5 Dramatic Airship Accidents You've Never Heard Of
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2024
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Airships were only relatively briefly considered as a reliable means of transportation in the 1920s and 30s before a series of disasters put the dream to rest. Everybody is familiar with the Hindenburg - but how many of these have you heard of? From the USS Los Angeles, Shenandoah, Akron and C-8 to the LZ-104; here are five dramatic airship accidents from history!
Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest vessels- from Titanic to Queen Mary and from the Empress of Ireland to the Lusitania. Join maritime researcher and illustrator Michael Brady as he tells the stories behind some of history's most famous ocean liners and machines!
Written by: Marcus Irving
Edited by: Andrew Irving and Michael Brady
Archival footage: Getty Imagess
Music: freepd.com
#engineering #disaster #airship #hindenburg #zeppelin #history #documentary
0:00 Introduction
0:35 USS Los Angeles
2:11 USS Shendandoah
6:19 LZ104
8:20 C-8 Blimp
9:51 USS Akron - บันเทิง
A third problem with the Shenandoah was that its design was based on a German Zeppelin shot down over England in WW I. These Zeppelins were designed to bomb England from high altitudes (for an airship, over 10,000 feet) and thus their structures were made as light as possible which was not strong enough to withstand the turbulent skies over the American Midwest.
Yes, that Zeppelin was one of the "height climber" type. It required special handling at lower altitudes. A very unfortunate example for the Americans to replicate.
America can't really do anything right.
@@KC-shunting
Yep, very true. Trial and error can often be costly
Did they ever bomb anything from a zeppelin? Is that even true? Sounds like war propaganda.
Glad someone covered other airship disasters besides the Hindenburg! Well
Done Mike!
But what about the R101?
Mike was right. I have heard of other airship disasters before, but not these ones.
@@eddiewillers1 Yes good point as the R 101 WAS a disaster!
I wonder if the story about the airship Norge and Italia is unheard of
I became rather obsessed with the R101, buying as many books and photos as I could. My parents saw it ...and the Graf Zeppelin too. There were presentiments of the crash (near Beauvais) and desperate attemps by those who did not survive to communicate their accounts and misgivings.
This brings back some memories for me. As a little girl in the 3rd grade I did a presentation on airship disasters. I had gone through many a library book that covered these. It always fascinated me how so much effort went into such a disaster prone aircraft.
It's worth mentioning that, due to the changes implemented after the loss of the USS Akron, when her sister ship, USS Macon, crashed off the coast of California two years later, only two of her crew died. 70 men out of a crew of 72 survived thanks to readily available life jackets and rafts.
Corect me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that one of the Macon's survivors had also been a crewman on the Akron when she went down.
I was hoping someone would mention the Macon. If I remember right, National Geographic had an article, with pics of the wreck, years ago.
I miss the material they used to cover.
Captain Smith of the Titanic has been awfully quiet after hearing this...
Correct - he was one of the officers.
Also, survived because of warmer water - as I recall, most of the Akron’s were alive immediately after the crash and made it into the water, but almost all died of hypothermia before they could be rescued. Only three survived.
One of those survivors of Akron’s crash was Herbert V. Wiley, who was on the Macon when that airship crashed (yes, your memory is correct). Lieutenant Commander on Akron, Commander (rank) and commander (in charge of the airship) on Macon. Eventually retired from the US Navy in 1947 with the rank of Rear Admiral. Another career highlight: was commanding officer of the USS West Virginia (battleship) during the last 2 years of World War 2.
One of my great-great-grandfathers died in the wreck of the US Army semi-rigid airship Roma. He was from Dayton, and so he grew up around the very early aviation experiments, and he even served in WWI with the US Army aviators. A very interesting life, unfortunately cut short in 1922. I have scans of his orders to the Roma from a bunch of old documents I found at a great Aunt’s house.
Wesley - I’m friends with an author who’s produced one of the go-to references for the history of the Roma. I’m certain they would be more than interested in those scans, if you’re open to sharing them!
@@ApolloApplications they’re not the greatest quality, but I’d certainly be willing to send them over his way.
This is the type of comment thread that makes TH-cam a good platform still.
I hope to read some good news about it.
