[szemet]

Why not use hydrogen, its cheap and zeppelins can be smaller and fly higher.

We will maybe better in avoiding accidents compared to 1937:

- have better materials

- can use it only for cargo with drones - no human should travel with them!

- should/can use routes to avoid cities, and should/could build some separate safe landing space

etc...

finally:

Hydrogen fires are less destructive to immediate surroundings than gasoline explosions because of the buoyancy of H2, which causes heat of combustion to be released upwards more than circumferentially as the leaked mass ascends in the atmosphere; hydrogen fires are more survivable than fires of gasoline or wood.[22] The hydrogen in the Hindenburg burned out within about 90 seconds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster

[b0rsuk]

I would also rather use hydrogen.

The Hindenburg disaster was spectacular, but not especially deadly! 36 fatalities, 62 survivors. Compare to modern passenger airplanes, where EVERYONE tends to die. If modern dislike for zeppelins is mostly due to Hindenburg, it's irrational.

[brownbat]

Airline crashes have a surprisingly high survivability rate (because the typical crash is not the craft plummeting from 30k feet, but some kind of runway incident).

To your overall point though, hydrogen isn't that much worse. In fact, many leading airship disasters involved helium.

USS Shenandoah is typical of the most common enemy of airships--strong winds. The captain warned that the updrafts and storms in the Midwest would destroy the ship but was ordered to fly over several cities anyway, just for a promotional tour.

The deadliest airship disaster in history is not the Hindenburg, but the lesser known USS Akron, a helium ship that was simply destroyed in bad weather.

[rootusrootus]

> airplanes, where EVERYONE tends to die

Overall, about 95% of passengers survive airplane crashes. If you arbitrarily restrict the stats to just the most severe crashes, it's still over 50%.

[pasabagi]

I think there were a series of disasters - of which the Hindenburg was just the last.

All the same, I think with modern materials, Hydrogen would be pretty safe.

[ianai]

It’s at least worth considering whether modern zeppelins could be safe. All options need to be on the table for dealing with climate change.

[mothsonasloth]

Indeed, Iron Maiden wrote a song about the British Airship R101, called "Empire of the clouds"

[bryanrasmussen]

doesn't seem that bad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents

[squarefoot]

The Hindenburg accident happened while the ship was about to land; people on the ground were already holding the ropes hanging from its nose. Had the explosion happen at a higher altitude nobody wold have survived.

Using hydrogen, especially today, is a disaster waiting to happen, since any idiot with a medium quadcopter drone carrying a small explosive charge could easily outrun and shot down an airship then post the FPV video on social networks.

[gambiting]

>>Using hydrogen, especially today, is a disaster waiting to happen, since any idiot with a medium quadcopter drone carrying a small explosive charge could easily outrun and shot down an airship then post the FPV video on social networks.

Literally the exact same thing could happen with a regular plane(just send a drone into a plane as it takes off), and yet somehow it doesn't happen. I guess people aren't psychotic murderers, or at least there isn't enough of them to worry about it.

[arcticfox]

I think it would be far more difficult to take down a plane than an airship given the enormous difference in velocities. Even at takeoff, a drone-sized IED would probably only be fatal to a small part of the plane's occupants, while it could probably 100% destroy a hydrogen airship in flight.

That said, I don't see any reason we'd need to put humans on these, so that probably lowers the risk massively.

[exDM69]

> quadcopter drone ... could easily outrun

Even the old Hindenburg did 135 km/h (85 mph), which is quite a lot faster than most drones.

[pvaldes]

With predictable trajectories this does not would make a unsolvable obstacle. A drone can shoot a fireweapon so it would need just to place itself within fire range.

[brnt]

I think since Hindenburg fabrics has developed tremendously, and collision, perhaps even explosion safe fabrics for zeppelin hulls could be possible.

[n0rbwah]

Hope they still get covered with a thick layer of thermite.

[zabzonk]

You mean "thermite, the well-known incendiary compound"? https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Thermite

[n0rbwah]

There's a myth that the hindenburg was coated with different layers of metallic paint that triggered a thermite reaction when the hydrogen caught fire.

[paulsutter]

This is for cargo - hydrogen is fine. They don’t even need a crew on board.