I can get very excited about new ideas, sometimes too excited. Well, be warned, my latest column drifts into this territory.
Not all of the topics I’ve explored over the years panned out the way I hoped. In my early days writing editorials for the Hibbing Daily Tribune I went all in on high-speed rail and wind power for the Iron Range.
While there are Minnesota Power wind turbines on the mine dumps overlooking Virginia today, the rail lines never materialized and likely never will. And, as it turns out, solar proved to be a far more affordable and reliable form of renewable energy than wind. It’s really about energy storage, which is developing rapidly, and the electrical grid, which needs work.
Variables make it difficult to predict the future of technology and society. But general trends can be charted in useful ways. Sometimes, even the wildest ideas can become logical. Instead of making predictions based on what’s happening now, you may anticipate how our future selves will react to change.
Enter blimps or, more accurately, airships, of which blimps are one kind. Saying that airships will be a part of our future transportation network seems outlandish. Just the idea of these huge crafts floating around everywhere seems bizarre. But compared to the energy and cost of other forms of transportation, they hold distinct advantages.
Airships are typically viewed as a bygone form of transportation. These behemoths floated between the World Wars before crashing with the Hindenburg in 1937. But airships never went away. They just retreated into conspicuous anonymity. The Goodyear Blimp is still floating above sporting events. Airships are used to convey telecommunication equipment and as advanced surveillance for militaries and police forces. These are working vehicles.
We see them and think how big they are. But they are historically small, much smaller than the German Zeppelins that provided commercial passenger service in the 1920s and ’30s. Large new ships under development could carry 20 tons of cargo anywhere in the world with relatively high speed and low cost.
Oh, and they can’t explode, because helium is non-flammable. The very same helium may soon spew from a hole right here in northern Minnesota.
Read “Minnesota helium could lift airship reboot” in the Monday, June 16, 2025 edition of the Minnesota Star Tribune. There’s so much more that didn’t fit in the column, so demand materializes, I could write more.
Aaron J. Brown is a columnist and member of the editorial board for the Minnesota Star Tribune. His new book about Hibbing Mayor Victor Power and his momentous fight against the world’s largest corporation will be out soon.
