Help!: Zeppelins, Dirigibles, Airships, etc.

[Serial Hero]

Great site, thanks for the link

 

[mikepara]

No link but...

This may be of interest. East Fortune Scotland, now the Museum Of Flight.

 

[CharlieH.]

The original Zeppelin factory at Freiderichshafen on der Bodensee (that's the huge lake visible in many pre-war photos of Zeppelins) is still producing airships. The Zeppelin museum there is well worth a visit and for around 300 Euros you can take a trip in the Graf Zeppelin 2 around the lake with great views of the towns unchanged since the 1930s. There are cheap flights from the UK.

Alan

I just cast an eyeball at the mueum's web-site and while there's no mention of Graf Zeppelin II (you probably meant Zeppelin NT), they do mention a reconstruction of a 33 metre segment of the Hindenburg, which begs the question - Has anyone been there?

 

[Alan Eardley]

Zeppelin museum

Yes, I have been there.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

The really large, and nice plastic model of the old Hawk Graf Zeppelin is coming back.

http://www.lindberg-models.com/zepandstagecoach.pdf

 

[Alan Eardley]

Cardington

Here are a couple of shots of the two airship sheds at the old transatlantic airship base at Cardington in Bedfordshire. The hangar on the right (No1 shed) was built in 1915 by Short Brothers for building the R-31 and R-32 airships.


It became the Royal Airship Works in 1919 and a series of successful airships were built. The No 2 shed was re-erected on the site in 1928 and the R-34 to R-101 series was built there. Each of these sheds would contain a typical contemporary ocean liner - only the bow of the Britannic would protrude!

After the R-101 disaster in 1930, the works was closed and was put to a number of uses, including barrage balloon manufacture in WW2, film making in the 1960s (Chitty-chitty Bang-bang was filmed there), building construction research and the manufacture of a new range of airships by the unsuccessful Airship Industries in the 1980s. Airship manufacture was restarted in 2000 with the Skyship series, which are smaller that the Zeppelin NT but are still impressive.

Alan

 

[MAGNAVERDE]

CharlieH, those are some beautiful photos you posted. Nice job!

Meanwhile, below is a link to my former apartment in a 1949 lakeside highrise, where my inspiration for the decor was the big Chicago sky & that observation lounge on the Hindenburg. Unfortunately, I'm too messy to live like this, so I only stayed 2 years, but it was nice while it lasted.

http://www. groups.msn.com/_Secure/...DY/Airship Apt jpg.JPG?dc=4675429203903396335

(I haven't been posting long enough to incude a picture. Someday...)

MAGNAVERDE.

 

[Brooksie]

Bjonas,

Here is a little something, it is not much but it might be of interest...

I live about 10 miles from the Tillamook Air Museum, it is the worlds largest freestanding wooden structure and it used to be an old blimp base built in 1942. This is the websight: www.tillamookair.com. I thought you might like to read a little more about the history of this place.

Brooksie

 

[Warden]

On a related note, came across this BBC website about the R38 and the plans to sell it to the US Navy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/humber/content/articles/2008/08/18/r38_feature.shtml


Enjoy

Harry

 

[Lone_Ranger]

http://spot.colorado.edu/~dziadeck/airship/models.htm

The Goodyear Blimp model brings back some memories.

 

[Bill Taylor]

The Goodyear Blimp used to fly over Oakland and (I think) San Francisco during a ball game ( or at least an important ball game). That was always nice to see it slowly hovering around. Does it still fly during a game?

Also, there used to be a huge blimp storage hanger at Moffat Field in Mountain View, CA. Is it still there? For years, there was talk about demolishing it, but it seemed to never happen.

Bill Taylor

 

[Sweet Leilani]

The Goodyear Blimp flew over our house here in PA just a few weeks ago. I heard a loud droning, like an airplane engine but not moving (much) and looked up. Here it was only a few hundred feet over our house!

I happen to know a gentleman who was a crewmember on the Navy's last airship, back in the 60s. He's only in his early 60s now, so there are still guys around that have military airship experience.

 

[Warbaby]

A few days ago I got outbid on eBay for this original, unused Hindenburg luggage label. It ultimately went for $55 - a price I would have gladly paid if I weren't so broke at the moment.

 

[Story]

The first time retired computer engineer Jack Clemens tried to build a scale model of the USS Macon, a helium-filled naval airship lost in bad weather in 1935, his cat jumped on the prototype from a high shelf and ruined the hull. Clemens finished a second version in 2008 but totaled it during an unexpectedly windy test flight. Finally, in April, Clemens completed version No. 3, a 20-foot-long radio-controlled replica accurate down to practically every detail, from the airbag to the propellers.

http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2...er-crafts-colossal-gliding-model-1935-airship
http://www.popsci.com/diy/gallery/2011-04/gallery-giant-model-1935-helium-airship

See also
http://www.airships.net/us-navy-rigid-airships/uss-akron-macon
and this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjd5Gg-_rf4

 

[Rathdown]

A few days ago I got outbid on eBay for this original, unused Hindenburg luggage label. It ultimately went for $55 - a price I would have gladly paid if I weren't so broke at the moment.

I wouldn't feel too bad about it; at the last DC FLEA I attended I saw a half dozen of these on various dealer tables... not saying that it isn't real, just sayin'... seems to be a lot of these floating about (pun intended).

 

[DeaconKC]

Interesting story here of a battle between a U boat and US Navy blimp
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-air/9159-airship-ww2.html

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

When I was in grade school, I remember playing on the swings one day and then I nearly fell off because suddenly a strange object appeared in the sky. It was very big and completely circular in shape. I thought I was seeing a UFO!

It was the Goodyear blimp at low altitude and I was looking at it from head on! It freaked me out. lol

One of the Goodyear blimps operated from Carson and you could often see it from the 405 Freeway moored to its mooring mast.

 

[Story]

A life and business spent up in the air and back down to earth
Jorge Loring founded a company that flew Zeppelins from Seville to Argentina
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/08/02/inenglish/1343921785_455265.html

 

[Stanley Doble]

Slide Rule by Neville Shute is a must for any airship and Zeppelin fan. He was one of the engineers involved with building the R100 in the late 20s. The book is his memoirs of the aircraft industry up to 1938. He has the inside story of the successful R100 and the not so successful government built R101 which crashed with considerable loss of life on its maiden voyage. The book also appeared as R100.

I realize this thread is 6 years old but thought I would add this for the new readers.

 

[TM]

In 1957 Nevil Shute also wrote the fabulous book "On the Beach" about the aftermath of a nuclear war, set in Australia. I had no idea he was an aircraft engineer, yet alone worked on airships.

Here is a link to a website about him: http://www.nevilshute.org/index.php

I just finished reading a great zeppelin book: "Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine" which is a fascinating history of Count Zeppelin's airships, from his initial concepts to the Hindenberg and beyond. But the primary focus is on the Graf Zeppelin, the most successful of all the airships.

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Eckeners-Dream-Machine-Zeppelin/dp/B0002D6DB0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358908659&sr=1-1&keywords=dr+eckener%27s+dream+machine

It's a really great read!

And yes, Zeppelins could fly in storms, which was very dangerous. The Graf Zeppelin even flew in a typhoon on its first global voyage. Strangely they didn't seem overly concerned about lightening, odd given the explosive nature of the vast quantity of hydrogen they were carrying.

Very curious about that link to the Spanish airship company with voyages between Spain and South America. That's what Dr. Eckener did too. He was on such a voyage when the Hindenberg disaster struck.

Tony