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So, there has been a lot of excitement in the past few years about certain companies working on new, modern, ultra-large cargo airships- most notably the Aeroscroft designs, the largest of which may be able to lift 450-500 tons! http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/03/hybrid-airships-nearing-significant.html?m=1 I thought this was awesome, and very Kerbal somehow- especially because with Airships the "Build It Bigger!" principle really does apply- particularly thanks to the Square-Cube Law (which in this case means that for an airship with a given envelope thickness the total mass of the envelope only increases with the square of the dimensions, whereas the enclosed volume increases with the cube of the dimensions)- meaning that larger airships have relatively higher lifting-capacities thanks to needing to devote relatively less mass to the envelope material compared to their size... Awesomely, Wikipedia even specifically mentions aerostats (balloons, blimps, etc.) as beneficiaries of the Square-Cube Law in its page on the subject. Also, check out this Popular Mechanics article on the subject: http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a9787/airship-of-dreams-lighter-than-air-travel-is-back-16292687/ Note that the Square-Cube-Law also helps airships resist being pushed around by wind a bit- as larger airships present relatively less Surface Area for wind to act on. The problem still grows in absolute, though not relative, terms however- so an awareness of which way the wind is facing, large rudders and other control-surfaces, and taking off with the airship pointed parallel to the wind is still extremely important in most situations... Finally, see this Telegraph UK article on the return of airships. It's somewhat outdated, but provides a bit more historical context... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/8252162/The-return-of-the-Zeppelin-not-just-a-flight-of-fancy.html Regards, Northstar
