THE RETURN OF THE AIRSHIP?
Few inventions have changed our lives as much as the airplane. Thanks to the jet engine, an ocean crossing that once took weeks by ship now takes a few hours, and every year planes carry billions of passengers and millions of tons of goods around the globe. Yet this success has a price. Planes burn huge amounts of fuel, and the gases they release add to climate change. For this reason, some engineers argue that, at least for moving goods, a forgotten flying machine deserves a second chance: the airship.(lines 1–6)
Airships are far from a new idea. In the 1920s and 1930s, these giant balloons with engines carried wealthy travelers across the Atlantic, with dining rooms and private cabins on board. However, they were kept in the air by hydrogen, a gas that catches fire very easily. After several terrible accidents, the public lost faith in airships, and airlines turned to planes instead. For the next half century, airships served mainly as floating advertisements above sports stadiums.(lines 7–12)
Today's airships float on helium, which cannot burn, and their great strength is reaching places where neither trucks nor planes can go. One model being tested in northern Canada will bring food and fuel to villages with no roads. Another, built in Europe, can lift heavy machines onto building sites high in the mountains, and a third will deliver medicines to islands without airports. Moreover, an airship needs only a fraction of the fuel used by a cargo plane.(lines 13–17)
Transport journalist Daniel Foster, however, warns against writing off planes too quickly. "Look at what a large airport does for the area around it," he says. "It gives work to thousands of people, and companies that depend on quick connections to other countries open offices and factories nearby. Cheap flights matter as well. They bring in tourists by the planeload, and over the years, the money those tourists leave behind in local shops and restaurants makes the whole region richer."(lines 18–23)
Airships have another weakness: they are slow, and some deliveries cannot wait. "After an earthquake or a flood, aid has to arrive within hours, not days," Foster explains. "A cargo plane can bring doctors and medicine from the other side of the world overnight. An airship would need almost a week for the same journey, and it could not take off at all in the strong winds that often follow a storm. In a disaster, those lost days can cost lives."(lines 24–29)
Supporters of the airship remain hopeful. They expect it to carry a large share of the world's cargo one day, and they point to rapid progress in solar power. "There are now solar panels so thin and light that they can cover the whole roof of an airship," says Foster. "Soon that will allow airships to do things no aircraft can do today – to stay in the air for weeks, for instance, without ever landing to refuel. Not everyone welcomes the idea of a sky full of these giants, but that doesn't worry me. Passengers will always fly by plane. Heavy goods that are not urgent, on the other hand, are a perfect job for the airship."(lines 30–36)