

Why Airships Will Never Be Part of Our Transportation Infrastructure - MichaelAO
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/05/27/helium-hokum-why-airships-will-never-be-part-of-our-transportation-infrastructure/

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jcchin41
Hybrid Airships might not fair well on the particular log/log plot shown, but
there are other figures of merit to be considered: Emissions, noise, necessary
landing infrastructure, flight-time, fuel consumption vs. aircraft
productivity (payload x distance / hr)

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dzdt
The one credible application I've seen for modern airships is for transporting
ultra-heavy massively oversized loads. See
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter).
The idea is that overland transport by truck or train imposes maximum size
limits from right-of-way, overpass, and tunnel constraints. That could leave a
niche for airships which could far exceed the maximum sizes otherwise
obtainable. Think massive generators or rocket bodies. So far though no one
has made the numbers add up.

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rdlecler1
There was a bit of hand waving at the end there. Per lane mile of rail and
road can run into the millions. So maybe you get 1000 miles of road. And what
about Bridges? I think there is still room for airships.

