The Return of the Giant Air Ship

by Robert McGarvey

At first I wanted to scornfully laugh – really, people will fly air ships? In the 21st century? I’d thought enthusiasm for gas-powered air ships had literally gone up in flames with the 1937 Hindenburg disaster in New Jersey that killed 35. Grim footage of the disaster, via British Pathe, is on Youtube.

That fiery crash- seen by countless millions in movie theaters back in an era when news clips preceded many feature films – sealed the death of airships. Who’d fly one? Ever again?

Today in Spain a company called Air Nostrum is asking that question and expecting the answer to be enthusiasm. It has ordered 10 airships from a British manufacturer, Airlander.

How crazy is this?

Maybe it is crazy smart and just right for the times.

For one thing who remembers the Hindenburg crash? I do because in the 1950s New Jersey where I grew up that crash still was talked about. The crash occurred about 55 miles from where I lived and very possibly as the airship traveled past Newark NJ it may have flown over the Linden NJ block where I grew up. The crash was real to me.

But few have that tangible relationship to it. I doubt many know any specifics about the crash.

The new airship also will be fundamentally different from the Hindenburg.

There is one tangible fact that has to be grasped. The Hindenburg relied on hydrogen gas for its lighter than air structure and hydrogen is indeed the lightest gas but it also is flammable.

The Airlander craft relies on helium which is slightly heavier but still lighter than air and it is inert and non-flammable. It’s the gas used to fill party balloons for instance.

Yes, helium can be dangerous – even fatal – but that involves breathing in lots of it. “You don’t have to worry about fatal asphyxiation if you’re sucking from a helium balloon at a party. At worst you’ll keep going until you get light‐headed and pass out, at which point you’ll stop inhaling helium and your body’s oxygen levels will return to normal. Of more concern is the possibility that you’ll hurt yourself when you fall down,” says the National Library of Medicine. Helium-caused deaths do occur but most revolve around people going inside a big helium filled balloon.

So why isn’t there a rush to get fleets of helium airships afloat?

Understand that the Hindenburg was beastly slow by 21st centuries. It took around two and one-half days to journey from Frankfurt Airport in Germany to Lakehurst, NJ. It’s cruising speed was 76 mph. (It was twice as fast as ocean going liners, by the way.) A commercial jet typically cruises at 550 mph.

The Airlander honestly isn’t faster than the Hindenburg. Its maximum speed is around 80 mph. You are highly unlikely to want to cross the Atlantic from Madrid to Newark in an Airlander.

But where you may want to fly an Airlander is from, say, Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain to Madrid, about 300 miles. Maybe a four hour ride in an Airlander. Sure, a conventional airplane flight takes around 70 minutes.

But the kicker is that the Airlander produces perhaps 90% less emissions than a jet and as environmental consequences of jet travel enter the consideration of travel planners, particularly in Europe, Air Nostrum may be onto something.

Airlander also is talking about a zero emission airship.

Yet Spain already has an extensive high speed train system that covers 3100 km and those trains move twice as fast as the Airlander (about 310km/hour) and produce few or no emissions. But there are big gaps in coverage. There’s no high speed train from Madrid to Lisbon for instance. Neither is there one to Santiago.

Airlander just maybe can plug a lot of transportation holes, not just in Spain but across Europe.

Air Nostrum, by the way, already runs regional routes in Spain for Iberia, using conventional planes of course. But if it in fact launches its air buses in 2026 as scheduled, a world gasping through climate change issues may well be ready to climb aboard a gigantic 300ft long air balloon.

I definitely am ready to set aside my Hindenburg nightmares and just might give Air Nostrum’s Airlander a flyer.