4 ms·

The article said nothing about weather hazards or the fact that it’s a big fat target for a war drone to bring down. It’s not just an easy target to hit, it’s

The article said nothing about weather hazards or the fact that it’s a big fat target for a war drone to bring down. It’s not just an easy target to hit, it’s a symbolic target. Airships were abandoned because very large objects falling out of the sky did not appeal to the public… and too many of them fell. Extremely severe weather brings down relatively tough aircraft, but once on the ground or in hangars they are relatively safe. Airships are flying cheesepuffs.

imoverclocked 2y ago
Luckily, we have much better weather forecasting than we did last time we tried airships for realsies.
- bobthepanda 2y ago
  Severe turbulence in clear conditions is increasing due to climate change: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulence-climate-change-singapore-airlines https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulenc...
  - imoverclocked 2y ago
    Turbulence for an airliner is going to be experienced differently for an airship. I'm not sure what to expect, TBH, but the difference between a plane moving at Mach 0.8 and an airship moving at 80 mph will definitely be real.
  - mike_hearn 2y ago
    There has been no increase in air turbulence accidents per passenger mile over the past 30 years despite a quadrupling of air traffic (so more chances to encounter turbulence). https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS2101.pdf https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS2101.... After normalizing the data by annual flight hours, there was no obvious trend over time for turbulence-related Part 121 accidents during this period [1989-2018]. The BBC article cites a modelling paper. In a conflict between real data and a simulation, real data should win.
- dudisubekti 2y ago
  But even then, forecasted storms mean more delay to the already-slow airship. Also the airship is simply too slow to dodge any sudden severe weather, even if they saw it coming hours before.
  - imoverclocked 2y ago
    Perhaps. Airships will likely want to travel along jet streams since the wind speeds can outpace the airspeed of the airship. The neat thing here is that weather that will be problematic can be predicted days in advance, not just hours. Even 2 hours gets you pretty far in an airship in wind-calm, especially compared to (say) container ships. When you aren't in wind-calm, you can probably take advantage of winds by choosing your altitude wisely.
MitPitt 2y ago
> too many of them fell How many of them fell? Tried searching this up and barely any fell. Very few deaths too.
- dudisubekti 2y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents This list is quite comprehensive I think
  - hluska 2y ago
    That’s a good article. I found this one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-8 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-8 The L-8/Ghost Blimp took off with a crew of two from San Francisco in 1942. They found an oil slick (which was the last time either crew member was known to be alive) and then drifted before it crash landed in front of a home in Daly City. I had never heard of this event before now and it’s a heck of an interesting late night rabbit hole. Thanks for the link!
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  A partial list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents. The list of Zepplins is also enlightening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins

imoverclocked 2y ago

Luckily, we have much better weather forecasting than we did last time we tried airships for realsies.

bobthepanda 2y ago
Severe turbulence in clear conditions is increasing due to climate change: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulence-climate-change-singapore-airlines https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulenc...
- imoverclocked 2y ago
  Turbulence for an airliner is going to be experienced differently for an airship. I'm not sure what to expect, TBH, but the difference between a plane moving at Mach 0.8 and an airship moving at 80 mph will definitely be real.
- mike_hearn 2y ago
  There has been no increase in air turbulence accidents per passenger mile over the past 30 years despite a quadrupling of air traffic (so more chances to encounter turbulence). https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS2101.pdf https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS2101.... After normalizing the data by annual flight hours, there was no obvious trend over time for turbulence-related Part 121 accidents during this period [1989-2018]. The BBC article cites a modelling paper. In a conflict between real data and a simulation, real data should win.
dudisubekti 2y ago
But even then, forecasted storms mean more delay to the already-slow airship. Also the airship is simply too slow to dodge any sudden severe weather, even if they saw it coming hours before.
- imoverclocked 2y ago
  Perhaps. Airships will likely want to travel along jet streams since the wind speeds can outpace the airspeed of the airship. The neat thing here is that weather that will be problematic can be predicted days in advance, not just hours. Even 2 hours gets you pretty far in an airship in wind-calm, especially compared to (say) container ships. When you aren't in wind-calm, you can probably take advantage of winds by choosing your altitude wisely.

MitPitt 2y ago

> too many of them fell How many of them fell? Tried searching this up and barely any fell. Very few deaths too.

dudisubekti 2y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents This list is quite comprehensive I think
- hluska 2y ago
  That’s a good article. I found this one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-8 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-8 The L-8/Ghost Blimp took off with a crew of two from San Francisco in 1942. They found an oil slick (which was the last time either crew member was known to be alive) and then drifted before it crash landed in front of a home in Daly City. I had never heard of this event before now and it’s a heck of an interesting late night rabbit hole. Thanks for the link!
ben-schaaf 2y ago
A partial list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents. The list of Zepplins is also enlightening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins