Should Airships Make A Comeback?

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A huge thank you to Dan Grossman and Nick Allman for their time, help, and expertise.

Also a massive thank you to those who helped us understand the world of modern airships, and provided valuable feedback - Prof. Barry Prentice, Gennadiy Verba, Prof.
Christoph Pflaum, Heather Roszczyk, Dr. Casey Handmer, Richard Van Trueren, & Thibault Proux.

We are also grateful for the collaboration of the companies who are working hard to make this comeback happen - Atlas LTA, Buoyant Aircraft Systems International, Hybrid Air Vehicles, LTA Research, & Flying Whales.

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References:

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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:
Adam Foreman, Amadeo Bee, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Benedikt Heinen, Bernard McGee, Bill Linder, Burt Humburg, Dave Kircher, Diffbot, Evgeny Skvortsov, Gnare, Jesse Brandsoy, John H. Austin, Jr., john kiehl, Josh Hibschman, Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Mario Bottion, MaxPal, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, Stephen Wilcox, Tj Steyn, TTST, Ubiquity Ventures

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Written by Casper Mebius & Derek Muller
Directed by Casper Mebius
Edited by Jack Saxon
Filmed by Derek Muller, Jamie MacLeod, Han Evans, & Raquel Nuno
Animation by Mike Radjabov & Fabio Albertelli
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images, Pond5, & Envato Elements
Music from Epidemic Sound & Pond5
Produced by Casper Mebius, Derek Muller, & Han Evans

More footage & photos from:

[veritasium]

We posted this video yesterday, but took it down soon after when we noticed an error. Here’s take 2 - thank you for watching!

[LaXerxes]

The number one reason why air ship should make a comeback is because they look awesome

[bernarrcoletta]

It’s amazing how airships are the technology that won’t die. A friend of mine graduated from college back in the 80s and went to work for a company doing research into LTA aircraft for the Navy. Also, back in the late 80s, Dean Ing wrote a sci-fi book called “The Big Lifters”, where he built a whole multi-modal transportation system around hybrid airships.

[doublintucksveto]

If these things actually get built, I am going to sit outside of an airfield in a lawn chair with a big old bowl of popcorn and watch the show. Seeing something that big fly sounds like the coolest thing ever.

[tartansauce]

I actually wrote my senior thesis many years ago about how airships occupy a nice place economically for shipping. I keep waiting for them to make a comeback.

[bassemb]

Airships have been trying to make a comeback for decades. In 2007, I myself was involved in an airship startup. We wanted to build a 500 meter long rigid body airship for cargo. Then after market analysis we settled on smaller ships to serve as sky cranes and tourism airships. The same ideas mentioned in this video. We even spent a lot of time on the buoyancy gas compression problem. Back then, we were looking at competitors such as the SkyCat (which is still to this day, "proposed"). It's interesting to see, in 2023, how the revival of airships is still in the planning stages. Even more interesting when you consider that they did have their heyday once. So it's not like it's a purely theoretical idea.

[cheeseisgreat]

One thing I always thought airships could be used for was SAR operations in regions where people get lost during normal weather, the thing can loiter over their last known location and send out camera drones to increase its effective search area, and if they’re conscious enough to signal, it’s impossible to not notice the massive dirigible in the sky and know where to direct their signal.

[thornerg]

6:37 Two Statues of Liberty... Anything but the metric system.

[Arcadelt]

The collective horror at the Hindenburg almost can't be overstated. Airships reached a glorious pinnacle in the 20s and 30s, and the Hindenburg was the best of them. A true marvel of the world. Its fiery and dramatic destruction created such a powerful stigma that we still haven't recovered from it. That single event changed the course of aviation history, but it probably would have happened at some point.

[JohnTaylor-gynp]

As an airship engineer with blimp operations experience going back 40 years, I thank you for making a video rhat actually explains the concepts, benefits and challenges correctly, and in a way that the general public would understand. Most videos about the future of airships are filled with fantasy and error.

[dreamer]

15:18 why don't just use some anchors like they do in ships when loading and unloading from them? This way the upward force due to weight loss could be countered?

[avasam]

I'd love to explore the challenges to anchoring the airship and pulling it down as opposed to trying to constantly push it down with propellers.

[Chris-okzo]

There's something so retro/steampunk yet so sci-fi about a world where these things reign supreme. Hope I get to see these in the sky one day.

Edit: Peeps in comments keep mentioning "solarpunk" fitting these things more. I didn't know that was a thing or a word that existed, but now I do. Thanks.

[darklordTim]

Man I don't know about the actual viability of airships, but it just seems so cool to me to be like on the crew of an airship. I don't know why but the idea just excites me so much. It kinda makes me wonder if this is how people felt when air travel was entirely new, it just seems like a new frontier.

[bertolechi]

for the lift offset problem for cargo ships in particular, depnding on other limitations, I have some other ideas. Let's say there cargo ships are for major hub to hub transport (most likely across oceans, that means that they're delivering their load in a specific port or hub (not just a random location), in those cases you can for example possible solve the lift offset by siphoning the gas into a reservoir in the station instead of venting it out, and then as you load again, inject it back in. There is also the possibility of either anchoring the vessel to the ground or build hangers that hold it in place while there is no load on them. Now obviously there could be a million problems with my suggestions depending on other factors, but hey i figured why not share my thoughts, it might help someone somewhere have a practical idea.

[rjmacreadyoutpost]

I learned something about airships in the US when I lived near a Goodyear Blimp hanger and spoke with one of the tenders. Apparently, quite a few people take pot shots at blimps with firearms. While unlikely to significantly damage a rigid airship, it does pose a potential danger to passengers.

[azathoth]

I'm loving that we're seeing a return to technologies we'd abandoned in the past with an eye to making them safer and more efficient. Airships are one such technology, but so is wind power for ocean-going vessels! There's at least one company with a test cargo ship undergoing sea-trials using modern "sails" to use the wind as power.

[NavyDood]

I find it weird that it wasnt brought up how these airships would be grounded constantly for weather. Imagine trying to control a giant balloon in anything other than the most calm skies. They will need a HUGE ground crew with heavy equipment to control. I love the idea, but they would require so much more infrastructure than was being hinted at here.

[JordiR]

0:24 and now we know everything about thermite! It's funny because I came back to this video randomly being the only one I haven't seen from Veritasium in this year

[bryancardenas]

I love the fact that the startup chose the name "Flying Whales", which is the title of a Gojira song (that address environmental issues) released seven years before their founding. Plus, considering that both the startup and the band are French, I don't think it's a coincidence.