Prototype: Luxury Eco-Zeppelins Will Fly Future Passengers Around the World

Are the proportion approx ? I would think the ballons would have to be much bigger to support any kind of weight involving a floating hotel.

Each zeppelin would fly a relatively low number of passengers -- if you dive into the photo gallery, you'll see that there's just a few different luxury apartments aboard.

looks like a place for orgies

@wowlfie yes. ..lets never advance in anyway if the common people cant afford it personally.

the common man is irrelevant when it comes to new technology and the advancement of mankind. even if we could start colonies in space the common man would be left on earth.

Yeah. It's not like we're advancing mankind to make a better, more peaceful and equal world or anything. I understand that world equality is a naive point of view. But from point of view I find here, mankind is not as great as it's whole, but only as great as it's few individuals with a few trillion dollars.

It is 6488 miles from Los Angeles to Shanghai. To travel that distance in 90 hours you would go 72 miles per hour. These blimps dont look like they can do that speed.

If you go to the Seymourpowell web site you'll see that these wonderful vehicals can do ~90 MPH air speed. Of course actual speed would be modified by head or tail winds.

I like it, but what's with putting the 'Eco' prefix?

Going to Mars isn't a waste of resources. It's humanities destiny to explore and colonize the universe. Populating other worlds/living in space will solve population problems, as well as granting us humans a great deal of resources from asteroid/planet mining.

Look at the development of traditional commercial air travel. At first long distance commercial air travel was only for the very wealthy. A trip across the Pacific on a flying boat would cost upwards of $10k in today's money, one-way. As technology progressed tickets became cheaper, but even with the dawn of the Jet Era, to be a "Jet setter" required you to be independently wealthy. It took some time for technology to develop to make air travel really affordable for the common man.

Now the question is, who would really want to spend 90 hours crammed into a cattle-car version of one of these. If they could make one that was like a Amtrak Superliner-sleeper as far as economy and comfort, I could see paying for a flight on one. It would be pretty neat.

I wouldn't mind trying one out, but I thik it's beyond most of us. From the description, they'd be lucky to carry 100 folks. With tech support and crew costs, I'm guessing that a day is 5-10k per person.

I don't think that it would be THAT cool.

"Seems like a waste or resources... A toy for the rich only. Not the common man."
What about the seed money this pays to develop high efficiency flexible thin film solar that is later put on your backpack and charges your laptop. Or the thousands of common men and women working in factory's sewing the solar panels onto the balloon I don't see how something like this is bad at all. Perhaps you would rather see the government confiscate all the rich peoples money to buy votes from prostitutes in the form of welfare checks.

I dont understand, I thought we stopped using hydrogen in airships for a reason....cough, cough Hindenburg?? The smallest spark could set the entire hotel in flames.

This is 50/50 with me.. could be great or completely suck. Who has 80 days to vacation around the world? I think 90 hours is a lot more practical, good time to relax before you meet your family for thanksgiving. Even then, cruises offer a lot of entertainment to counter the long time spent on water, this airship would get boring fast for a lot of people.

To quiet every nonsense about the common man not being to afford a better technology.

First of all, if the common man thinks it's a waste of money, don't 'participate' in it.

Second, how do you think technologies get passed on to the 'common people.'

I've used this example 100s of times:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:NASA_technology_spinoffs

You use a lot of these in everyday life. If it weren't for so much money 'wasted' on NASA's space programs, your thermometers would still run on mercury, you won't have GPS systems, you'd never have a cellphone, you wouldn't get to enjoy Tang.

I bet people who think the space industry is a waste of money also think F1 is. Guess where our automobile improvements come from?

@michael taylor the wrong lesson was learned from Hindenburg the lesson they should have learned was don't paint your zeplin with a monopropellant rocket fuel.

that thing would be really cool, and at the same time scary as shit! if i were on that thing, i would be freaking and screaming,"WE ARE GONNA DIE, GET ME OFF OF THIS THING"

Where are they going to get the capital? You need to build mooring towers and employ people to learn how to fly these things then teach other people to fly these things.

This is one of those things for the rich which im not against because it does employ people to build it, maintain it, fly it, and service workers to tend to their every whim. Unlike other techs like planes which was named up in those comments somewhere, it will never really be for the lesser individual because even after the cost of it is earned back, the maintenance crew to keep it safe for you, and the crew to fly it safely for you, and the workers serving you. its a lot of money for the 14 rooms it had which since it is meant for romantic getaways more than family getaways will probably only carry 28 passengers. You simply can't make it cheap enough for the common man and still make a profit after paying all those people. So start saving now so you can take a trip at least once before you die, and hopefully you don't die because you bought your ticket and it blows up. I'm sure it doesn't have flammable paint on it or nothing and probably better ways of keeping the hydrogen safely stored inside and all. We'll see.

30bcf4e2

Although this may be EXTREMELY impractical as of the costs, it is a lot more eco-friendly than planes or big cargo ships. Making one of these zeppelins would be cool, but I think the idea of the Aeroscraft is a lot better.

This concept is nearly as exciting as the recent article I read on holiday accommodation underwater. The underwater concept is located in the region of Fuji and is absolutely amazing. This would be a toss up for first spot in outstanding holidays.

From the pictures it looks amazing, but the costs are huge. Again these are only for the Bill Gates of the world to enjoy. An Eco-Zeppelin is a great idea, I wish it were more accessible for everyone to take the trip http://www.hotel-bucuresti.com/hoteluri/hotel_moxa-11.html

If this concept truly is conceivable, viable, safe and above all, a reality, it can pave a new way for tourism. Imagine viewing a marine national park in Thailand or the Great Barrier reefs from up above – now that is a sight to behold.

Regards,
Simon
www.saboey.com

Wow! Now we are talking travel! Amazing that just a short time ago this would have be part of a scifi movie, but now it is a reality. Well for some of the lucky few. Though expect in the next 15 years we will traveling more frequently in the air. I read recently on Popsci that the flying car or hover car is just years away. I can only imagine the flurry of purchases by the well healed when this becomes a reality. This is travel of the future on and then there will be housing in the sky and before we know it Jetsons becomes a reality.

Regards,
Simon
www.saboey.com