Sunday, 6 April 2025

Come Fly With Me (In A Decade Or Two)

When the Hindenburg Airship Hindenburg fell to the ground in a ball of flame in 1937, the idea of Airships was put away but they may be back on the agenda again as a Company LTA Research attempt to revive the whole thing again.
Founded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the company have spent the past decade testing a prototype Airship and the 124.5 meters (408.4 feet) long has passed every test with flying colours.
Almost half the size of the Hindenburg, the Pathfinder 1 has just completed it's first flight which was the first time a rigid airship of this size had flown since the 1930's and is made from modern, lightweight materials and most importantly, is made from  flame-retardant synthetic material filled with the less flammable Helium rather than Hydrogen but the trade off is that Helium generates less lift and is in short supply which makes it expensive to fill the Airship with.
Nobody knows for sure what caused the Hindenburg to collapse in the fiery inferno it did and suggestions such as sabotage, a build of static, lightening and being covered in flammable paint have been put forward which is why the developers are saying they are being ultra cautious and have a safety first policy with no plans to rush to the next stage.
Obviously with one eye on the changing climate and the disasters that brings, Airships would be immense from an Environmental angle but that may be decades into the future but the first step has to be to convince people that it is safe so years of test flights before anyone even gets close to climbing into one.

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