Scene at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

Teller: Next?

Inventor: Hi. I'd like one patent, please.

Teller: Whaddya got?

Inventor: It's an airship thingie. Only mine's different.

Teller: Step over there, please. (Points to long line of bespectacled inventor types, each toting a model of a blimp/zeppelin/balloon/etc.)

Inventor (to other inventor): Whatcha got there?

Other inventor: Airship thingie. But mine's different.

And so on. It's gone this way for decades. Ever since the Hindenburg crashed in 1937, there has been one great plan after another for an airship revival.

Airships for cargo hauling. Airships for military surveillance. Airships for luxury travel. If you've looked up in the sky lately (or even not so lately), you probably haven't noticed any of this actually happening. But people keep trying.

The latest entrant emerged this week in Akron, amid our hosting of an international lighter-than-air conference that winds up today. At Akron's Fulton Airport, a Mantua company called Ohio Airships unveiled plans for a new kind of flying machine, an airship with wings, a hybrid capable of carrying huge cargo loads across the world. It's called the Dynalifter.

It's a great idea. The lifting power of helium combines with the stability of an airplane to achieve the best of both worlds. And Ohio Airships believes it is entering the overseas delivery marketplace at just the right time, as e-commerce is creating a greater demand for relatively inexpensive, but relatively fast delivery.

Currently, if you want to send an Indians T-shirt to your aunt in London, you have two choices: ship (cheap but slow) or plane (expensive but fast). The Dynalifter, its handlers say, will offer an option in the middle. Faster than a ship; cheaper than a jet plane. (More powerful than a locomotive. The whole bit.)

And it really does sound like a great idea. And part of the reason is because that's all it is right now: An idea. The first Dynalifter is still being designed. There are no prototypes. The company's Web site sports fantastical artist's renderings that seem straight out of Buck Rogers.

There's no messy red tape with the Federal Aviation Administration, no design bugs to work out in the manufacturing plant, no need to discuss, concretely, the vagaries of competing with established business routines.

There's just an idea.

Meanwhile, in Germany, a company called Cargo-Lifter is developing its own super airship, to be used as a new kind of crane for moving huge loads over relatively short distances. And the old Zeppelin company is tinkering with a new luxury passenger airship, picking up where the Hindenburg so inauspiciously left off.

Both of these endeavors are still looking for a foothold, but they're years ahead of the Dynalifter.

So I'm skeptical. But I also hope Ohio Airships can do what it intends to do. Historically, Germany and Akron have been the two main centers for airships. And if the German companies finally break the Hindenburg's curse, I'd love to see Northeast Ohio in the mix.

Ohio Airships says the first of its Dynalifters will be built in Alliance. It was no accident that it chose to launch its idea publicly in the shadow of the old Airdock, where the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. built the Akron and Macon, two giant ships that rose on the last great wave of airship enthusiasm. (And crashed shortly thereafter.)

``We're the one company that's going to put Ohio first in the country for a change,'' proclaimed Robert Rist, the company's president and co-founder.

He says that there has been little trouble attracting investors, and that the Pentagon has shown an interest.

So I'll be watching the skies. I just hope my neck doesn't get tired.

David Giffels' column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. He can be reached at 330-996-3572 or at dgiffels@thebeaconjournal.com.