The Union Pacific Railroad recently placed an order for 58 new steam locomotives to meet the growing demand for freight shipments across the American continent. Western Union is opening scores of new telegraph offices; it seems that people drowning in cheap e-mail and faxes long for the drama and succinctness of the telegram. And even dirigibles are making a comeback: They may soon see service as airborne tour buses, flying cranes, and stratospheric cell phone antennas.
All those statements are surprising, but unlike the first two, the last one is actually true. Dirigibles, also known as airships, never deserved to go the way of the telegram or the steam locomotive; never deserved to be reduced to flying billboards like the Goodyear blimp. Public relations, ironically, had been part of their downfall: After 36 people died when the Hindenburg burned at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937, it became hard to convince ...
