I voted this up because I wanted to talk about the idea that this disaster doomed airship travel.

One thing I rarely see pointed out is that on it's final voyage, it had 36 passengers and 61 crew- there were a few different voyages, but they all had similar ratios.

Obviously, this was a super luxury craft- so sure, they're going to have lots of extra crew, and plenty of shit you don't need, like a piano. Even so, they had to have a custom-made aluminum piano made for weight purposes.

The cabins for this ultra-luxury ride looked like this- https://i.pinimg.com/originals/68/d3/50/68d35064d7dfcb4f3aa38b1601 219d5c.jpg

This, mixed with it's top speed of 85 mph, in ideal conditions, really makes for a bad formula. Even with all elements of danger removed, and if you ditched the piano and a few crew members for more people, you're still looking at something that doesn't really compare to a plane.

I love the idea as much as anyone else, but unfortunately some kind of mountaintop chalet is the best compromise, as blimps and zepplins were never really a great way to get from point A to B, and if luxury was your deal, ocean liners were better at that anyway. Oh, and switching from explodey hydrogen to safe helium gives you a pretty massive loss of total lift, too.

Blame the US for hoarding all the helium.

DIE NAZI BALLOON!

50fps

What is this

PRISON?

For the ending