Ship Of Fads

Call it the yuppie Hindenburg. Two artist/designers are promoting a "lifestyle zeppelin" named the "Strato Cruiser." Their design calls for a rock climbing wall, a lap pool, a bungee jumping platform, a disco, a day spa. You get the picture. Think of just about any current pop fad and it's in there.

Could this be the future of luxury air-travel?

This new airship concept, being developed by London-based art director Tino Schaedler and designer, Michael J Brown is the equivalent of a flying spa.

The Strato Cruiser, nicknamed the "lifestyle zeppelin", is a space-age style helium filled airship where guests can eat gourmet food, enjoy all the benefits of a spa and request tunes from a resident dj.

Passengers will also be able to take advantage of regular yoga classes and personal trainers.

Composed of a carbon fibre skin, the ship is intended to bring new levels of speed and safety to travel in a way that's eco-friendly. Private suites will be in the belly of the ship it cruises at double the speed of a convention blimp.

I remember reading about concepts very like this back when I was a kid reading Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. (I suspect the pop fad things on board were a bit different, though.) Magazines publish stories like this fairly routinely always promising great progress soon. Popular Mechanics are still at it, by the way.