New-Generation Airships To Be Safer And Nimbler

The golden age of airship travel came to an abrupt end in 1937 when the German airship Hindenburg, coming in to New Jersey after a transatlantic flight, collided with its mooring tower and disintegrated in a huge fireball, killing 36. The images of its huge cigar shape crumpling into a gas-fuelled inferno was enough to convince the world that the aircraft’s flammable skin and the vast volumes of explosive hydrogen used to lift the airships made them unsafe. Today’s airships are lifted by helium. But, while helium is a major component of our atmosphere, it is nearly impossible to extract it from the air, which makes it more expensive than hydrogen.

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