The Present and Future

Some use of airships has continued. Graf Zeppelin was briefly used during World War II by the Germans, but it was scrapped in 1940. The U. S. Navy contin­ued to use airships into the 1960s. In 1960 one of its airships flew for 95 hours and 30 minutes without landing or refueling once.

Today, airships are flown mostly for fun or for publicity and media work. There is growing interest, however, in new kinds of airships using modern technology. With modern materials and helium gas, a new generation of airships would be safe, efficient, and able to carry cargo and passengers for very long distances. Cruising at low level, an airship can provide spectacular views for passengers more interested in scenery than fast flight times.

Airships are also environmentally friendly. They use less fuel than air­planes, and they are quiet. Airships do not require airports with runways. Their main disadvantage is their slow speed. Hindenburg (the fastest airship) had a top speed of only 84 miles per hour (135 kilometers per hour). The largest airship currently flying, Spirit of Dubai, a Skyship 600 design, is limited to 50 miles an hour (80 kilometers an hour). Another disadvantage is that airships cannot fly high enough to cross the highest mountain ranges, such as the Rocky Mountains in North America or the Himalayas in Asia.

Current interest in airships focuses on their potential use as floating telecommunications centers or as trans­portation for heavy cargo. A German airship project called CargoLifter pro­poses to carry payloads of about 165 tons (150 metric tons) at a height of 6,560 feet (2,000 meters) for several thousand miles. About the same size as the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, this modern airship can carry three times the payload of those earlier aircraft, because it is much lighter when unloaded. The CargoLifter is semi-rigid, and, instead of a heavy metal frame like a Zeppelin’s, it has a strong lengthwise keel, like a ship. The keel holds the cargo bay, flight deck, crew quarters, and engines.

Aircraft designers are also working on hybrid craft that combine airship and airplane. Such aircraft would need a takeoff run to get airborne, like most airplanes. They would also generate some lift from their shape as well as from the gas inside them. For maximum lift, a hybrid airship would have an effi­cient aerodynamic shape, such as a disk or an aerofoil (flying wing). The airship of the future might well look like the flying saucer of science fiction.

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SEE ALSO:

• Aerodynamics • Balloon • Future of Aviation • Hindenburg

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