After 25 years, airships are once again attracting attention as a potential solution for transporting heavy loads. Several companies are revisiting the concept, supported by advances in materials, propulsion systems, and certification processes.
“Airships are among the very few means of transport across oceans that can be electrified, something that neither airplanes nor ships can realistically achieve in the near future,” explains our Cleantech Analyst, Dr. James Lazenby.
“They are essentially the trucks of the sky,” says Lazenby, capable of moving heavy loads at moderate speeds without the costs and emissions associated with conventional aviation. Additionally, they do not need runways, allowing for take off and landing from fields or temporary structures.
“The technology itself isn’t the bottleneck; we were already building large airships a century ago,” Lazenby notes. The main challenges lie in scaling safely, certification, and proving reliability in real-world operations.
Learn more about the potential and challenges of airships’ comeback in this month’s article from Handelsblatt (in German, paywall).
This article is the latest in the series “Green ideas that might change the world” that Handelsblatt and Future Cleantech Architects co-developed to shed light on some of the most intensively debated cleantech innovations. We are pleased to provide scientific guidance to the series. Stay tuned for new releases!