Airships -- Known for Navy Blimp and Hindenburg History -- Find Some New Lift in Congress

Airships, which are best known today for their use as advertising blimps, have long been recognized for their potential as large, low-emissions transportation vessels that can haul huge amounts of cargo into areas without the need for runways or other infrastructure.

For a number of reasons -- mainly funding -- the technology has never taken off.

Two congressmen, Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), are trying to change that.  Last week, they announced the creation of the Cargo Airship Caucus in the House to try to boost financial support for the use of lighter-than-air vehicles for carrying military cargo and humanitarian aid.
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The total emissions of an airship is 80 to 90 percent less than that of ordinary aircraft, according to researchers at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

"You can go places without roads or railroads," Sherman said.  "Airships offer a means of transport that produces less in carbon emissions than other means of moving cargo on a per-ton-carried basis, and could make it much easier to develop green energy projects."

For example, airships could be used to transport wind turbines and massive pieces of technology to remote places, such as the top of ridges or away from roads and railways.

At the same time, airship technology could give companies access to resource-rich areas that were once unreachable.

The fire risk also is not what it once was.  Today's airships operate on helium, an inert gas, not hydrogen, which was once used and is what most people associate with airships because of the fiery crash of the German passenger airship the Hindenburg in May 1937 at the end of its 37th trans-Atlantic flight.

Currently, there are no airships being flown in a cargo-carrying capacity, said Nigel Hills, a council member of the Airship Association, a nonprofit trade group formed in 1971 to promote the use of lighter-than-air vehicles.
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"The concept has been proven, 70-80 years ago," he said.  "But the materials have changed quite significantly, and the technology has not been proven using modern materials and modern techniques."

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