05-11-2018, 12:30 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Why Dirigibles?
We all know the most basic form of alternate history is one where dirigibles are a mainstream form of transportation in the modern day. It seems like you can hardly go back in time and flip off a dinosaur without coming back to atomic-powered lighter-than-air ships that explode at the drop of a hat.
In this somewhat tongue-in-cheek thread, what are some possible justifications for worlds that happen to use some form of lighter-than-air mass transportation, both ordinary and extraordinary? Here's one: Eisenhower ends up not participating in the US Army's Transcontinental Motor Convoy; as a result, his later experiences in Germany don't inspire the same interest in a national highway system, and so it is never proposed on a national level. The NHS is largely funded by fuel taxes, so lacking that gasoline prices are somewhat lower. This isn't all that well appreciated by citizens, however, as shipping expenses are substantially higher. Railways handle shipping to major cities, but for minor outposts all the way up to fairly large towns that just happen to be off the railroad network, air freight is the standard. Traveling long distance by car is an adventure! |
05-11-2018, 03:37 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
I think in order to make dirigibles long-term practical, you need to account for a few factors:
First, a reason for the US to not hog all the helium as they did in OTL, thus shifting more foreign dirigibles from flammable hydrogen to non-flammable helium, and hence preventing the Hindenburg Tragedy. Next, a reason to make slower transport preferable than faster airplanes, particularly if you start to consider jet airliners that can cross North America in 4-5 hours as opposed to the several days the dirigibles require. This may simply be a preference for a more sedate pace, one not spurned by a need to rapidly fight wars across an ocean. Which probably means a different outcome of WWI so that the fascists don't have national resentment to turn to in their rises to power. But I think the main reason we see dirigibles is twofold: long times for hovering aloft, and the Rule of Cool.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
05-11-2018, 04:19 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
Avoiding some of the major hydrogen airship disasters might help - if it was the R100 that was everyone's poster child airship and not the R101 and the Hindenburg there might be more of them about.
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05-11-2018, 05:01 AM | #4 | |||
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
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fwiw, a large reserve has recently been discovered in Tanzania (https://www.newscientist.com/article...nners-running/) Quote:
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05-11-2018, 06:08 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
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05-11-2018, 06:51 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
Dirigibles are cool, but they are impractical. The experience of the US with dirigibles showed that they just could not deal effectively with wind sheers. Even so, you seem to get a group trying to resurrect them every decade or so.
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05-11-2018, 08:08 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Sep 2013
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
What about money, esp. by government subsidies?
Airships require a lot of infrastructure - mooring masts, huge hangars, helium or hydrogen refineries and tanks etc -, that also needs a lot of workers. So, when the mooring mast magnates and the gasbag patcher union team up and start whining to the politicians, sweet government money is shoved over to the industry. Add a few spectacular plane crashes - overblown by the mooring mast magnate friendly press - will kill the interest of the public in this dangerous deathtraps. |
05-11-2018, 10:55 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
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For the rest of the peacetime dirigible accidents it was weather breaking the superstructure rather than fire. Fire may have been a bigger thing for wartime Zeppelins but those do not actually seem to be studied much. So what needs to change? I nominate subtle aspects of the laws of physics. Remove clear air turbulence and make weather easier to predict by damping "butterfly's wing"/ chaotic effects. I think Gernsback might actually have those changes in place. Less non-linear dynamics might make economics more predictable as well making their scientifically planned economy work better also.
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Fred Brackin |
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05-11-2018, 06:37 PM | #9 | ||||
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
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Dirigibles need to be better than cruise ships and trains, not airliners. If airships had stayed in fashion they would have developed and improved just like any other transportation method. The airships of 2018 would be as different from the Hindenberg as the A380 is from a Ju-52. Quote:
Airships would be even better for cargo... cheaper than trains overall, and faster than ships. Quote:
Last edited by tanksoldier; 05-11-2018 at 06:48 PM. |
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05-11-2018, 09:07 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: Why Dirigibles?
While extremely unlikely at TL 6 there is the option of having vacuum filled lift bags. At higher tech levels altering the size and shape of the lift bags could add some options.
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Waiting for inspiration to strike...... And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn |
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