It’s a good time to bring back blimps

I love blimps. Blimps just make sense to me. They’re elegant, classy, efficient, and it many ways, quite practical. Just by chance I happened to come across an article in the NYT Europe section about Zeppelin blimps. I didn’t read the entire article but just the first few paragraphs were enough to have me thinking happy blimp thoughts.

Blimps are just like airplanes or trains but are far more efficient. All three follow more direct routes than car or truck, but blimps don’t use regular jet fuel. They use reusable gas to fill the blimp, so right there they are better off than the rest of us. Blimps may be a bit slower than jets or trains, but I say that blimps are not for trans-atlantic or even cross-country shipments. I see blimps as tri-state, regional solution to delivering goods.

Not only do blimps make fuel sense, they make delivery sense. Blimps don’t need acres and miles of runway, they just need a small field or even a tall building with which to dock and unload. Blimps can go vertical, making them more flexible than planes and have more reach than a train.

Blimps just…blimps just make sense. As the article points out, in a time when fuel prices are sky high (ha ha), blimps provide an alternative that could help cut costs at a critical time. I doubt it will catch on, but just imagine how beautiful a sky filled with blimps would be. Imagine traveling from Chicago to New York by blimp…no, wait, luxury blimp. Even if blimps didn’t become a shipping standard, I think blimps would have a cool-factor that would make them work as a novelty travel for a long while.

Bring back blimps!!