Airships vanished, airplanes thrived

The death of a technology can be as beguiling as it can be sad. Since their invention, accidents/disasters involving automobiles, trains and planes have kept on piling, so many proving to be fatal. And, yet, none of these mobility-enhancers were pulled off the roads/rails/air. One Challenger disaster in January 1986, and the plug was pulled on the radical, space shuttles that made spacecraft partially reusable, arguably slowing down manned space exploration for decades on end. The same fate befell the majestic airships, once a far more luxurious alternative to the steel-tube hurtling in the sky called the aeroplane that has thrived quite well.

Economic viability is one reason why technology goes to the Big Tech Graveyard in the Sky. That is where many once- feted inventions - from the supersonic Concorde to the super-high-def Blu-ray Disc - lie. Overtaken by cheaper and, in most cases, better options, they dodo-ed out. But the passenger airship vanished because of one high-visibility, shock- and awe-inducing disaster - when the German airship Hindenburg crashed into its mooring mast in New Jersey and burst into helium-fuelled flames 86 years 8 months 19 days ago on May 6, 1937. And, with that, we, cramped flyers, said goodbye to a luxury ocean liner-class flying experience.