3298: Aerospace Flowchart

Aerospace Flowchart

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Title text: Someday, we will find the problem that goes with this solution.

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Explanation

This comic is a section of a flowchart satirically depicting the workflow process for aerospace engineering. The portion displayed implies that the first step for every problem is to consider whether the problem could be solved with "giant airships". It also implies that the answer is always 'no', but that this will, nonetheless, always be considered before moving on to other solutions (which is confirmed in the title text).

Airships are a type of aircraft that operate by buoyancy. The bulk of such aircraft consists of a large envelope filled with a lifting gas which is lighter than air (generally hydrogen or helium). These vessels were the only practical method of directed human flight for over a century, but were largely rendered obsolete by the invention of the airplane and other systems of powered flight. Airships are, by necessity, much larger than airplanes, due to the huge volume of lifting gas required. Consequently, they tend to be far slower and less maneuverable than airplanes, while being more delicate and vulnerable to the weather. Hydrogen, which was once the primary lifting gas, fell out of favor due to its high flammability, while helium is expensive in the kinds of quantities needed. They also require balancing of weight and buoyancy, which complicates ascent and descent, as well as any change in payload. All these factors have relegated airships to rare, niche uses in modern times.

Despite all these disadvantages, the idea of airships continues to catch the imagination of aerospace enthusiasts. The central joke of the strip is that even professionals in the field tend to dream of resurrecting the technology, but can never find a practical justification to do so. There are potential advantages to airships: they can potentially travel with much less power than other aircraft (albeit more slowly). They can stay aloft indefinitely, even hovering in place, with minimal energy use, and produce far less sound and air disturbance than powered aircraft. In theory, they can take off and land vertically with little infrastructure on the ground (in practice, though, ground handling tends to be hugely complicated by the weather). None of these advantages have proven powerful enough to overcome the many deficits of airships, but the concept continues to strike the imagination of some people, who keep looking for an application where they might be practical.

The reasons why people are drawn to this notion are complex. Airships have a retro-futuristic appeal, and were once assumed to be the future of transportation. The idea of these vast vessels floating in the clouds seems almost fantastical, but they existed as a real and practical technology for a significant amount of time. Some like to imagine that, had technology developed differently, they might continue to be an important technology today (which makes them a fixture in sub-genres like steampunk). Randall is likely among the number that would like to see airships return, judging by the frequency with which they appear in his strips.

In real life, airships are used in niche applications, such as for tourism, research, and advertising, but the number of such ships in operation worldwide remains low. There are a number of present and recent endeavors trying to commercialize modern airships, but these have always struggled with broad adoption. Shortly before this strip, there was a flight test by Sceye, Inc. of a helium-filled airship designed to replace cellular communication towers. Commercial airships have also been proposed by CargoLifter (which burned through $300 million before liquidation), and by Flying Whales, which, at the time of this comic, had been in existence for 14 years but has yet to produce a prototype. A more speculative and extreme example of aerospace engineers trying to find applications for airships is the "Airship-To-Orbit" concept proposed by JP Aerospace: building a gigantic airship and a gigantic stationary high-altitude platform in the upper atmosphere as an efficient way of reaching Earth orbit. While some small prototype high-altitude airships (and, for some reason, a submarine) have been produced, the plan has remained in the very early stages of development for many years, and some question if it is possible even in theory. The patterns of such companies forming and then failing to produce viable products supports the central thesis of the strip: that many people really want airships to make sense in modern times, but can never make it happen.

The title text is a variation of the phrase "a solution looking for a problem." This can be used to suggest a backward and wrong-headed approach to design, in which we become excited about an impractical technology, and then try to force it into applications it was never meant for. On the other hand, it can refer to a technology with such interesting and potentially useful capability that we can assume it will have real-world uses, even before those are found. Famously, when the laser was invented, it was referred to as "a solution looking for a problem", and it quickly found a number of very useful applications. Here it suggests that there is no identified problem to which airships are a solution, but, because the properties of airships are so interesting, a lot of people really want there to be a problem for which they're a reasonable solution.

Transcript

[At the top of the panel:]

Aerospace engineer problem-solving flowchart

[Below that, in a flowchart box:]

Start

[Arrow pointing downward to a flowchart diamond:]

Could we solve this problem by building giant airships again?

[The only arrow from the diamond is labeled "No", pointing downward to another flowchart box:]

Try other solutions

[Four arrows pointing out of the box to the bottom of the panel.]