The main North South artery through the city of Tampa, Florida is named after the Captain of the Roma although nobody today knows who he was or why the town's main roadway is called Dale Mabry.
😍💕☺️😍
The N4 Italia disaster would make an episode on its own. It was returning from a mission to the North Pole when it crashed on to the Arctic ice. The rescue of its crew became the World’s biggest news story as it featured some of the most famous explorers in the World. One of them, Roald Amundsen - a national hero in Norway and the first man to the South Pole - disappeared during a rescue mission and was never seen again.
And the Norge Alaskan adventure.
The Italia was not returning, they crashed north of Norway on the way out.
That sounds really interesting.
Roald was pretty old to be in the arctic by that time and had had a hard life. He wasn't in top shape by anymeans.
Amazing man though.
And a man who was sent out to look for survivors died when his little plane crashed and overturned.
They got the word "ship" in them so it looks like you found a loophole in your content 😄 I like it 👍🏼
The story of the Italia is one of my favorite survival stories. 1928 going over the north pole it crashed on the ice. Men in the control car were stranded on the ice. The men in the envelope floated into the clouds and were never seen again! It was a three month ordeal to save the men on the ground. One plane tried to pickup survivors and crash landed and the pilot was stuck with them for weeks as well!
There is a movie about that called "The Red Tent" with Sean Connery playing Roald Amundsen. From about 1973 as I recall.
@@lawrencelewis2592 yeah, but the book "Ice Crash" went into a lot more detail. The 2 hour movie of events like this, kind of like the story of the Essex that was stove by a whale, both were made into 2 hour movies that felt rushed and large side stories left out. It would be better to make a 10 hour miniseries out of these events.
@@tomm1109 I agree with you- now I have to find that book.
@tomm1109 The Essex movie was high key disappointing. I read the wiki article and things got very VERY insane during the whole thing. The fates of the different groups that decided to go separate ways or stay on islands is so interesting. Iircc one of the groups took indigenous women from one island and settled in an uninhabited
How terrifying to float away into the sky never again to be seen. Just awful.
Fascinating as usual. Mike Brady never fails to dazzle and illuminate his audience. With appropriate video clips underscoring his narrative, we get the whole picture of the events he's describing so vividly. It's quite a talent. Thanks, Mike, for another engrossing chapter in your omnibus of travel.
A great story well-told as usual Mike!
There's one sordid detail I can add to the looting of the Shenendoah's wreck. Someone stole the Annapolis class ring from the corpse of the ships commander, Commander Zachary Lansdowne. Ghoulish, to say the least. It was eventually returned to the Lansdowne family years later.
"Shenendoah" by the way is an American Indian word meaning "Daughter of the stars."
Interestingly, aside from those early disasters the US Navy's blimp program was VERY successful and lasted into the early 1960s when technology finally overtook it. It's been said during WW2 no convoy escorted by US Navy blimps lost a ship to a U-Boot.
The Shenandoah was not the first airship to cross the Atlantic. That feat belongs to Britain's R34 airship which accomplished this in 1919.
I have seen Squarespace sponsor messages on countless channels and videos, but can honestly say this is the best I've ever seen. Love the airship vid btw!
The Akron and Macon were such cool ships. I remember a carrier airship based off them in Crimson Skies, thought it was such a cool steam-punk design. Then I found out they actually existed. Very cool.
"safety valves were removed" - straight to the famous last worlds list :)
Airships are my absolute favorite mode of transportation. A personal research project of mine several years ago was to track the fate of every airship ever built--how many crashed, how many were scrapped, and how many just fell into disrepair and weren't worth spending more time and money to maintain? Very cool to stumble upon this video; I had forgotten about most of these since then!
This was very interesting! Airships had a lot more use than I previously thought.
What a sight it must have been to see one of these behemoths towering over New York....
These make the "blimps" around today look like absolute toys.
You could easily do a 2nd part or even 3 part as it seems every big airship except the first (the Graf Zeppelin which was retired, don't count the R-100 as it was only in service 1 year) seemed to have issues. Macon, R-101, Italia, R-38, Roma, Dixmude (50 dead in that)
Not all rigids had issues, as there were 161 built between 1899-1938.
