Thank you for another airship adventure! They are my favorites! I still don’t see why we aren’t flying in Zepplins. We just had to stop coating them with rocket fuel.
It was political, of course. The Germans had a fantastic record for using hydrogen safely over the years, with transAtlantic trips to South America and up the Eastern seaboard, but then, you know, Hindenburg. We had all the helium and it just wasn’t acceptable for us to provide it to Nazi Germany. The Germans convinced themselves that they liked hydrogen better, anyway, because it had a lot more lifting power.
The lighter-than-air airships completely outclassed airplanes while they were still running. If they’d been using helium instead of hydrogen there never would have been a Hindenburg disaster and we might very well be using airships today. So it’s another one we can blame on Hitler.
April 4th, 2013 at 9:53 am
Thank you for another airship adventure! They are my favorites! I still don’t see why we aren’t flying in Zepplins. We just had to stop coating them with rocket fuel.
April 4th, 2013 at 11:32 am
It was political, of course. The Germans had a fantastic record for using hydrogen safely over the years, with transAtlantic trips to South America and up the Eastern seaboard, but then, you know, Hindenburg. We had all the helium and it just wasn’t acceptable for us to provide it to Nazi Germany. The Germans convinced themselves that they liked hydrogen better, anyway, because it had a lot more lifting power.
The lighter-than-air airships completely outclassed airplanes while they were still running. If they’d been using helium instead of hydrogen there never would have been a Hindenburg disaster and we might very well be using airships today. So it’s another one we can blame on Hitler.