Today, I read news that two politicians in the Swedish Left Party want to ban domestic flights and replace these with airships. Spontaneous thought: FINALLY! The dream of helium giants silently cruising above sleeping cities needs to be revived.
Few things have such close ties to Nazi esthetics as the airships. It’s there on the list of evil things next to polished boots, black uniforms and boxcars, but unlike those, the zeppelin’s guilt is only by association.
I do understand why it is like that. During World War 1, the Kaiser used his airships to bomb England. The sight of the majestic zeppelin became one of fear and terror. Following World War 2, it was no surprise that a vessel named after German military Ferdinand von Zeppelin was a hard sell.
The airship never survived the PR disaster that came along with the Hindenburg disaster in May 1937. Not only died 36 passengers on that fateful morning but also the dream of gasgiants in the sky.
That its sister ship Graf Zeppelin during a period of nine years had crossed the Atlantic no less than 144 times – and also flown non-stop between Los Angeles and Tokyo – without incident was easily forgotten as the Hindenburg craft became a burning inferno.
Anyway.
Where are we today?
When it comes to airplanes, we never got any further than the Concorde. The curtain came down and we forgot about it. The fantastic planes that would take us to the edge of weightlessness and then back again for super-fast transports between continents never happened. We never got any hovercars.
So, once again: FINALLY!
Airships deserve a renaissance. Their reputation deserves to be re-instated and not only be present as supporting roles in “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”, or as commercial blimps or police surveillance.
I can’t see why we should only ban domestic flights. Ban all airplanes! Visions, ladies and gentlemen. We need visions!