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Discussion

Let's go, f1rst p0st and draft! RadiantRainwing (talk) 23:19, 14 September 2026 (UTC)

Wow. That's great. Do you feel proud of yourself? Congratuations.

(Of course, i'm just joking around. Take whatever i say with a pound of salt (inside of your wound)).

(Yes. This joke is meta.) 108.227.177.69 02:21, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

The joke is always Meta. Doomvox (talk) 18:31, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be a "Yes" arrow out of the decision diamond? Barmar (talk) 23:39, 14 September 2026 (UTC)

No. Try another solution. 78.151.45.228 23:45, 14 September 2026 (UTC)

The point of the comic is it is never true but engineers would like it to be a solution. Somewhere I have stock in the Conrad Airship Company. Conrad Airship CA 80 Lordpishky (talk) 00:14, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

Nope. All roads lead to disappointed engineers. 108.227.177.69 01:30, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

The "Yes" problem is that I've got a pilot license and really, desperately, want one. 134.41.251.236 12:07, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

BTW, the main reason that airships are (almost?) never the solution is that they are too sensitive to atmospheric conditions: for instance, strong headwinds increase travel time by a lot, while jet airliners suffer only a minor decrease in speed. Also, wind limits for taking off and landing are lower, so in rough conditions the trips might have to be cancelled, etc. So the operator can't offer a reliable service with regular schedules. It is the same problem for passenger sailing ships. Rps (talk) 15:01, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

Yes to "Use it to depict fiction". 2001:4C4E:1C17:1000:FD1A:E954:BA4E:A8A1 07:51, 16 September 2026 (UTC)

Things that airships are well suited for: flight profiles that call for exceptionally long loiter time, exploding spectacularly, getting to Paradise Falls. RegularSizedGuy (talk) 15:34, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

I've got the *perfect* scheme for Airships: medium distance public transit in the SF Bay Area, where the weather is extremely mild and hills and bodies of water create barriers to travel. The next big thing (after the AI data center flame-out) is going to be commuting to Silicon Valley from Santa Cruz by airship. But we need to refurbish the old Moffet Field hangers and restore them to their intended purpose. And only the hoi polloi will try to get to Burning Man by *car*. Doomvox (talk) 18:19, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

It's not very long ago that the Goodyear Blimp (retired in 2017) was used to fly over sporting events (usually football games) and flash advertising and provide overhead video of the action on the field for television broadcasts. Of course drones are now used for that purpose. Goodyear has recently partnered with Zeppelin to use their semi-rigid air-ships for the same purpose and Zeppelin itself uses them for sightseeing excursions around European cities. There is something particularly unique to the experience of quietly floating slowly and looking down on terrain and cities that many tourists would find attractive. It doesn't compare to using a drone transmit arial views to someone standing on the ground. Even helicopters or small aircraft cannot duplicate the feeling. So the comic is not completely accurate. There is still some purpose that cannot be provided by other technology. Rtanenbaum (talk) 22:02, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

I'm kind of surprised nobody has done a hybrid between airship and drone technology to lessen the energy needs of a drone. Seebert (talk) 15:41, 16 September 2026 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_1_(airship) regularly flies over the San Francisco Bay. 2601:646:8F00:111B:F91B:AF94:495D:6FA5 15:52, 16 September 2026 (UTC)

It might be attractive to theorize a rigid airship filled not with gas but with nothing i.e. having vacuum inside, which would just float up to the upper atmosphere (i.e. space) with no propulsion. But getting into the problem, it appears there's no known material rigid enough to withstand the pressure difference at sea level while being light enough for the average density of the whole ship to be less than air density. It might be just a naive transposition of the idea of sea vessels made of materials more dense than water (steel, or even concrete), but still floating... -- 195.234.21.247 09:30, 18 September 2026 (UTC)

Well this one seems quite topical for my daily grind. 130.76.25.47 12:55, 18 September 2026 (UTC)

I do not know if this was intentional -- but I find the geometrical form of the flowchart suspicious similar to a schematic diagram of a rocket: Fuel and oxidizer comes in from the top and leaves as spreading exhaust at the bottom. Does anyone else see that? --2003:CF:B748:1A96:218A:6FFD:BFF2:63AC 22:29, 28 September 2026 (UTC)

"These vessels were the only practical method of directed human flight for over a century". Not really. The first fully controlled airship flight was in 1884 (La France), and commercial flight with airplanes started in 1914. That's 30 years. 129.240.26.13 09:34, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
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