the military into account, this is a completely different topic);
- huge hangars will be required for them. First, the docks for cruise ships are also considerable - and nothing. Secondly, it is not yet known which is cheaper - docks for airships or runways for aircraft. Thirdly, for some reason, the airship is still being considered on a piece basis. When there are thousands, tens of thousands of them, the price of production and maintenance of each such aircraft will decrease many times and will cost much less than the production and maintenance of modern Boeing.
In the competitive struggle, the supporters of airships lost
Skeptics immediately cite an unpleasant example of the crash of the largest airship of the first half of the 20th century, the LZ 129 zeppelin category, "Hindenburg", which crashed on May 6, 1937. However, it still remains a mystery why that tragedy occurred, who was interested in it and who set it up. Why at that time not only did they not begin to analyze in detail the reasons for the crash of the Hindenburg in New Jersey, but then a real advertising campaign broke out about the danger and generally uselessness of airships as such. They were immediately given a fat cross, that is, the competitors who were behind the production of aircraft won this war, and, as always, it was fought by far from even methods: capitalism is capitalism!
And that there are few such examples, when for the sake of gas and oil production, the greatest inventions of alternative energy sources were destroyed and are still being destroyed, and the genius inventors themselves, at best, were gagged (they are still gagging) with a generous handout or threats (on whom what affects), at worst - such people simply disappear from our world - without a trace.
Almost the same thing happened with airships. However, times are changing, today the balance of power in the world is being redistributed, and the world elite is increasingly losing its positions. And all this thanks to Russia, which, as all the prophets say, is destined for the mission of the spiritual, and hence the economic revival of our civilization. Therefore, it is hoped that in the future, people will abandon expensive, dangerous and completely ineffective aircraft.
And the long-awaited age of airships will come. The only pity is that those who were at the origins of this type of aeronautics will never know about the victory of their idea. Or will they find out? For example, if you believe in reincarnation, then perhaps it is they who will lead this revival, only on a completely different level - in a completely different world, where the evil grin of capitalism will no longer scare anyone and interfere with anything good …
Daniil Myslinsky
