Owen Massey ([info]addedentry) wrote,
@ 2007-10-12 14:30:00
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Castles in the air
The railway line between Oxford and Cambridge has been dug up. There wasn't enough demand for the Sky Commuter light aircraft. But now World SkyCat is looking for capital to support an airship service.

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[info]j4
2007-10-12 01:52 pm UTC (link)
Oh man. Where do I sign up?

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[info]aardvark179
2007-10-12 01:59 pm UTC (link)
I fear it can't live up to my mental image. I should be able to go to Oxford by airship in style, relaxing in the bar and drinking a dry martini.

If we can't have a sixties future full of flying cars then we should at leas5 have a early twentieth century future dominated by airships and the empire's steady march to utopia.

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[info]gerald_duck
2007-10-12 02:16 pm UTC (link)
(I've just realised I have no flying-duck userpic. I should fix that.)

There's a certain… romance to airships; it sounds like a fine idea, especially if their energy-efficiency objectives can be reached (which would put them on a par with trains and coaches, yes?), especially if going at 100mph doesn't spoil the mood or make them stupidly noisy.

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[info]hatmandu
2007-10-12 04:34 pm UTC (link)
Almost-steampunk heaven! Absolute genius, and hopefully a lot more likely to attract people than the dumbass flight service that petered out in recent times.

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[info]shermarama
2007-10-12 06:55 pm UTC (link)
No chance, mate, and I say this as someone who spent quite a while looking into designing airships. They've been hawking various uses for that design for years and it ain't ever going to happen as a viable business, other than as a novelty airshow thing.

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[info]addedentry
2007-10-12 06:59 pm UTC (link)
Can't say I'm surprised: the failure of the other modes suggests the route just doesn't generate that much demand, despite being an idée fixe of Oxbridge graduates.

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[info]gnimmel
2007-10-12 07:22 pm UTC (link)
I was in a 12-storey tower with many of the world's airship experts recently. It was very odd. They're still bitter about the Hindenburg, and they all seemed to be resigned to the idea that there was very little future in airships.

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[info]jiggery_pokery
2007-10-13 06:16 pm UTC (link)
But, crucially, perhaps not none whatsoever.

The economics don't look great: 12 punters paying €250 each raises €3,000 which covers a 40-minute flight. Perhaps this might price the cost of an Oxford-Cambridge flight at a little higher than that, which is very uncompetitive, but just possible as a luxury leisure pursuit rather than as a commuter one.

I wonder what the economics of the hot air balloon leisure industry are?

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