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What are you guys talking about airships being redundant?? Goodyear is almost finished building their third Zeppelin NT which will be christened this year. There's an Appliance online blimp flying over Melbourne, 3 Goodyear Zepps in America, 3 Zeppelin NTs flying in Germany, and WDL is operating blimps in Germany. Aeroscraft regularly provides small blimps and aerostats for the US military and private contracters, small unmanned eBlimps are rented more and more on events.The principal current use of a blimp is not transportation but to be a flying advertisement. Ten beautiful Skyship 600s fly all around the world. There are also a few blimps operating in Russia because they have lots of helium. Aside from that, hot-air blimps have become very popular next to hot-air balloons, and gas-ballooning is still done every year, even with hydrogen. There are also some passenger blimps flying in China.
It's true it's quite rare, but it's far from dead. I would say it's hibernated, and it will stay hibernated until we can produce helium 3 from hydrogen into large quantities. Helium 3 provides 4% more lift than Helium 4, which is what we are currently using.
If you are genuinely interested in blimps and airships, you will know where to find and rind them. Other wise they are not made for you.
