As long as hydrogen is (ignorantly) banned, airships will never make a comeback.
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, using hydrogen as lifting gas, flew 1.7 million km safely. [1]. Built in the 20's, without polymers or hydrogen sensors or electronics of any kind.
The real problem, however, is not the lifting gas. It never was. Airships biggest nemesis is the wind. Luckily we have it solved today with radar and satellite imagery.