Airships could offer a much cleaner and quieter alternative for some aspects of the aviation market. In a former airship factory, a new generation are taking shape.
There are some engineers that say the problem was not the hydrogen itself, but rather a combination of the leaky and electro-statically charged hull material and the hydrogen.
If modern hull materials would allow using hydrogen that would have many advantages. Not only has hydrogen about 20% more lift AFAIK, but it is also globally available through electrolysis of water and can be used for light-weight fuel cells to run the electric motors.
I suspect that only hydrogen filled and run airships will be economically viable.
The coverage has only made it worse. To ignite hydrogen, it is certainly only missing a hole and a spark, that is, with an antistatic cover it would have burned just the same, although perhaps somewhat less catastrophic. Hydrogen is highly flammable, even explosive in combination with air, which is precisely why it is used as fuel, Helium is not at all, it is much safer, although it is somewhat more expensive. It weighs somewhat more than hydrogen, but it provides sufficient buoyancy and is therefore also used in balloons, both weather and sports.
Would you mess around with a hydrogen-filled balloon in a lightning storm?
There are some engineers that say the problem was not the hydrogen itself, but rather a combination of the leaky and electro-statically charged hull material and the hydrogen.
If modern hull materials would allow using hydrogen that would have many advantages. Not only has hydrogen about 20% more lift AFAIK, but it is also globally available through electrolysis of water and can be used for light-weight fuel cells to run the electric motors.
I suspect that only hydrogen filled and run airships will be economically viable.
The coverage has only made it worse. To ignite hydrogen, it is certainly only missing a hole and a spark, that is, with an antistatic cover it would have burned just the same, although perhaps somewhat less catastrophic. Hydrogen is highly flammable, even explosive in combination with air, which is precisely why it is used as fuel, Helium is not at all, it is much safer, although it is somewhat more expensive. It weighs somewhat more than hydrogen, but it provides sufficient buoyancy and is therefore also used in balloons, both weather and sports. Would you mess around with a hydrogen-filled balloon in a lightning storm?