@@ThePaleEmperor Quite true. For the most part they were a pretty successful type of aircraft. In the end though the rapidly evolving technology of conventional aircraft overtook them.
Not sure about others, but there is at least one more. The Graz Zeppelin II, the Sister Ship to the Hindenburg. It was retired and scrapped with the Graf Zeppelin I
@@100dampf True, but GZ II didn't have a very long service life and didn't aquire anywhere the fame of it's namesake.
R100 was put scraped because of the r101 crash
Thank you for bringing these really interesting stories to the forefront. Onwards and upwards :)
Nice one Mike and on quite a different subject too! I'd heard of the USS Acron but not the others. The airship that finished up pointing vertically up from it's mooring mast did produce a somewhat comical picture.. I also liked your comment at the end about staying on terra firma, or, as my late Dad used to put it, "The more firmer the less terror".
No better way to start a Monday than having Mike tell me about some terrible tragedies. Another fantastic Video!
This is great. Your channel just gets better and better as it grows.
Thank you!
1:26 "holy fuck I can see New York" 😂
As a lifelong Ohioan, I've driven past the crash site of the Shenandoah plenty of times. There is now a sign that can be seen from the freeway marking the crash site. I also live an hour or so from the city of Akron (probably the namesake of the USS Akron) and have had the opportunity to drive past the hanger where the Goodyear blimp was house for many years. Up until recently (like the last five years), we used to see the Goodyear blimp all the time dragging advertisements behind it or the side lit up with some cool animation. It was neat to see. Thanks for the sharing this video!
The huge black hangar at the Akron-Fulton airport is the Goodyear Airdock and was where the Akron and the Macon were constructed. You can see that hangar (along with the newer one for the Goodyear Blimp) for miles from the air.
Love how the local high school is called The Zeps, too. Go Bucks!
At one time the McDonalds near the Akron-Fulton airport had a wall with a drawing of the USS Akron on it's wall.
Brilliant video! Airships are absolutely fascinating but not often covered outside the biggest events ("Oh the humanity!"), so it was great to hear less talked about stories. The first one doing a nose-stand on the tower is quite the sight, I can't believe it wasn't damaged. And while it didn't last long, Akron's plane deployment system was really quite incredible... I've seen footage of pilots clambering out to those biplanes, releasing themselves, flying away & then somehow managing to reattach themselves without turning both aircraft into a giant fireball. Absolute madmen!
Its interesting how airships have been mostly shuffled off to being flying billboards. But on a fun note a lighter than air craft did in a way play a part in modern history, When the Loma Prieta earthquake happened the first vehicle that could provide aerial photography of the incident was the Goodyear Blimp, It was on station for the World Series so the sports guys sent it off as far from the stadium as they could hold the microwave link back to the truck. Fun note modern Goodyear blimps are now semi rigid airships built in cooperation with the Zeppelin company and not actually blimp. They still call them blimps because well the branding is that.
@@filanfyretracker Absolutely, lighter-than-air craft still have important roles even today... apparently the DEA have a whole network of aerostat radar balloons along the US southern border to detect low-flying drug trafficking planes. Quite an efficient way to elevate equipment like radar and hold in position for extended periods.
There was hangar space for the planes (Curtiss F9Cs) inside the envelope. Once the pilot boarded the plane, the trapeze swung outside the airship, the plane's engine was started and it took off.
Eventually the landing gear was removed from the F9Cs as they were only deployed over water, and off and onto the trapezes. An auxiliary belly tank was mounted instead, for extra scouting range.
I've only heard of the USS Akron disaster. However, I think the most dramatic airship disaster was the July 21, 1919 Wingfoot crash into the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank. It crashed through the giant skylight over the banking floor dropping it's engine on an employee who returned from sick leave a day early to show what a good worker he was - spilled burning fuel all over the head teller; and someone who parachuted off of the airship landed on the Board of Trade building before being pulled to his death because his parachute got stuck on the falling wreck. There were other deaths in the bank as well as the crew.
WOW, I'll have to look that up!
@@tomm1109 "City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago" by Gary Krist.
