Click on the image for a closer look.
I can’t help but adore the fact that both visions of the future involve blimps rather than flying cars. [Reddit]
Click on the image for a closer look.
I can’t help but adore the fact that both visions of the future involve blimps rather than flying cars. [Reddit]
Kevin Russell
Friday, July 16, 2010 at 3:37 PMWell the 1925 vision wasn’t all that far off was it? Sky scrapers reach up to about half a mile, we have subways and tunnels, maybe no blimps but we do have halipads on some buildings. The main thing about the picture that we’re missing is the all-in-one live, eat, work buildings which are still on the drawing boards.
As for Ecotopia, I don’t know what those flying things are but the rest could be a modern city today.
Simon Reidy
Friday, July 16, 2010 at 3:51 PMI love how the 1925 vision of the future is “how you may live in 1950″. They were certainly optimistic! Little did they know that 1950 would be a world recovering from war..
Flux
Friday, July 16, 2010 at 5:37 PMScientists, engineers and futurists love blimps because they actually do make a lot of sense – they’re much more energy efficient than aeroplanes. Unfortunately, the widespread adoption of zeppelins was killed by the Hindenberg, which most people erroneously blame on the hydrogen envelope, which could not have gone up so quickly due to the lack of oxygen availability. (Many/most experts on the topic think the problem was actually a flammable chemical coating the inside of the liner, which was able to burn because it provided its own oxidant.)
But watch this space, they could be back in force as society attempts to move away from fossil fuels like aviation gas…
Capacitor
Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 7:08 AMThe Empire State Building was originally designed to accept dirigibles (but it was poorly designed, it didn’t work as planned).
As the Flux said above, the Hindenburg killed all aspirations for blimps due to bad science in the media.
John Kirkham
Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 7:12 AMI remember seeing this mag in school libraries years ago, thinking what a great mag, too bad we can’t get it over here in Oz. Now we have it; can’t see what’s so good about so much sci-fi crap. More like a kids mag than for adults.