![]() The first flight was made on 1 March 1924. Construction was authorized on 13 April 1923, by when the Stabilimento Costruzioni Aeronautiche (Aeronautical Manufacturing Plant, SCA, which Nobile headed since 1919) had already built the gondola and other parts. ![]() Power was provided by three 245 HP Maybach IV-1 engines. ![]() The envelope included 10 gas compartments and there was accommodation for 15 crew, 15 passengers and a cabin attendant. Nobile followed the Italian semi-rigid formula, introducing a new cleaner cruciform empennage. People will always need to travel quickly but I think they will have to pay for the energy they consume and, in my view, energy in the future will be very expensive.The 19,000 cubic meter N-1 was the first airship entirely designed by Umberto Nobile, who initially referred to it as the N 19,000 but soon switched to N-1 (for Nobile 1). I hope one day that people actually choose airships, because it’s a better experience and there’s an extra bonus that it’s energy efficient. “How far is very hard to say but according to our calculations we could probably reach the same price point as airplanes. “The unit cost of airships will come down for sure,” he says. But Lawaczeck envisions a future where airships can compete with planes and trains as a mainstream mode of passenger transportation as priorities shift. Of course, it also takes around five times longer to get from point A to B. And if you don’t like turbulence there’s good news as flying at a lower altitude and a cruising speed of around 20-70 mph means traveling onboard an airship promises a smoother journey. What’s more, he continues, airships land at a “bicycle speed” of around 20 mph which is safer than an airplane (a typical 747, for example, lands at around 160 mph). The first trips from Svalbard to the North Pole are scheduled for 2025 / ©OceanSky Cruises Today, we’re not using hydrogen gas, we’re using helium which is inert so it’s impossible to set on fire – you will never see those accidents again.” “It was something that brought down the whole industry because it was the first filmed catastrophe in the world. “Airships exploding in the 1930s was not something that was common,” he says. The Hindenburg disaster was over 80 years ago, but filmed footage of the ill-fated airship bursting into flames above New Jersey is powerful enough to linger in the public’s memory. However, persuading passengers to step onboard could be tricky. You can go to the bar, lie in bed, visit the restaurant and still watch the beautiful landscape passing by below you.” The CEO believes this level of comfort is a major advantage, likening the experience of traveling onboard an airship to that of a “flying yacht”. “When you fly low and slow, you have an unpressurized cabin, which means you can have very large windows,” says Lawaczeck. “You need a fraction of the energy to fly them compared with an airplane as you don’t have to lift hundreds of tons of metal into the air and move at 500 mph.”Īs you would expect, the interiors are seriously lavish. “Airships are very light which makes them extremely efficient,” he explains. With over a decade’s experience under his belt as a commercial airline pilot, the entrepreneur saw dirigibles as an opportunity to transform the notoriously emission-heavy aviation sector. The company’s CEO, Carl-Oscar Lawaczeck, always had a keen interest in airships. Now, Swedish start-up, OceanSky Cruises, is on a mission to bring back airship travel as a sustainable aviation alternative, starting with an expedition to the North Pole. By the end of the decade, though, this golden age of blimps was brought to an abrupt end with the widely publicized Hindenburg disaster. Cruising at slow speeds and low altitudes of around 1,000 feet, passengers enjoyed stunning views as they floated over the cities and oceans below. Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Managementīack in the 1930s, before the dawn of modern jets, airships were the pinnacle of luxury travel.
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