Way back in the day, so far back that Ronald Reagan still had a functioning short-term memory, I worked for a very smart woman who had an odd passion for blimps. Not dirigibles, mind you. Dee was totally not a rigid frame gal. I don’t know why she insisted on the distinction so, you know, rigidly, but she was the one with a Ph.D. from Columbia in French literature, not me.
Anyway, I developed the odd habit of keeping my eye out for odd articles about blimps, since Dee found them so fascinating, and it’s remarkable that, as I’ve discovered, the blimps are coming back! They are! Every ten years! Except this time, they’ll be, you know, advanced!
Last Monday, the New York Times delivered with absolutely the best “blimps are back” story I’ve ever read, including the fabulous “blimp o’ the future” artist’s rendition that I’ve pilfered for this post. According to the report of the suitably breathless Joshua A. Krisch, “engineers are designing sleek new airships that could streak past layers of cloud and chart a course through the thin, icy air of the stratosphere, 65,000 feet above the ground — twice the usual altitude of a jetliner. Steered by scientists below, these aerodynamic balloons might be equipped with onboard telescopes that peer into distant galaxies or gather oceanic data along a coastline.”
There’s also a photo of an actual “new blimp,” circa 2005, that actually got off the ground, but not very far. But this time it’s different! Know hope!
Afterwords
Maybe this blimp will actually fly. I hope so. It would be cool!
