I have always, since childhood, wondered why airships disappeared ???
At the beginning of the last century, the world faced two paths of development: airplanes and airships. Moreover, airships were and are a more promising branch.
Why?
1) Comfort. First and foremost for the passenger, they provide comfort, your cabin can be at least as on a cruise ship and all the amenities of the appropriate level.
2) Carrying capacity and flight range. An airship can carry more passengers than an airplane. Or a colossal amount of cargo. Again, imagine a cruise ship in the air with 3-4 thousand passengers on board!
3) Highest reliability and safety! If helium is used. (The version of a thermal airship, or a combined one have their own advantages.) Safety is much higher than that of airplanes and helicopters by an order of magnitude! (Even in the largest disasters, airships have shown high human survival.)
4) Profitability. Significantly lower fuel consumption, as a result, lower cost of the flight based on passenger - kilometer, or per unit mass of the transported cargo.
5) Unlimited time in the air!
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6) No need for airfield infrastructure and runway. He may not land at all, but simply hover above the ground!
Skeptics claim that the airship has a lot of flaws, for example, it flies slowly.
It's a lie! Now it is possible to build stratospheric airships that will rise to a height of 20-30 km and fly there at a speed of over a thousand kilometers per hour! Due to the thin atmosphere at high altitude, size and shape are not important.
In addition, those who will fly in an airship can sail like a ship at a relatively low speed on an air cruise. In this case, high speed and access to the stratosphere are not needed at all. Let me remind you that in 1936 airships flew at speeds of up to 150 km per hour.
They declare poor maneuverability. A lie again. A modern airship does not need to be a balloon with a gondola, as in the early 20th century, it can be given any ideally suitable shape to ensure both maneuverability and streamlining.
The disembarkation of passengers can be ensured with the help of a mooring mast, hovering the apparatus itself above the ground, or with the help of the descent lift of the airship, or by helicopters directly from the board.
An aerodynamic apparatus equipped with jet engines will behave at least as good as an aircraft during flight and landing. (Much better, actually.)
They talk about very large hangars, but certainly not much larger than a dry dock, where a cruise liner will fit. And most importantly, when the thing is piece, it is expensive, when there are dozens of them, the price of the product drops significantly. Because when they talk about the cost of service, it's just ridiculous. There will be a hundred such airships, they will cost less than modern Boeing. The service will also be available.
But there is one big but …
Many people remember the tragedy of the Hindenburg airship.
On March 4, 1936, the construction of the largest airship of the zeppelin category LZ 129 "Hindenburg" was completed, 245 meters long and with a maximum diameter of 41.2 meters; 200,000 cubic meters of gas in cylinders. Equipped with four Daimler-Benz diesel engines with a maximum capacity of 1200 hp. from. each capable of lifting up to 100 tons of payload into the air, the airship developed a speed of up to 135 kilometers per hour (150 with a tailwind). For that time, these were very high rates.
The Americans refused to sell helium to Germany to fill the airship, and the Germans at that time did not have the necessary technology for their own production of this gas. As a result, the airship was filled with hydrogen. A dangerous enough gas mixed with air … On the other hand, the bomb version has not yet been completely refuted.
Then on May 6, 1937, at 18 hours 25 minutes, the Hindenburg airship, after a transatlantic flight, arrives from Germany to the United States.
This is a regular scheduled service. He is landing at Lakehurst Naval Base in New Jersey. A sudden jolt shakes the airship, flames burst from the inside, after 32 seconds the burnt debris falls down. 35 of the 97 passengers and crew were killed, and another employee died on the ground. After that, there was an advertising campaign about the danger of airships. A fat cross was put on the airships and planes took their place … The competitors were destroyed!
And here we come to the main thing.
To the evil grin of capitalism! Are you laughing? But in vain. In our world, everything has long been divided! Who, where and what does. Some five dozen families hold in their hands the threads to govern most of this world.
Something new? Do we need it? Not! They do not consider it necessary to change what is debugged and working. We are talking about air transportation, at least transatlantic, and most likely to displacement, in certain niches, of all aviation as such. Yes, for this money, without batting an eye, you can arrange a third world war, not like destroying inventors or erasing a company that tries to enter the market with its airships. But even this is not necessary. The simplest answer: we will not invest in the development of airborne design. We'll just buy your patents and that's it!
Patents and the capitalist system itself hinder the development of mankind! Well, they don't need, for the most part, inventions. Business is nothing personal!