The R38 crashed over the River Humber in 1921, in sight of Hull Yorkshire, with the loss of 44 lives. Hull itself has a rich maritime history. HMS Bounty was built there, Joseph Boxhall was from the city, Grace Darling's Forfarshire sailed from there as 'did' Robinson Crusoe. There's also a ship on Lake Titicaca that was built in Hull then shipped to Peru in pieces, transported by rail, and then assembled.
Don’t forget Amy Johnson, a Yorkshire lass from Hull.
Thanks for the detailed comment. I watched the video expecting it to be covered but seems it didn't make the cut.
I spoke to an old lady in Sledmere, East Yorkshire in 1998. Her dad took her to Hull that day. She told me that she witnessed the incident.
The R followed by an alphanumeric designation has continued up to this day with the USNAVY's stealth airship program.
04:46
Oh, for God's Sake... I hope the ones who decided it was a good idea got tormented.
Lovely video. Your work is amazing. Thank you so much for all you do.
Yep. Stay away from gasbags! Great episode Mike. Most interesting 👍
This video was great! I definitely don’t mind a different kind of video like this. Please make more videos about these old airships, still waiting for that R101 video.
it's so awesome to finally see airships on the channel, i've been looking forward to you covering the akron for a long time.
great storytelling as always, mike
Thanks, I am from Bulgaria and I follow your channel mainly for Titanic related topics. It's interesting to hear about airships here. I was recently in the Yambol museum of Battle Glory and among tanks and guns there is a room dedicated to that record zeppelin flight - a nice diorama of LZ-104 over its hangar in Yambol (Bulgaria). Hope that's interesting info for some of the viewers.
I hope to visit Bulgaria during one of my planned motorcycle trips.
Just added the Yambol museum to the list of places worth visitng. Thank you!
@@KPW2137 glad to hear my comment was useful!
You're welcome! BTW If you know other, less obvious places worth visiting, do not hesitate to let me know. I would appreciate it :) @@Chained2Alice
@@KPW2137 I would instantly recommend you the class Romeo - Slava submarine museum near the city of Varna. I have a video from my visit there last year and you can check it out if you consider that interesting. Also the aircraft museums in Krumovo (near Plovdiv) and Burgas are great, so I recommend them too (got videos uploaded from these places too).
great video!! as an Ohio native who used to live in Akron and who regularly drove past the Goodyear Airdock where the USS Akron was constructed i was happy to see that ship mentioned here. (Also i can't help but giggle at people who aren't from the area trying to pronounce 'Akron' haha)
Another NE Ohioan here, I also giggled a bit. I suppose I can't fault anyone for not knowing it's pronounced "Ack-run"
Originally from Akron, and I like his pronunciation. It puts a bit of a shine on Akron that it often doesn't get.
@@timothymills733 that it doesn't often get and perhaps doesn't deserve 😄. unless they've really spruced that city up since moved to Oregon haha
@@ellielobes Ha! that is how I always felt. Left right after college for the west, Colorado, Cali, then Idaho, now back in rural central Ohio. These days I only go to Akron for Strickland's Frozen Custard, which of course has a great view of the airdock 🙂
Same!
My favorite weird airship tale is the L-8. She left San Francisco on antisubmarine patrol then returned...without her crew.
In the mid-2000s I saw a zeppelin with my own eyes. It was surreal as it slowly cruised in over the Golden Gate then passed nearby. The company didn't last long, tourist flights turned out to be economically unworkable, but it certainly was a sight to see.
I've heard about the L-8- didn't it land itself in downtown Sunnyvale? I've heard that there were half-eaten sandwiches on a table and coffee that was still hot.
The NASA Aames Research Center has a blimp hangar in Sunnyvale, Calif. The hangar is 1100 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 190 feet tall. I think the L-8 operated out of there. Goodyear operated a blimp and it was seen a lot over the Bay Area. There was a white blimp that gave rides over the Bay Area as well. I think it was sponsored by a camera company, Fuji possibly. I remember big green letters on the side of it.
@@kimmer6 Parts of the fairly recent Star Trek movie with Chris Pine was filmed there. I understand that that buiding is so large that it has its own weather in it. Fascinating as Spock would say.
