AHWI: Popular Airship Cruises?

What if airships instead of being rendered obsolete as passenger carriers by planes they instead end up being used for cruises, a capacity in which planes could never be used? You account for the large operating expenses of airships by selling tickets to the wealthy. Airship cruises could probably lead to the passenger use of airships for much longer into the 20th century and perhaps even to the current day.

The challenge is to avoid the stigma of airships as unsafe, and build confidence in them as a means of transport. Popularizing air cruises is I think the easier part, since really nothing can compete in providing the same sort of experience, plane trips are too short, and I'm sure wealthy people will find luxury airship cruises to be an attractive experience they'll be willing to pay for.

How can we maximize the passenger capacity of airships, the flight time without refueling, and other things to optimize cruise airships? How can we have several cruise companies competing in the airship cruise business leading to greater research and development in improving airships for cruise purposes and suchlike? What do you think an airship cruise would look like in more modern times?

How can the technology develop, for example airships augmented with jet propulsion?
 

BlondieBC

Banned
- People used cruise ships after the Titanic. Just don't lose the airships in front of camera, and it will be much less of a big deal.

- Also, avoid WW2 and the building of air fields everywhere. And all the trained pilots. So much fixed costs covered for free.

- In the same idea, have greater success for airships in WW1. If viewed as a successful war machine, the other nations will use more airships in their militaries and this will cover some airship fixed costs. You likely need a German win for this one, along with naval airship success. Airships were used correctly in the Baltic Sea Area, and often used correctly in the North Sea area. The generally had more issues over land where the altitude was too low. You a doctrine change in Germany so the Airships are more careful around fighter cover. And you need successes. Zeppelins were very good at the recon role and could be very good and C&C role. IOTL, the Germans often watch the British lay down mine fields, and then help them be cleared. It is not hard to imagine an ATL where the Germans both have good codes and proper doctrine for Zeppelins. Once you do this type of operation, then you can have situations where the Germans generally have eyes on the British fleet. So maybe we can have a Jutland type battle where the Germans have the initiative and an informational advantage.

- Once you get the fixed costs paid by the military, then you can get more regular usage of airships. It will be a niche product once airplanes are reliable, but for things such as scenic cruises up the coast of Norway from the old German airship base would like be quite popular. As would the whale watching trip from NJ up to Maine using an old US Navy facility. Imagine being able to look down into the clear blue water from hundreds of feet up and watch the whales.
 
Airship cruises - say a couple of weeks - could be popular for viewing wild areas. Imagine cruising over Africa or Amazonia at low altitude taking it all in. Perhaps the cruise companies have a couple of "ports" in these areas, small towns where luxury accommodations can be built with tours of the local area,much like cruise ships stopping at Caribbean islands. An example - board the airship in Miami, cruise to Brazil with a couple of stops at various islands, then a week over Amazonia and back. Perhaps 3 weeks all told.
 
1. Prevent the ongoing Hydrogen hysteria and the "Helium is safe" nonsense sure Hydrogen has the risk of burning if too many corners are cut but Helium I would argue is more unsafe when considering the lack of lifting power which is the reason why the USS Akron and Shenandoah (fun fact: the most tragic Airship accident was not the Hindenburg, it was the USS Akron).

2. Have more Round the World trips with Airships, the Graf Zeppelin did it but let's say the Graf Zeppelin decided to soar over the Amazon (it did visit Rio so maybe they saw some Rainforest, maybe a good POD would be them suddenly deciding to take a detour maybe?) or the Andes and saw Machu Picchu?

3. Establish it as an alternative transport to Ships and Railroads, In many places in the far north and south where it is too frozen for most of the year to move ships through and either their is no connecting land or the land simply isn't viable for roads and whatnot. Many places are like this and have to import things through Airplanes like Iceland, Antarctica, Northern Alaska, and Northern Russia.

4. Employ them as faster travel than boats are (has to be before commercial passenger planes but this is completely viable with Graf Zeppelin era technology).

How can we maximize the passenger capacity of airships

Either make the Airships bigger or get rid of living quarters and thus making trips shorter.

the flight time without refueling

I mean I guess it's feasible to have small retractable sails for when the Wind Direction is going exactly the direction you're heading. You could propel via turbines powered by electricity and gain that electricity through Solar Panels or small Wind Turbines but for Airship cruises to really get started before sea cruises take the niche it has to be before either of those are real possibilities though future versions could implement these things.

What do you think an airship cruise would look like in more modern times?

Bigger. Much bigger.

That sounds dumb but given the properties of keeping a lifting gas in a bag the Square cubed law will allow a much greater lift ratio than previously. This can either be diverted into thickening the hulls, which is why I always say Hydrogen is negligible; Good luck igniting it through six inches of steel. Or you could use this to increase the carrying capacity. Though this will mean Blimps will fall out of use because the bigger you have to go the more stress is put on the large rubber envelop but you could make that thicker but if you're going through the trouble of thickening rubber or plastic you may as well go full Ridged with a Zeppelin.

If you could get one huge enough (and I'm talking something we probably wouldn't see until the 2300's or something) you could have living/work spaces wrapped around the Entire airship and not just on the Gondola and basically be a mobile city. And the most beautiful thing about that is it could be done completely with known science but would just require a lot of effort to the point I don't think it will ever be done.
But if those things did exist then it would be the envy of the world.

How can the technology develop, for example airships augmented with jet propulsion?

Carbon fiber polymers can free up a lot more weight. As for jet propulsion wouldn't that be counterproductive to the whole point of Airships not being as fast as planes?
 
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