The Second Age of Airships

The Telegraph has a story about a new generation of airships. It says "It's a new vehicle. It's a hybrid because we're combining helium lift, aerodynamic lift, a hovercraft landing system, and vectored thrust... If you can get beyond the word airship — because that has a lot of history — people think about them differently."

Forever.

[Pojut]

I will forever associate the word "airship" with Final Fantasy VI. Damn you, early-mid 1980's birth!

Re:Great, instead of peak oil ...

[somersault]

I thought helium was refined essence of Chipmunk - surely a renewable source?

Re:a lot of "history"

[somersault]

Your sig is very appropriate today!

D'oh!

[Thud457]

Monorail!

Re:Holy steampunk Batman!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Next, zombies in London.

Those aren't zombies, they are members of the House of Lords.

Re:Holy steampunk Batman!!

[The Mighty Buzzard]

You can tell the difference by how zombies occasionally will visibly be in possession of a brain while using their mouth.

HAV vs. HAVnot

[beschra]

I think the acronym for Hybrid Air Vehicle has a lot of potential.

Re:Use hydrogen.

[MadKeithV]

Dammit, it said "IN-flammable" - how was I to know?

Re:Hydrogen

[maxwell demon]

vacuum would at most supply 14% more lift

OK, so let's fill our airships with vacuum. More lift and absolutely no danger of it going up in flames! Well, there's the problem of how to get the pressure with vacuum. But that's easy to solve: Just put enough dark energy in. If it can inflate the complete universe, it surely can also inflate a little balloon.

Helium is UNSAFE!

[AnonymousClown]

Imagine this ... you're in the helium airship and it comes across a micro black hole. Black hole's gravity compresses the helium to the point for fusion...and BAM! thermonuclear explosion!

Nope! We should ban this right now!!!

Re:Hydrogen or hot-air

[wed128]

The video i watched was in black and white...i was under the impression colors hadn't been invented yet!

is there a Turner Colorized version somewhere?

Re:Great, instead of peak oil ...

[SteveFoerster]

That's probably for the best. Who'd want to have everyone's voices gradually get more and more silly?

Promises, promises...

[Quiet_Desperation]

Let's see... this is about the fifth "Second Age" of the airship, isn't it?

Let me guess. They'll be fusion powered and piloted by AI? Oh, and don't forget the emergency jetpacks!

Re:We get it, you're British..

[91degrees]

Yes, British people speak like that. It's fairly typical for a British newspaper aimed at British people to use British terminology. We even speak with British accents don'cha know. It's not just something we do for the tourists.

Jeez, airships again?

[Rogerborg]

They'll all be designed with Linux on the desktop. And the best bit is, we'll have plenty of helium from all the fusion power plants!

Re:Use hydrogen.

[AshtangiMan]

I think they can still glide, but the glide angle changes pretty drastically.