@@lawrencelewis2592The L-8 came down on a street in Daly City, California.
And what Zeppelin would that be? The last Zeppelin built was the LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II launched in 1938 and scrapped in 1940. No rigid airships have been constructed since.
The US Navy’s rigid airship program as a whole feels like a bundle, USS Los Angeles too was used as a test bed for the aircraft retrieval system to eventually be designed into Akron. There’s also Akron’s sister ship USS Macon who actually ended up flying too high at some point during her crash, though with far fewer loss of life. The sad thing about being into airships is that there simply isn’t a wide breath of information to get into but it’s very nice of you to bring some obscure knowledge to the forefront here.
I actually have a section girder brace of the Shenandoah that was from the infamous looting-- I bought from someone local to me who had it in their family! Additionally, my great great uncle was part of the dirigible/airship program in the Navy and I have some of his original photos of the Shenandoah. He also flew across the Atlantic on the Hindenburg, and I have a few of the official Hindenburg postcards he sent to my family.
Another great watch, thanks.... How about a vid "RMS Aquitania Through The Decades"
The Aquitania had a very long career (1914 - 1950) for a four funnel ocean liner. During her refits she never went to three or even two funnels, she went to the breakers yard with all four still intact.
Love this, Mike Brady, so polished and professional, sharp good guy
The Shenandoah was just like when the “Eldia” was beached on Nauset Beach, Cape Cod back in 1984. They created mini-economies and became tourist attractions.
My Dad drove me out to the Cape to see the Eldia when I was a little kid. I still have the souvenir picture book "The grounding of the Eldia on Nauset beach" by William P. Quinn
Shenandoah was the real reason why Billy Mitchell spoke up about the Army's negligence
@oceanliner Designs, If you're branching out why not look at the story of the California clipper (a Pan Am boeing 314 sea plane) which had to fly west the long way back from new zealand to new york in WW2, after getting cut off there in December 1941
Just one correction, the first transatlantic crossing by an airship was by the UK's R - 34 on July 2, 1919.
Thanks for your videos I enjoy your work.
Always enjoy your information! Thank you 😊
Happy 5th birthday to a spectacularly large toddler!!! Your shows are so interesting, I never miss a single word or detail because of how engaging everything is!!! Happy 5th birthday and I hope Australian Kindergarten treats you well Mr. Brady!!!!
Edit: this is obviously done in good spirit, no I don’t actually think the man is five years old.
Well done Captain Mike, another fantastic video and I liked the slight change in having airship disasters instead. Congratulations on O. D. being 5 years old, here's to another 5! 😊👍🚀
Always glad to see a new vid from my friend, Mike Brady!
Very interesting. I hadn’t heard about the blimps but knew about the others. Someone’s pointed out that R34 flew the Atlantic first; also Shenandoah had survivors in all three sections, not just the stern. I think this is the one where the control car detached (causing most of the fatalities). This led to later designs having the car attached directly to the airframe instead of hanging below.
Babe wake up new Oceanliner Designs video is out
Was just reading about the Italia and Akron yesterday.
Wow, I actually hadn't heard of any of these! And I love airships!
Fantastic to see them on the channel! I'd love to see some more soon!
This was excellent! I'd love to see more about airship design.
"Holy #$%& I can see New York!" made me laugh harder than I should have.
I have actually heard of all these airship disasters. Although you did not cover this one, The R-101 has one of the most beautiful interiors.
LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin II had the best interiors, IMHO. Sadly, she's barely known as she never entered into commercial service.
Yeah I hate stupid misleading video titles like this. Takes away from what would be good content.
Shame the r-101 wasn’t mentioned. I grew up in Beauvais (France), the town near which it crashed. It’s still well remembered today - there’s even a museum, if memory serves.
I'm pretty sure he's looking to do something with R-101, and she's probably the second most popular airship. So he didn't want to include her in a "5 lesser known" list :)
@@Roddy556I didn't know about any of this. Just because you obviously have a passion about something does not mean everyone else does. He doesn't make video's for you either. He makes them for us. So no, its not clickbait
congrqatulations. I love your videos. They are always interesting and informative. And narrated in your bubbly manner.
