I love airships.  I don't know what it is about them - huge man made clouds hanging impossibly in the sky.  Somehow airplanes and hot air balloons don't have the same mystique.

I love it when someone writes them into a sci-fi book or movies.

One of my favourite paintings is Returning Home, The Z-R-5 Macon:

Returning Home, The Z-R-5 Macon

Returning Home, The Z-R-5 Macon

Unfortunately airships haven't been mainstream since the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, although the bad press from that should have worn off by now.

Nowadays there's no practical reason to use airships - they're slower than airplanes and more susceptible to bad weather.

This is where my idea comes in - airship cruises.  When you take a cruise you're not concerned with how quickly you get to your destination, you're concerned with how enjoyable the journey is.  Airships are expensive to build and maintain but so are cruise ships.  And no cruise ship can rival the view you'd get from an airship.

It looks like someone has actually taken this idea a bit closer to actually happening, although I'm not aware of anyone actually getting as far as offering it for real yet.

Aeros Cruiser

Aeros Cruiser

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Bookmark and Share
blog comments powered by Disqus