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Airships:
A Public Radio Commentary
by Bill Hammack
Listen using RealAudio
"Helium head." You hear me correctly: "helium head." Helium like
in a balloon and head like in your head. I'm sure you don't know
what this means, but its my response to the great French
Philosopher Jacque Ellul - a potent critic of technology, who
wrote "technology is essentially independent of the human being,
who finds himself naked and disarmed before it."
As a lowly engineer I'm hesitate to argue with a philosopher, but
I don't think technology crushes us, instead it often reflects
us. I suppose my response of "helium head" hasn't often been
heard in philosophical circles, but it is very much to the point.
To be a "helium head" means you've fallen in love with
lighter-than-air travel - airships, blimps, dirigibles, or
zeppelins. And in them you see an instant and easy solution to
nearly all the world's transportation problems. The disease of
helium-heady-iness proves that technology reflects us - and not
the other way around, in spite of French philosophers.
Airships reached their greatest popularity in the 1920s and 30s.
In that period airplanes were small, noisy, and slow; unlike
airships that were grand and serene. I quote Britain's Minister
for Air Travel. He said, in 1930, "[t]ravellers will journey
tranquilly in air liners to the earth's remotest parts ... cruise
round the coasts of continents, ... [and] surmount lofty mountain
ranges ...." But with the explosion in 1937 of the Hindenburg,
the airship industry folded. Yet in every decade since their
demise engineers have tried to revive airships. Why, in this age
of jets?
Because airships can lift great weights cheaply; ferrying goods,
for example, from ships at sea, thus getting rid of expensive
harbors. And airships pollute less and are quieter than jets.
Each new airship proposed has reflected these strengths, but also
in each decade the proposals reflect the interests of the time.
In the 1950s and 60s - a time when nuclear bombs preoccupied our
minds - an engineering professor came up with a nuclear powered
airship.
In the 1970s the so-called "Third World" rose in our
consciousness: In that era engineers designed a radial airship
that took off like a jet, yet floated and lifted like an airship.
The minister behind this failed project saw it as a vast
warehouse in the sky from which he could bring all nations into
the 20th century by a single leap: no need for roads, railroads,
airports, warehouses, or harbors.
Airship designs continue to reflect societies interest of the
moment: In the 1980s Engineers proposed using airships and blimps
to halt ozone depletion over the South Pole by hanging live
electrical wires from the ships to zap ozone-eating chemicals.
And a former U.S. Secretary of State heads a company to use
blimps as communications satellites. But the mighty airship may
rise again because there is one airship company left: The
Zeppelin company.
It didn't fold when the Hindenburg failed, instead it became a
multi-billion dollar construction company. They are building the
first new Zeppelin in decades. To quote the chief engineer: "In
the near future, thousands may enjoy the most buoyant tourist
experience of their lives, gliding serenely over scenic vistas in
the cabin of a 21st-century zeppelin." Is this a true revival? Or
is it just an engineer afflicted by the disease of being a helium
head - of seeing in airships, and technology more generally, the
solution to all our society's ills?
We'll see, but I'd bet on helium-heady-ness.
Copyright 2000 William S. Hammack Enterprises
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