Could the airship be the answer to sustainable air travel – or is it all a load of hot air?

Amid talk of sustainable aviation fuel and electric flights, there’s another form of air travel currently being mooted as a green alternative to flying: the airship.

Technically, the airship is all a load of hot air: a typically cigar-shaped, self-propelled aircraft made of a vast balloon filled with nearly weightless lifting gases, featuring an attached car or gondola for carrying passengers, crew and cargo. If it conjures up a black-and-white image of the past, you’re right – airships were popular at the beginning of the 20th Century before the rise of aviation as we know it. And now, they’re making a comeback.
Modern technological advances, paired with a need to develop the aviation industry as it struggles slowly towards net zero, have led aeronautical engineers to re-examine the airship. New materials – including new forms of ultralight nylon – developed since its heyday have made a new type of aircraft possible. Replacing flammable hydrogen with helium has allowed for safer development and aims to avoid a repeat of the Hindenburg disaster, the luxury German airship that exploded live on film in 1937. The new advances and stronger aviation standards mean that really the only thing these new airships have in common with the Hindenburg is their shape and the fact that they’re using a gas lighter than air.
Though an airship, which typically flies at around 100-130km/h, won’t ever reach the speeds of a jet plane, they are being talked about as forms of slow travel like cruise ships and night trains, where the experience makes up for the speed. Airships fly at a lower altitude than a plane, with unpressurised cabins where you can open and look out of the window, making it more comfortable for passengers. The large balloon also takes far less energy to power – and potentially could operate with electric engines powering liftoff and steering, making them a zero-carbon emitting form of air transport.
“It’s good that we are testing different ideas and innovations, as exploring various solutions is key to improving aviation and making it more sustainable in the future,” said leading aviation expert Thomas Thessen, adjunct professor at the University of Aalborg and chief analyst at Scandinavian Airlines. “The biggest advantage I can see is that they can stay in the air for a long time, and their ability to fly vertically up.”