this post was submitted on 20 May 2024
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[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 153 points 6 months ago (18 children)

This was nowhere near the only deadly airship disaster, nor was it the last, but that’s not really what ended airship travel. With the advances in airplanes by the end of World War II, lighter-than-air ships just couldn’t compete. Even postwar piston aircraft were cruising at more than 3 times the speed of most airships with range to make nonstop transatlantic crossings, and once the jet age really started to take hold in the ’50s it was all over. I mean, by the ’60s multiple countries had started supersonic passenger aircraft programs. Not a lot of success there, but still there were nowhere near enough customers to support commercial service on airships when faster, cheaper options existed.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 22 points 6 months ago (7 children)

What airships need to do is become like cruise ships. Put an amusement park and a casino up there, I'm sure nothing bad will happen.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 14 points 6 months ago

As far as I know they were somewhat like cruise ships in their luxury.

The (enormous) problem is weight. Everything needs to be as light as possible, it's a balloon after all.

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