Love your “expansion”! Would love to hear your take on more of those “tragic incidents” that occurred more regularly back in the day.
This is realy interesting. Please do more disaster stuff like this
Lol, thanks to your perfect pronunciation yours are the only videos that the auto generated subtitles are perfect
Two excellent books on the history of airships are John Toland's "Ships In The Sky: The Story Of The Great Dirigibles" and Douglas Botting's "Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine: The Great Zeppelin And The Dawn Of Air Travel". I'm surprised you didn't mention an incident with the Akron about an incident that saw one member of the ground crew taken on a wild ride clinging for dear life to a mooring line when a gust of wind lifted the airship and its ground crew into the air.
Appreciate the reading recommendations you have added. Thank you.
Yet another good book is Christopher Chant's "The Zeppelin: The History Of German Airships 1900-1937".
@@wadp5962 Thanks so much for adding that one too :D
Botting's book is a lovely read, but sometimes plays a bit loose with the facts - which is unfortunate, given how enjoyable it is.
Seaman Buddy Cowart was his name - a very lucky guy. Not only did he have a knot in his line for a foothold, he managed to hold on for 2 hours as the Akron slowly and carefully maneuvered so he wouldn't be bucked off or blown away when the line was hauled back up into the airship.
Two of his fellow groundcrew had only wooden handles to hold as the ship rose. Inevitably, their grips weakened and they fell to their deaths as onlookers gasped and newsreel cameras cranked away.
Of Cowart, Akron's skipper Lt. Cdr. Charles Rosendahl said, “I never saw such iron nerve in all my life.”
Nice with a different kind of video, Skyliner Designs. Airships have always been fascinating to me.
I spoke with the Commander of the USS Shenandoah, RADM Charles Rosendahl in 1973 at his NJ home, not far from NAS Lakehurst. It was a fascinating conversation. Interesting insights about LTA. His piloting skills aboard the crippled USS Shenandoah was incredible.
Rosendahl was not the commander of the Shenandoah, he was the navigator and mooring officer. The commander at the time of the crash was Zachary Lansdowne who died, along with almost the entirety of the officers and executive staff of the airship, when the suspended control car separated from the hull and crashed to earth. Rosendahl was in the forward part of the hull as it free ballooned across the Ohio countryside, not really much in control but coming to relatively soft landing where all of the occupants of that section survived. None of this is meant to detract from Rosendahl's skill as an airshipman as he later went on to command the Los Angelas and the Akron and eventually was the overall base commander for the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst and served in that capacity at the time of the Hindenburg disaster. During WW2 he held executive and command positions on several ships in the Pacific theater and saw extensive combat. He also retired as a Vice Admiral, which is a full stripe above Rear Admiral,
Great video Mike, thank you!
There are a couple there I've not heard of before.
Are you planning drawing any of the airships in the future?
The R101? She has some 'maiden voyage' similarities with a well-known oceanliner.
An interesting video, thanks, Mike, for the excellent pictures and details of these events. My grandfather, Capt Donald E Harkness, witnessed the bombs falling from Zeppelin L-13 on London on Sept. 8, 1915, as it flew directly over the house where he was staying. This was one of the first and most successful of all the Zeppelin raids of the war and it left him with a burning desire to shoot the things from the sky. He soon thereafter enrolled in the Ruffy-Baumann School of Flying, obtained his flying "ticket" and having shown promise secured an officer's commission in the UK's Royal Naval Air Service. While getting flight experience on various types of aircraft at Eastchurch and Dover he was selected to become one of the first pilots to be stationed at No. 5 Wing, Coudekerque, France, and had a highly successful career bombing ammo dumps, German aerodromes and assorted military depots in France and Belgium. He never got the chance to shoot down a Zeppelin, but he did earn the DSC for destroying a Zeppelin shed at Evere, Brussels on Aug. 9, 1916. He died in 1929 in Auckland, New Zealand (his native country) while test flying a Dornier Libelle II flying boat with which he had hoped to start an airline in the country. He lived a short 35 years but had a fascinating life, I wish I knew him personally. 100 years after the war I wrote a book on his adventures based on his diaries called A WW1 Adventure, The Life and Times of RNAS Bomber Pilot Donald E. Harkness.
