Business: Riding the Wind

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High fuel costs are also spurring the return of lighter-than-air dirigibles. The British firm Airship Industries is developing a 600-ft. freight-carrying airship. Unlike the ill-fated zeppelin Hindenburg, whose 1937 explosion at Lakehurst, N.J., doomed airship travel, the new dirigibles will be filled with inert, nonflammable helium rather than potentially dangerous hydrogen. Britain's Redcoat Cargo Airlines will take delivery of four of the $9.5 million skyships beginning in 1984. The airline claims that they will cost slightly less to operate than a jumbo jet and have 56% more cargo space. The airships, which will be powered by four 1,150 h.p. turboprop engines, will cruise at about 3,000 ft. They will have a top speed of 86 m.p.h. and be able to cross the Atlantic in 2½ days. As the price of energy keeps soaring, transport ships and dirigibles assisted by free air may be gliding gracefully back into popularity.