Can Ratan Tata save Air India? The common man may not thinks so, but pause for a second. Today Air India does not have money to pay its pilots, they say. So tell me something new. The airlines of the world are running into debt and the future looks bleak, but what is needed today is a change in technology to make things more fuel-efficient and less expensive. Does such a technology exist?

To save the aviation industry, the time has come to bring back the zeppelin. A zeppelin, unlike an aeroplane, is lighter, more-effective when it comes to cargo and less dependent on passenger traffic. Unlike a cargo aircraft, the zeppelin can carry huge amounts, use less energy and transport more at desirable speeds, while it may not attain supersonic speeds, passenger aircraft does not require such lightening speed either. Slower passenger transport with luxury liners in the form of skyliners rather than ocean liners could be the future of aviation.

The most expensive thing the industry faces today is the tremendous cost of fuel as huge amounts of fuel are used to create the brute force needed to hurl heavy metal planes into the air at breakneck speed. The zeppelin, which was used by the Germans in World War I, never really took off. Since it was filled with helium gas and the world was obsessed with war it was highly inflammable and an easy target. Today there are several super light and super strong metals, which could be used to create vacuum-based zeppelins, which could be given the benefit of modern aerodynamic shapes and modern engines.

These ocean liners of the sky could be like the gentle whales floating from one country to another ferrying passengers and cargo, so that the aviation industry does not collapse under the burden of its own weight.

The zeppelin holds tremendous potential for the aviation industry and India could become a world leader in producing such aircraft. They could solve the world's aviation problem and could affect the shipping industry. For industrial houses like the Tatas, where there is no dearth of Research and Development infrastructure, the zeppelin is one line they could investigate thoroughly.