BTW. It took 47 days for him to travel by ocean-liner from Wellington, NZ to London, in 1915. The voyage alone was enough to drive some passengers batty.
I’m glad that you are talking about Airships!
Always looking dapper as usual Mike 👍
I often wonder what experiencing aviation in those years would have been like, but somehow I feel like I'm not missing much when it comes to blimps! Awesome content as always 👌🏻
I appreciate that you're incorporating dirigibles into your content. Thanks. Airships and early ocean liners, a long with skyscrapers were my obsession 20 years ago in highschool. Still love em. If they only had TH-cam then. Ha. Keep it up man. 👍
Good old utube, I’m subscribed to your channel but ut doesn’t bring up many new videos. Anyway, thank you for this well sourced lesson on a few of my favorite airships. There are many more with very colorful histories and back stories. The British R101, USA Macon, Graf Zeppelin etc etc. thanks again from Alaska
As a Canadian, I very much appreciated that you pronounced Newfoundland correctly. It's refreshing to see a TH-camr that does their research on pronunciation instead of just saying " I'm going to get this wrong ha, ha." Job well done!
Hey, a rare chance to break out my "I'm an airship historian" credentials! Lovely video, of course. I've noted a few comments/corrections below, but your attention to detail really shows. Most of the times I've commented on videos of the topic, the corrections list ends up being much, *much* longer!
2:40 - Shenandoah never crossed the Atlantic.
4:15 - The reports are correct. Many souvenir pieces ended up being repurposed during the Depression, including in the form of lampshades, at least one of which still survives.
09:58 - It’s not quite fair to call USS Akron the first flying aircraft carrier. Other airships, both in the American and British fleets, had previously tested the concept, and trapeze experiments aboard USS Los Angeles (tasked with the role after the loss of the Shenandoah) helped refine the technology. That said, Akron was absolutely the first *purpose-built* flying aircraft carrier, although the unrealized ZRCV class would have been the production version to the ZRS (USS Akron and Macon) prototype.
10:08 - The primary purpose of the ZRS platform was not to launch attack aircraft, but rather reconnaissance flights. Later developments of the concept, unrealized, would have included hefty bomber fleets while also including a complement of fighter/defense aircraft.
10:30 - Absolutely gorgeous footage from just above the mooring platform showing the mooring cone being hooked up to the tender ship USS Patoka.
10:58 - This period illustration suffers from a fairly common issue of the time - the artist is pretty clearly depicting a ship like the Los Angeles or Graf Zeppelin, neither of which bore any particular resemblance to the ZRS class.
11:08 - Ditto.
11:38 - As has been noted elsewhere in the comments, the loss of the Akron directly led to the inclusion of more life rafts aboard its sister ship, USS Macon, which resulted in the recovery of a majority of the crew when that ship foundered (and, on a much less important note, to my owning of a sample of life raft rubber from the ship!)
Oh, one other minor quibble - The Los Angeles's "kiting" incident on the Lakehurst high mast was certainly a spectacular bit of imagery, but it wasn't the only ship to ever suffer the same kind of excitement. It ought to be noted that, while the ship certainly looks as though it's at a 90° angle, that's because of the position of the photographer. It was never fully vertical on the mast.
The only other airship disaster I had heard of before this video was the British R-101 mainly thanks to a Doctor Who audio adventure covering the disaster but adding a twist to it.
If you haven't heard it, I recommend the Iron Maiden song, Empire of the Clouds. It's an eighteen minute epic that tells the story of British airship R-101. It's a fantastic song.
I can’t believe this type of content is free. Also love the fact your doing videos outside of ocean liners!
I can't believe my father WANTED to fly on these death traps for the US Navy. He was a mechanic and flew a few missions to Cuba from Lakehurst in the late 1940's. Loved the presentation!
The “holy bleep I can see New York!” Cracked me up. 😂
Awesome to hear Airship history, seems very under appreciated!
WOW! I didn't know about all of these. Great video.
Nice presentation and photos, and LOVE that there’s zero/very quiet music
Mike, you might want to do a show on the USS Patoka which was the converted tanker, with the mooring mast added to her stern, the US Navy used as a floating base for their airships and is seen in many videos.
