I get that the airship was already on its way out by the time airliners became viable for transatlantic travel, but considering that airships were more fuel efficient, and airplanes were very fast, was it just a mater of no one thinking of it, or was there a problem with this concept that made such a design inefficient
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Airships are too slow. You can make improvements to speed them up, but even at a blistering 100mph, a flight from NYC to London would take over 34 hours. Planes are easily four or five times faster than that.
You can add wings to increase lift, which lets you get away with a smaller balloon. Bigger engines and bigger wings let you have an even smaller body and then… You’re back to an airplane.
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