In recent times there's been a resurgence of interest in airships for military and commercial uses as evidenced by Lockheed Martin's High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator (HALE-D) and Hybrid Air Vehicles heavy-lift variant of Northrop Grumman's Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV). Like HAV's design, this concept from Canadian company Solar Ship is a hybrid airship that relies on aerodynamics to help provide lift, and like the HALE-D, it would have its top surface area covered in solar cells to provide energy and minimize its carbon footprint.

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Although the Solar Ship aircraft would be filled with helium, under normal circumstances they would rely on the aerodynamic lift provided by their wing shape to provide more than half the lift required to get them off the ground. Additionally, the aircraft could also fly when filled with plain old air. This means the aircraft will still be able to fly - and, more importantly, land safely - if there is damage that results in helium loss.
Solar Ship says the aircraft's electric motor can either be powered solely by the energy provided by the on board batteries, or by the solar panels covering the wing - a feat already achieved by a conventional airplane design in the form of Solar Impulse.


The company points out that such heavier-than-air airships provide numerous advantages over their lighter-than-air brethren. Firstly, no mooring infrastructure or ballast weight is required to keep the aircraft from floating away during loading or unloading, making them more practical for the remote locations in which they are designed to operate. Additionally, not relying on buoyancy for lift means the aircraft can be smaller than lighter-than-air aircraft carrying the same payload. They are also more structurally robust and more maneuverable and resistant to wind and weather conditions.

http://www.gizmag.com/solar-ship-hybrid-airship/20263/

As a pilot I've researched airships a lot because they're awesome, but IMO they have the same basic flaws as they did in the early 20th century. In clear skies with no or little wind they are very stable and efficient, but even this advanced airship probably would have difficulty maintaining control over its altitude if it were carrying a payload through a storm. There are more physics challenges for freighter or military airships as well. It takes a massive amount of helium and dumping ballast to lift a payload to an altitude that would clear it of major ground obstacles, much less get the ship on top of the weather. The early airship engineers solved both of these problems the best they knew how by making their ships enormous and filled with aluminum bracing so that they would not break apart.

They all broke apart anyway, but I believe it was more because they lacked the technology to control helium distribution throughout the ship causing incidents like this

I'm glad airships are poised to make a comeback (more pilot and crew jobs are always welcome), but I wonder if they can overcome the Hindenburg stigma and if they even have a role to play in the 21st century.

I should hope so, the Hindenburg was 1930's tech, these modern ideas are a huge leap forward. Not so large & cumbersome with many application & green credentials. They look radically different from the airships of yesteryear.