This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

They are hulking, but graceful, human-made whales that float in the air.

For over 100 years, lighter than air aircraft have fascinated us,

and they have this recurring starring role in our dreams of an alternate reality of a future that might have been

where cargo and passengers traverse the globe in a civilized fashion and dock

elegantly on the moraine towers on top of art deco skyscrapers.

If you've seen one in real life it was likely a blimp emblazoned with the Goodyear logo.

A blimp is a non-rigid airship, meaning that there's no structure inside the balloon.

It's just a balloon. The shape is maintained by the pressure of the lifting gas inside.

Then you add a little cockpit and engines and rudders on the outside of that big balloon

to make it fly. Today's blimps are basically cute PR novelties, but for around 100 years,

lighter than air aircraft were seriously proposed as the perfect design

solution for all kinds of problems, even though none of these proposals actually happened.

People just couldn't give up on the promise of airships.

In the 90s there was a company called Sky Station. They raised some 4.2 billion or at least

solicited it to put 250 antenna equipped airships to deliver internet service.

This is Bill Hammack. He's the engineer guy on YouTube and an airship enthusiast.

In the 80s there was the British Antarctic survey.

They revealed a hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole.

And so, pretty soon a professor suggested sending blimps that dangled electrical wires to zap ozone eating chemicals.

Then in the 70s they were supposed to help developing nations.

Using a hybrid blimp to usher those nations into the 20th century. No need for roads, no need for

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