Besides growing up in NJ and being familiar with Lakehurst, I completed flight training in college at Akron-Fulton Airport in Ohio and got to see the hangar (the Goodyear Airdock) where the Akron and the Macon were constructed. It is an amazing structure and something you can see for miles from the air when flying around the Akron / Kent area. Unfortunately didn't get to go inside, even when I interned with the FAA, as Lockheed owned the building at the time and were working on some top secret blimps for the military and you needed a security clearance to enter.
Thank you for your videos! You are the most interesting waiter I know.
Great work Oceanliner Designs.
For those of us that live around Akron, lots of people have stories. i, myself have a piece of Blimp skin that my Uncle Chick had from working in the Blimp Dock during WWII. When my wife and i got married, our landlord worked at Goodyear Aerospace and told me about finding Goodyear Zeppelin Corp. boxes when cleaning out the Blimp Dock. This was the home of the F2G Super Corsair, of which 10 were built - an FG-1D with some airframe modifications and a P&W R-4360 bolted on the front.
Nice video! Would love to see more airship content from you
I've seen that picture of the Los Angeles vertical over the mooring mast a thousand times and I've _always_ thought it was a photoshop...
Nice to see you finally talk about Airships. I would like to go on one, even if they are a flying death trap. Nice video as always Mike!
They’re actually about as safe as other aircraft of the time. They weren’t deathtraps-except insofar as all aircraft were back in the day.
The were absolutely not death traps. Far more safe than the planes of the time and even more safe now after decades more technological development
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Fun fact: blimps in World War II we’re safer and more reliable than the most common helicopter on the market today (Robinson R44).
I've watched two of your Zeppelin videos and they are quite good. You usually cover ocean liners but airSHIPS are interesting too. Ta.
Intriguing stuff. The oceanliner content is fascinating but I am totally here for branching off into other vessels ;)
Another interesting airship story: during WWI, the Zeppelin L31 attempted to carry out a bombing raid on British soil, but near the Thames Estuary, she was attacked by HMTB (His Majesty’s Torpedo Boat) 117, which opened fire on the Zeppelin with help from a lighthouse. Tracer rounds from 117’s guns struck L31’s tail, causing her crew to abort their attack. For this, HMTB 117’s captain was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
The captain’s name? Charles Herbert Lightoller.
No, I’m serious.
The R101 is another intresting one. It was at the time the largest airship ever built and flagship of the British airship devlopment program. went down over France after being caught in a storm on its first real flight and resulted in the shutdown of the english experimental airship program.
Part of its salvaged aluminum frame was salvaged repurposed for the Hindinburg.
This video was amazing! I'm so glad you did one on some airships, would it be possible if you did a full-length video on the Graf Zeppelin? It's arguably the most successful Zeppelin of all time
Hi Mike
Thanks so much for your fascinating content. Any chance you could make an 'anatomy of an airship' segment? I've always wondered how they worked.
Best wishes from another Melburnian
I'm also very interested in airships! I love seeing you branch out!
Really enjoy your voice and videos. Thank you 😊
This was brilliant. Definitely do more!! And a shift from your oceanliners and warships.... that's what we know you for.... to many people discuss aircraft, many pilots and I love there stuff, but ya don't see them talking about airships, and it's an interesting subject there engineering was a marvel for the time, they were not just big balloons!!... brilliantly narrates to, can tell you did this video because you are interested not because somebody asked! People may have, but don't believe that's why you made this video. It's a cracking subject!!!! Muts nuts mate!!!
You have to try a hot air balloon ride!! It's so peaceful. Book an exclusive ride, therefore you're not going to be packed in like cattle. It'll just be you and your guests. Awesome experience!!!
I enjoyed this change! Keep it up!
Cool info! Loved it! Thanks!
Thank you for the enlightenment. I've never heard of 3 of these disasters.
Thank you for this excellent video. I always wondered why the Shenandoah had not vented Helium.
That was an enjoyable little detour. Actually, given the record of rigid airship travel, it's not surprising that most people would decide that it isn't that far to walk.
Very well done, Mike.
Beatifully done Mike! 🍸