Over at Popular Science magazine, they did an article about the future luxury hotel and cruise opportunities for the Aeroscraft. A hybrid airship, one that uses both the buoyancy of helium and conventional propulsion to get the best of both worlds, the Aeroscraft sounds like a wonderful idea (as long as the Helium shortage can be gotten around, I’m sure). From the Aeroscraft page -

“…the Aeroscraft cruise liner – an airship like those only imagined more than a century ago by adventure writers like H. G. Wells and Jules Verne but one updated with the safe technologies of today – visiting remote corners of the world in shipboard luxury that are unreachable by roads and feature no airports.”

It sounds marvelous, and they’re hoping to get a prototype flying by 2010 – which unnervingly enough is now just over three years from now. I’m keeping my eyes open for this one, although maybe I should start saving up for my aircruise instead! Thank you Ms Dawn for pointing this out!