An airship based society, no airplanes or the Hindenburg disaster

1900-1903 (?) - a flight accident that happened in Kitty hawk, north Carolina kills one...

May 6th, 1937 - the Hindenburg airship almost crash, luckily no casualties...

What if the airplane was never invented/never became popular due to some unfortunate accidents?
What if the airships would be the main air transportation way?
How would the society and the world wars would be different?
 
1900-1903 (?) - a flight accident that happened in Kitty hawk, north Carolina kills one...

May 6th, 1937 - the Hindenburg airship almost crash, luckily no casualties...

What if the airplane was never invented/never became popular due to some unfortunate accidents?
What if the airships would be the main air transportation way?
How would the society and the world wars would be different?

A poorer and less connected place.

Airships are simply nothing in comparison to the potential of aircraft and aircraft are too simple in concept to not happen eventually and once they do they will surge forwards in leaps and bounds.

Also the Wrights were first not the only ones, there were several competitors and that number will only grow in time as engines get better.
 
ASB. There were many people working on heavier than air flight at the turn of the 20th Century. Somebody would have figured it out by 1910 at the outside.
 
Also the Wrights were first not the only ones, there were several competitors and that number will only grow in time as engines get better.

I know there were many people except the wright brothers who were working on a "air thingy" (because it's not exactly a aircraft/airplane).

There were many people working on heavier than air flight at the turn of the 20th Century. Somebody would have figured it out by 1910 at the outside.

that is the reason why i mentioned an option where the airplane was invented, but didn't became popular.
 
A poorer and less connected place.

Airships are simply nothing in comparison to the potential of aircraft and aircraft are too simple in concept to not happen eventually and once they do they will surge forwards in leaps and bounds.

Also the Wrights were first not the only ones, there were several competitors and that number will only grow in time as engines get better.

B-b-but it's cool! Coolness overrides plausibility.:rolleyes:
 
Another thought, several folk try and fail with heavier than air flight, lots of publicity, ornithopter, wing flapping aircraft.

Super cool thing would be someone finding the materials to build a vacuum based airship (skin and framework able to stand pressure differentual
 
that is the reason why i mentioned an option where the airplane was invented, but didn't became popular.

You'd need to do better than a few unfortunate accidents to prevent the aeroplane becoming popular by the 1920-1930s, though. The early decades of aviation developments were IOTL littered with constant accidents - I read some period newspapers in Finland in search of aviation-related news pieces a while back, and literally about 50% of the news on the issue were about fatal accidents in the 20s and early 30s. That still did not stop the aeroplane being seen as the future of civilian air travel and the next big thing in military weaponry by the contemporaries.

Like Mike Stearns pointed out, you'd need a supernatural intervention into the issue to make heavier-than-air aircraft so dangerous that the invention will be abandoned in favour of the airship. Such amount of sheer bad luck just does not exist naturally.
 
Heavier-than-air flight was inevitable by 1900 given the advances being made in the US and Europe in aerodynamics, light metal alloys, and internal-combustion engines. My own opinion is that "no-WW1" might have delayed the development and introduction of modern, reliable, and safe airplanes for a decade or so. This might possibly have allowed large airships (especially the rigid "zeppelin" type) to become more established in long-range air transport and naval reconnaissance roles before airplanes were seen as more than private experimental craft. By 1925 in this scenario, airships might have secured a valuable place in these roles, with large commercial or military commitments made to the infrastructure and training needed to maintain and constantly improve them. Possibly, in such a situation, airplanes would be seen more as small craft mainly suitable for exciting joy-rides and fast air races but if you wanted to travel from Frankfurt to New York in less than a week your only option would be one of several national airship lines getting you there in 1/2 the time. Much past 1940, airships are just doomed, even if not one of them ever crashes or explodes.
 
Maybe if Helium production is able to replace Hydrogen as the Gas in the Airbags etc - it might be the case that the Airship remains a luxury form of traval for longer possibly even experiancing a revival post 1970s after the package holiday boom

But I cannot see it replacing the fixed wing heavier than air Aircraft

Even today with some very clever hybrid designs being proposed as heavy transports for areas with the infrastructure to support the big C5, C17 and ANs are only slowly being developed.
 
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