Ages ago I read a National Geographic article on how airships would actually be a massive boon to improving the fuel efficiency of airborne freight compared to fixed-wing planes. People are a lot more impatient, but part of me wonders whether passenger travel could see a return to the Zeppelin age...

@Thorvald: If technology was able to solve the magnetic polarity push and pull of the earth we could indeed create something that could save on fossil fuels.  For GrandLaner being not only a Saturday morning cartoon come to life, I also want to go all Gene Roddenberry on the project with detailed specs on the ships and technology used in New Avalon as well.  I made mechanical specs and actual blueprint designs on each ship I created for the project along with an introduction to how gravity based Areonautics and a Magnetic Engine would actually function.  This was full inspired by Jules Verne style airship designs and how modern technology or technology mankind could eventually discover in the future would allow giant building sized ships to traverse the skies, no more need for wheeled vehicles when you can fly your very own airship everyday.  I will admit I am a bit of a mad scientist at heart but so far only Side 7 has seen that side of me.  I don't seen Derigible technology as tangible though nor cost effective as simply using my engines to be able to even float something that already exists....like a cruise liner or 1920s based Ghalleon in the sky.....ahhh a man can dream can't he?

Jules Verne style airship designs

AWW YEEE

I'm very much a black-box type when it comes to technical specs, and even then I struggle not to just rip off real-world designs—the LEGO ships are the closest I've come to purposeful schematics, and even then it's largely inferred functionality. Anyone that can channel proper engineering into their worldbuilding is always impressive.