I have written in the past about airships as a green option to today’s dirty aviation. Since the disaster with Hindenburg in May 1937 we haven’t heard much from them. But now, when the fuel prices are rising, more and more people are looking towards their direction again.

This week the US navy announced that they were going to acquire a Skyship 600 (see picture above), which is almost as large as a Boeing 747. The manned airship will help the US coast guard chase smugglers between Florida’s southern coast and Cuba.

George Spyrou, president of Airship Management Services Inc, said that the airship is “considered a very green machine,” and added that a “regular jet uses more fuel to travel from the gate to the taxiway than we would to fly for a whole week.”

Remember my old post about airships – the rebirth of aviation? Maybe you thought I was a complete tree-hugger lunatic that proposed airships as a greener and better option besides today’s polluting planes?

Well, here is further evidence that Airships is to play a big part in the future of aviation. EcoGeek lists three different airships that, as it seems, have a very bright future ahead of them.

The EcoGeek talks about the Aeroscraft - a commercial transport for tourists, the SkyCat – made for shipping and finally the SkyFreighter – who is (just like its name) focused on shipping large cargo.

Aviation is the fastest growing cause of climate change, it destroys ancient forests and woodland, wiping established communities off the map and airport expansions destroys important heritage sites and causes illegal levels of nitrous oxide pollution. Today’s aviation industry is unquestionably an awful way of transporting people and goods.

With a well funded public transportation system nationally and globally most flights can stay on the ground, especially the domestic flights. In a global perspective high-speed railways can easily connect and transport people between different countries fast, easy and cheap.

(more…)