Like the solar and wind energy business, I’m sure there’s a couple billion in taxpayer money that someone in the Government (like Buttigieg ) is just itching to pay out for lighter than air electric transportation. Whether the general population is willing to pay out for Government fantasies or not, we’re going to have to pay it. Thinking about it, it seems that it’s hard for two fixed wing aircraft to occupy the same air space without crashing into each other so I wonder how it’s going to work out when there are a bunch of dirigibles thrown into the mix? They can’t just change altitude or direction at the drop of a hat. I wonder what they’re going to really call ‘em? Pathfinder is a little overused. I’d bet on: The Boeing 101 Turtle. The T50 Snail. The Sloth. ??
Several companies are now coming out with airships, and it looks like they have a promising future. Airships were actually used a lot in the early 1900’s , but we mostly only hear about the Hindenburg, which caught fire and crashed. Normally, the airships used helium, which was much safer, but because it was unavailable and they wanted to use the Hindenburg immediately, they used hydrogen instead, which was so flammable and caused the explosion. I think we have a thread about airships somewhere in the history section here. http://www.seniorsonly.club/threads/travel-in-airships-and-the-hindenburg-crash. Here is an article talking about several of the new airship hybrids that will be doing into use in the next couple of years: https://www.wearefinn.com/topics/posts/the-airships-promising-a-new-era-for-cargo-delivery/