Why Airships could soon be Everywhere

I just ran some tests inside X-plane 10 on the profitability of running a public transit system in my local Bay Area using Hybrid Airships to transport people around. The results are very promising, and show that not only are Hybrid Airships a good idea for areas of the world where no other solution will work, but that Hybrid Airships can very easily compete with our existing transportation system at a profit.

Monterrey Bay Area

The test consisted of a few short stops at local airports in the Monterrey bay area, just south of San Fransisco, before going over the hill to San Jose. In my area, there are a lot of people who live in the Monterrey Bay area, but they work over the hill in San Jose at the high tech jobs of silicon valley.

As a result, the main highway, highway 17, is usually backed up between the hours of 7AM to 8AM and 5PM to 6PM. This is a logistical nightmare that the county has not been able to fix other then by adding more lanes to the highways.

One solution that has been tossed around for years is to fix the railroads going from Santa Cruz to San Jose. But this is another logistical nightmare because the railroad was taken out years ago to make room for more highway.

So with this information in mind I decided to run some feasibility tests to see if a Hybrid Airship would be an ideal solution to solving this problem. As it turns out, this seems to be a very profitable idea.

In total I estimated it would cost $2165.34 to run this trip one way. That includes the diesel fuel, crew costs, and maintenance.  The Airship itself could take up to 274 people and the trip even with stops at every airport along the way, would only take about an hour to complete, which is much faster then taking a car from Monterrey to San Jose, and way faster then taking a bus.

At $40 a ticket from Monterrey to San Jose, and $20 just to go half way, I found that the airship would net $15 million per year, and would still make a profit even if was only 1/4 loaded. If Hybrid Air Vehicles really is able to get their price per airship down to 40 million thanks to the investments by our government, then this venture could pay itself off in 3 to 5 years, and every year after that it would generate 15 million in revenue for investors.

Assuming my calculations are correct, this clearly shows that Hybrid Airships would make a welcome addition to our public transportation system. Sure their would be a mild luxury fee, but I feel that commuters would be willing to pay that fee for the joy of riding in an airship to work everyday, and also for the large reduction in commuting time. Especially if they have a high paying job like those in Silicon Vally generally do.

Places like New York, LA, and other high congested areas would probably benefit from this type of transportation system as well. And if these places started to implament these types of Hybrid Airship "Bus" systems, flying in an airships might become something routine for the average person.