Airships Again!

[ThomasP]

Good point, but on the other hand:

"List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft - Wikipedia"

 

[GrauGeist]

With modern technology, airships should be much safer than in the early days - no volatile skin dope, no hydrogen, detailed weather awareness, modern engines and most importantly, no Allied biplanes shooting then up with incendiary rounds...

 

[MIflyer]

I used to own a house that was adjacent to the regular Goodyear blimp sightseeing route from their Carson airfield to the Pacific Ocean and back.

One sunny day I was on a lounge chair in the backyard, reading. My shorts were binding on me a bit, so I unzipped them, figuring no one could see me. There was a wall all around the yard.

Then the blimp came over.

 

[cammerjeff]

While I enjoy watching the fly around when they are in my area a couple of times a summer. I did have 1 accidental interaction with a Goodyear Blimp crew in the mid to late 1990's

Wile working for Northwest Airlines, I was assigned to repair an A320 at the Rochester NY Airport. It needed a new Hydro-mechanical unit (Fuel Control) on its #1 engine. 3 of us where flown from Detroit to Rochester to do the job, we arrived around 11:00pm, and finished the job around 3:00am. We then had to leak and ops check the work. We taxied out to the run up pad and pointed the nose of the Airbus into the wind as per the Ground Controllers instructions. Proceeded to do the leak check, and confirm the repair by taking the engine to part power (Aprox climb power) per the manual. This is when we were surrounded by angry Goodyear employees frantically waving at us to cut power.
This is when we found out that in the darkness behind us was a Goodyear blimp tied down for the night, they were there to cover a Golf torment! They explained that they were a bit concerned when we pointed the engine exhaust at the blimp at idle power, as the blimp "weathervaned" in our exhaust, but when we took both engines to part power (you can't just take one engine up to that setting as the aircraft will tend to turn even with the parking brakes set) the blimp started to come loose from its moorings!
Fortunately for everyone involved no damage was done to the blimp, it did not escape due to our actions, and no injuries were sustained to the mooring crew. They were nice enough to give us a tour of the Blimp later that Morning. It made for some good stories for a few weeks back on the Detroit Metro Flight line!

 

[MIflyer]

Here are some interesting WWII USN Blimp shots. I wonder what the typical mission length was.

 

[SaparotRob]

Great shots!

 

[manta22]

Good point, but on the other hand:

"List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft - Wikipedia"

Compare the % of those flying which subsequently crashed- no comparison.

 

[MIflyer]

I the third photo from the top in post #45, the radio equipment si shown. The square box on the top is an LM frequency meter, used for calibration, and was a feature of Many USN larger aircraft that flew long missions. To the Left of it is a small box with a dial; that is the ARR-1 frequency converter that enabled a UHF homing signal to be used to find home base. To the Right of the LM Frequency Meter is an HF transmitter. The next shelf down has two RU series TRF receivers. The equipment on those top two shelves is the type of radios that would have been use in the USN at the time of the Battle of Midway.

The third shelf down probably has an HF radio transmitter with more power, for longer range than the smaller transmitter on the top shelf. The crewman on the Left side of the photo probably is operating a radar set.

The 9th picture from the top, second from the bottom shows later and more advanced radio gear, probably from the 1944 time frame. The top shelf and the one below it each have an ARB multiband HF radio receiver and the LM frequency meter is still on the top shelf..

 

[Dimlee]

Aeroscraft is not dead.

View: https://youtu.be/_yoqyD9bT7Q?si=8UwgiBo3WZLyfvOa