They'll be great once those pesky airplanes fall out of the sky, and we build more railroads to tow them around against the wind...oh, wait. We could just build railroads, then.

I like the idea of airships, but I also like the idea of flying cars. They are just ridiculously impractical for most things. Advertising, some remote lifting work (logging, railroad building, etc) in fair weather is a good place for airships. Otherwise (like flying cars), the majority of design and energy is expended to create a Spectacle or to overcome gravity; a job best left to wheels and water; at least until the government lets us have anti-gravity generators (they probably won't for security reasons). wink wink, nudge nudge.

https://patents.google.com/?q=(airship)&inventor=brotz&scholar&oq=(airship)+brotz