Can anyone tell me what is happening here?

dirigible porn, it's hot af desu

reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/6ky1j4/airship_passing_through_a_smokescreen_washington/

Just found this

Why aren’t zeppelins a thing anymore?

People pay money to take helicopter rides, why not zeppelin rides?

Something to do with this...

They are ridiculously expensive

secret zeppelin wars of the 1890s

They changed from hydrogen to helium after this and helium is like 3-4X as expensive

But helium is so...finite.

Which is why we don’t use zeppelins anymore

There was no FAA back then so anything fucking goes in the air. That pilot is just showing off.

>Hello? Airplanes? This is Zeppelin, you win

Not him but planes would fly around and drop silver (I think) particles in the air that moisture would cling to. This would create clouds and later rain.

>People pay money to take helicopter rides, why not zeppelin rides?
zeppelin-nt.de/en/Zeppelin-flights/scenic-flights-Friedrichshafen.html
You can, but it's not that exciting, manufacture and maintenance are FAR more expensive than a hot air ballon/helicopter, which gives you pretty much the same experience.
Helicopters are far more versatile and more exciting. Who in their right mind would invest in building zeppelins, when there's practically no money in it? The link I posted only really does it for historical reasons, since it's the place they were first built.

I understood that reference.

Added to bucket list, thanks. I had no idea anybody did this.

Why does the Zeppelin look larger than what the vapor trail would be able to conceal?

He's right though, Zeppelin's as a means of transatlantic travel actually never recovered from the bad PR after the Hindenburg. They kind of occupied this niche between air travel (which at the time was still expensive and not terribly comfortable) and cruise liners (more comfortable but far slower than a zeppelin). The proliferation of airplanes would've killed them anyway, even without the Hindenburg disaster.