Cargo airships could be big
I'd like to draw your attention to "<i>killing 35 of the 97 people on board in the inferno.</i>"<p>The Hindenburg had 7 million cubic feet of Hydrogen gas. It was the biggest aircraft disaster of its time. It had such rudimentary technology that the cockpit looked more like a sailing ship than an aircraft[1]. Despite that, well over <i>half</i> the passengers jumped out the windows[2], ran away and survived with few or no injuries.<p>When was the last time a jumbo jet crash landed with complete loss of the aircraft and all the combustible stuff burning it into a molten metal heap, and half the passengers simply jumped out and escaped? In terms of risk, fatality, and compared to aircraft of the day, it was surprisingly good. And the huge raging fire and prominent news footage of it being caught on camera did it a bit of a disservice. By comparison, look at Wikipedia's list of worst aircraft crashes[3], and see how many are marked 'no survivors'. What if some of those "flew into a mountain", "engines failed", "mid-air-collision" had been captured on video in the earlier days of aviation, would we still have widespread planes?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/inside-hindenburg-zeppelin-luxury-interior-vintage-photographs-21-5c6ac3a82ebd3__700.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/i...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/inside-hindenburg-zeppelin-luxury-interior-vintage-photographs-14-5c6ac39983ff7__700.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/i...</a><p>[3] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_aircraft_accidents_and_incidents" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_aircraft_acc...</a><p>(NB. people now want aircraft which can legally be pushed horizontally by hydrogen, but cannot legally be pushed upwards by hydrogen.)