Ok, we're not talking hot air balloons for the day, drifting aimlessly around - I'm talking airships (a la Hindenburg - helium filled, obviously) for week long pleasure tours around places too hard to get to by land. Think of the golden age of airship travel, luxury cabins, viewing platforms, stopovers in remote spots for dinner, etc.

The BBC has done a new nature series in the UK and ventured over such remote places as African marshland, Arctic and Antarctic regions. You’d need a hovercraft to get around marshland and they’re so damn noisy you’d scare everything away. Think how cool it would be to waft over the landscape at treetop height watching the world go by. There’s no damage caused to the environment by heavy machines chewing up the land and a solar powered airship would be quiet and not need much fuel. You wouldn’t want them Hindenburg size for a nature cruise though, something smaller would be more intimate.

This could provide all sorts of holiday for the comfort-addicted. Travel over the Sahara and the Nile in one go; see the pyramids from the air. Fly around Everest and stop at the top for tea (OK, maybe not possible yet). Travel through the artic ice without worrying about icebergs or running over seals. See the Amazon rainforest without getting sweating and stung by insects. The more adventurous passenger could be lowered into the canopy to see wildlife close up. Basically, you can go anywhere that’s a hassle to see by land or sea, and is too far away to view by helicopter.

I realise the idea of short tours has been suggested by airship manufacturers to get more sales, but not for multi-day safaris (to my knowledge).
-- Texbinder, Mar 06 2006

(?) Airship Safaris http://www.iht.com/.../02/04/frequent.php
"...sky cruises over parts of the world that are best seen from a ship - rain forests in Brazil and Peru, Hawaii, châteaux of the Loire, flights along the Nile to see the pyramids, air safaris in Kenya..." Funny how many speculative pieces about airships involve safaris... [DrCurry, Mar 06 2006]

http://www.modernam...es/contributors.htm [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 10 2006]

Sounds good to me. Is there enough helium to go around?
-- DrCurry, Mar 06 2006


What he said.

As long as we can cruise over Isla Nublar please.
-- skinflaps, Mar 06 2006


This gets my vote, however, I will probably spend most of my time using the helium to make my voice go up a couple of octaves.
-- Jscotty, Mar 06 2006


I remember seeing a documentary about a group of biologists studying the Amazon rainforest at the canopy layer by airship - they could cruise up and park at treetop level anywhere they wanted to study, without disturbing the critters.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Mar 07 2006


BrauBeaton: "already baked" - not exactly - this looks like another of those vaporware things. They were supposed to start service in 2004, but there is precious little to suggest they're actually operational, just the same few photoshopped images over and over.
-- DrCurry, Mar 07 2006


[BrauBeaton] Yes, the site is up, but doesn't seem to actually offer any cruises yet. They seem to imply they'd cruise from the US to the holiday destination, but I'm sure I'd have noticed one by now. Besides, it would take ages to get to the Amazon for your cruise, then get back.

I would envisage the airship would remain in the vicinity of the cruise area, and people would just travel to the departure point by normal means. Similar to cruise ship departures, although with an airship it could be made more dramatic; cruise now departing from in front of the Great Pyramid!

The Amazon documentary was one of the ideas that inspired this [BunsenHoneydew].

[skinflaps], tours of Isla Nublar will be held in armoured airships with mini-guns mounted on the outside to protect against Pterodactyl strikes. And Very Large Guns for land-based attacks - just what caliber would you need to stop a T-Rex? I'm thinking a .50 cal wouldn't be enough to stop one in it's tracks...
-- Texbinder, Mar 08 2006


Don't need guns, just side mounted catapults that fire urns of T-Rex pee-pee.
-- skinflaps, Mar 08 2006


And watch the natives shoot you down and rob you
-- Slaith, Mar 08 2006


Speaking of Amazon women, did you know that legend says that the women would cut off one breast in order to use their bows more skillfully, and that this is where the word mastectomy comes from.

<crawls back under rock>
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 08 2006


Speaking of Amazon women, they really existed, and the National Geographic found their (blue-eyed) descendents. They weren't able to confirm the cutting off the breast thing, as I remember it.

(That does sound like a post hoc rationalization by male story tellers: quite a few flappers had full sized chests, but you couldn't tell it from the photos.)
-- DrCurry, Mar 08 2006


I dunno. I would think the Hurricane Specials would be the most fun. (You could keep in the eye of the storm.)
-- DrCurry, Mar 09 2006


2fries: it may be because it's nearly home time at work on a friday, but what relation does the word 'mastectomy' have, linguistically speaking, to archery? or am I missing soemthing obvious??
-- rubyminky, Mar 10 2006


link [rubyminky]
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 10 2006


Ah! 'maz'. Thanks.
-- rubyminky, Mar 13 2006


//Ah! 'maz'.// Randy Crawford?
-- coprocephalous, Mar 13 2006


Jurassic Park was on TV again yesterday - any ideas on what you'd need to stop a T-Rex? Perhaps this could be a new idea for stopping revived extinct species that turn out to be rather dangerous after all...

Thanks [2 fries], you learn something every day (particularly in the bakery!)

//Randy Crawford?// Eh, what song is maz?
-- Texbinder, Mar 13 2006



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