Most people have seen the Goodyear Blimp and similar airships, but nobody in the United States has seen a zeppelin since a fiery night in 1937 when the German zeppelin ‘The Hindenburg’ exploded in flames in front of a crowd of horrified people.

Recent research has proven that a flammable coating applied to the outside of the Hindenburg caused it to burst into flames; it wasn’t sabotaged and the actual design of the airship had nothing to do with the disaster. ‘Return of the Zeppelin’ – a Video Essay

From The Economist: “A CURIOUS cabal gathered recently in a converted warehouse in San Francisco for a private conference. Among them were some of the world’s leading experts in fields ranging from astrophysics and nanotechnology to health and energy. Also attending were entrepreneurs and captains of industry, including Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, and Ratan Tata, the head of India’s Tata Group. They were brought together to dream up more challenges for the X Prize Foundation, a charitable group which rewards innovation with cash. On July 29th a new challenge was announced: a $1.4m prize for anyone who can come up with a faster way to clean oil spills from the ocean.” Innovation prizes: And the winner is…

In addition to increasing the immediate rescue/medical response, the second wave of relief materiels that quickly clogged the airport because infrastructure damage to roads made it difficult to move goods out of the airport, and the fact that the port was damaged and unreachable, could also have been easily overcome with airships that could land wherever necessary.

Literally, thousands more Haitians were dying everyday (an estimated of 20,000 per day) the longer it took for relief materiels such as food, water and medicine to reach the survivors.

And it was only through luck and God’s will that the one runway was useable, could you imagine how much worse this already horrible tragedy could have been had no runways been available, which is entirely possible in the next disaster of these proportions.

And given the lawlessness which was taking place on the ground after a major breach of the prison and the resulting escape of thousands of violent criminals, who knows what the fate of materiels were that began being airdropped on January 18th.

The UNWFP Air Service have already recognized the need for these airships for many of the above reasons as there are many specific humanitarian logistics needs which just cannot be met throught current modes.

The cornerstone of NASA’s current effort in “Green Aviation” is the Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) Project in the Fundamental Aeronautics Program and the newly initiated (to start in FY10) Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project in the Integrated System Research Program (ISRP). For the SFW project, the focus is on developing concepts and technologies for enabling dramatic improvements in noise, emissions and performance. The goal of the ERA project is to increase the technology readiness level (TRL) of promising concepts identified in the SFW project and conduct system level experiments at sub-component, component, and aircraft level to identify integration challenges and verify various corners of the design trade space. To keep emissions at or below current levels with the projected growth in aviation will require not only the technology enhancements from the SFW and ERA projects, but will also require improvements in air traffic management and the introduction of low-carbon fuels. The workshop was forward looking and focused on the longer-term options that could provide breakthroughs in meeting aggressive noise and emissions reductions. ( Please note reference to Airship Z-Prize Project on page 18) NASA Green Aviation Workshop Report Published

Whether reacting to major disasters or providing links to remote or dangerous/disadvantaged communities airship transport shows great potential as a viable solution. Following major disasters requiring humanitarian relief, oftentimes existing transport infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports are destroyed or damaged rendering them unusable. Airships for Provision of Humanitarian Aid

This project’s already caught the eye of the U.S. military. This prototype was more than a decade in the making. The Dynalifter has the reliability of a plane and the fuel efficiency of an airship, like a blimp. However, unlike a blimp, it taxis and takes off just like a regular plane.

Once in production, it will be made in three different sizes. Robert Rist is co-founder of Ohio Airships. He says, “A five-hundred-foot version will be able to haul 22 tons. A seven-hundred-foot version will be able to haul 100 tons across the ocean and a 1,000-foot airship would be able to haul across the ocean 250 tons.” It will take hundreds of workers to build each aircraft.” Dynalifter Airship Goes Where Trucks Can’t