Other than the fact the word itself reminds you of a famous rock band, what purpose could a zeppelin possibly serve you ask? Well it turns out that this old-school form of transportation may just be the answer to solving Canada’s biggest infrastructure problems.

Sure, nobody living in suburbia or the downtown core of any of this country’s most populated areas sees any need for a blimp besides the ones Goodyear uses to provide spectacular visuals of sports stadiums. Fortunately, professors, engineers and scientists have come together and realized that zeppelins can play a key role in supply chain management and help to build and maintain infrastructure in remote areas like Churchill, Manitoba, which is just outside of Nunavut.

The technology itself was born in the early 1900s. Believe it or not, back then there was a hotly contested debate about whether or not zeppelins rather than airplanes would be the best and most efficient way to travel through the sky.

While airplanes are still winning the battle when it comes to transporting people, it appears there’s a newfound market for zeppelins when it comes to the materials that build roads and provide supplies to the less populated areas of our nation. Not only do these extra light airships make these areas more accessible, they are also capable of delivering a heavy payload while using hydrogen or helium as fuel.

This means airships can help keep the air clean while providing a new and more efficient way of connecting Canada’s northern communities with much-needed resources in ways nobody would have ever imagined back when the technology was first invented.

Rest assured, this new use for zeppelins isn’t just hearsay. Big private technology companies are heavily invested in finding the best ways to use these airships to make some of the most underserved and harshest regions of the world better places to live.

So the next time you see a big blimp in the sky broadcasting shots of the big game live, don’t underestimate what that thing can do in areas of our arctic land that are in desperate need of a tune up. Areas that Goodyear tires weren’t exactly meant to roll through.