Unlike a passenger airplane, a passenger airship - buoyant and slow - doesn’t have to burn much fuel to stay in the air. Aviation is the most energy-intensive form of transport, and in recent years the industry has come under intense scrutiny for its environmental footprint. That idea was scrapped as America de-escalated its operations in Afghanistan, but by then a new application for airships was emerging. Hybrid Air Vehicles calls it the Airlander: a colossal, state-of-the-art dirigible that was originally conceived as a military surveillance platform for the U.S. For now, the airship of my imagination sat disassembled in front of me - an engine, the top section of a tail fin, a salubrious sample cabin. I disembarked from this flight of fancy and came back to reality in an industrial estate on the outskirts of the town of Bedford, a couple hours north of London. Down below, a huge oval shadow glides across the pack ice. Above you is a white canopy, the base of the great bladder of gas keeping you airborne. The ride is as smooth as a cruise liner cutting through a mirror sea. From the vantage of a barstool in the center of a luxurious lounge, you look through panoramic windows to see an Arctic vista scroll past. Picture yourself in an airship pushing into the northern latitudes. Henry Wismayer is a writer based in London.
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