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writing:airships [2025/11/13 16:34] – JacobCoffinWriteswriting:airships [2025/11/13 16:43] (current) – JacobCoffinWrites
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 For many of us, airships occupy a sort of odd speculative space left open where materials science, aviation, engineering, computerization, and air traffic control have all improved massively while airships themselves have seen comparatively little use. That leaves a lot of room for argument and a handful of startups that promise that everything is fixed now and they can slot neatly into this low carbon, slower than planes, faster than ships, with fewer transfers, cargo or passenger niche.  For many of us, airships occupy a sort of odd speculative space left open where materials science, aviation, engineering, computerization, and air traffic control have all improved massively while airships themselves have seen comparatively little use. That leaves a lot of room for argument and a handful of startups that promise that everything is fixed now and they can slot neatly into this low carbon, slower than planes, faster than ships, with fewer transfers, cargo or passenger niche. 
  
-The interesting thing is that airships didn't actually vanish with the Hindenburg, though there are certainly fewer examples in operation, and many of those that remained were military. Still, these airships give us some solid evidence backing up the kind of improvements we expect from massively more powerful motors, better materials, etc.+The interesting thing is that airships didn't actually vanish with the Hindenburg. Airships in various forms have been operating in military, research, and development/prototype roles right up to the present day, and industry and the public sector have continued to evaluate their performance and relevant technological developments. These airships give us some solid evidence to use when evaluating claims from startups, and in planning how we depict modern airships in fiction.
  
  
 ==== Misconceptions ==== ==== Misconceptions ====
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 +There are a number of misconceptions we should address up front, most of which come from the poor performance of historical airships from the dawn of aviation when compared to modern aircraft, or from pop culture:
  
 === Airships are unsafe === === Airships are unsafe ===
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 Much in the same way we know that it is possible to build reliable, profitable high-speed rail, even if the concept of such a thing seems wildly out of reach to people in places where it doesn’t exist.  Much in the same way we know that it is possible to build reliable, profitable high-speed rail, even if the concept of such a thing seems wildly out of reach to people in places where it doesn’t exist. 
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 +=== Airships can't compete with other forms of transportation ===
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 +This has some overlap with the Airship Niche section below, but 
 +