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Goodyear's New State-of-the-Art Airship Makes Its First Flight
Zothecula (1870348) writes "The Goodyear blimp may have been flying around for almost 90 years, but it still manages to turn heads. On Friday, there was another reason to look beyond nostalgia for the days of the great airships of old as Goodyear unveiled its new state-of-the-art blimp to the media, Goodyear associates and dealers at its Wingfoot Lake hangar in Suffield, Ohio. Built in partnership with the Zeppelin company, the new craft that replaces the 45-year old GZ-20 blimp fleet is not only larger and faster, it isn't even a blimp, but a semi-rigid airship."
Maybe switch back to hydrogen? It's cheap. Sure, the flamability or explosive issue is there - but we have improved materials now, and a better understanding of how static electricity behaves. Perhaps it can be made safe.
Although, to be fair, zeppelin safety has improved tremendously.
Before WW I, Zeppelins had a spotless safety record, having flown thousands of passengers in hundreds of flights. Only when the military came in did accidents happen. See Wikipedia list of airship accidents
If the same standards that grounded Zeppelins after the Hindenburg accident had been applied to aircraft, civilian heavier-than-air passenger transportation would never have taken off.
You know it's time for the next revolution when your rulers' names end with roman numerals.