It’s hard to convert past amounts to present value (it’s a much more complicated calculation than people often imagine) but the figures you quote are generally in line with first class airfares today.

That means now (from Dan’s comment) that the one way would now be about $8000 one way! Or maybe $15000 round trip, when the aircraft flights to Germany are between $1000-1400 depending one the season. So it’s an order of magnitude more expensive. Would you pay $15000 to fly by airship? If it was $1500 to go from London to Paris, or even from London to Edinburgh, which would again be very expensive, yes, I would, but the total amount of $15000 is more than I would swallow.

Zeppelins were amazingly efficient in terms of fuel use. They could remain aloft for very long periods of time and set records for long distance travel. They could only carry the fuel that they could lift, nothing more. Even with that, the Graf crossed the Pacific ocean non-stop from Tokyo to Los Angeles without refueling, while carrying passengers and crew. The Hindenburg could carry up to about 52 passengers initially (more passenger cabins added in 1937) with about 40-plus crew consisting of officers, engineers, riggers and hotel duty personnel. The weight in tons you refer to is 236 tons to be exact on typical flights. That was the wight of the hull and the passengers, fuel, mail, cargo, and whatnot. The Hindenburg did carry about 60 tons of diesel fuel and burned about 1150 pounds per hour with all four Maybachs turning 1350 revolutions. Compare that to an airliner and how much av-gas it burns making the same trans-Atlantic crossing in far less time and less comfort than the Hindenburg did. The water consumed aboard the Hindenburg was potable use for cooking, washing, drinking and toilets. It accounted for only 1.2 tons while the water ballast carried aboard for keeping the ship statically trim was almost 16 tons! To answer your question, they did travel efficiently and very comfortably. The Hindenburg was the Concorde of her day.

Hi Ray. The reason why the American naval airships were lost had to do with the technology of the day concerning weather. If Adm. Moffett, Capt. Lansdowne and Comdr. Wiley had a modern I-phone on their person with all the information we can access today, they could see wind sheer, the rain bands, the direction the storms were heading, wind speed, barometric pressure, and most importantly, where they were – exactly. All these things weren’t possible in the early days of flight with dead reckoning for navigation and looking visually at clouds to see what they were about. Limited surface weather conditions were telegraphed to the ships but the overall picture wasn’t possible then. That’s why the American Navy airship program didn’t do well then and why today’s airships have a stellar safety record.

thank you dan for pointing out wagners horrific errors; like his whole statement!

Sadly you ARE horribly mistaken; almost everything in your comment is inaccurate.

Gene; The dream of large passenger airships carrying revenue-producing patrons to destinations near and far is quite possible. The challenges are reinstating existing aged hangers to build the first prototype and operate it from while it made it’s debut to the world. Once the prototype has proven her capabilities, the orders will start coming in and eventually a newer facility can be erected to make and store large airships efficiently.
Today’s air traveler is desperate for an alternative to cramming into pressure bottles made of aluminum with hundreds of others for long hours hurtling through the thin air at 35,000 feet altitude. Today’s air traveler is perfectly willing to shell out twice or even more for their ticket if that ticket means they can have room to walk around, choose a lounge seat or a table to sit at, stroll to their private cabin to freshen up or take a nap in private. The weary air traveler is desperate for a meal in flight that isn’t tossed at them in a little plastic bag, but served on fine china over a linen tablecloth with a large window with one hell of a view. If it’s built, they will come.