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Zeppelins on Patrol?
Our Man In Redmond writes "Everything old is new again: The Seattle Post-Inteligencer is reporting that NORAD is considering deploying zeppelins along the west coast and Canadian border to keep an eye out for terrorists. Larger than jumbo jets, easier to repair/upgrade than satellites, this may be an idea whose time has come. Again."
And they accuse Microsoft of never innovating: this is just a straight rip off of the Crimson Skies PC game!
That was because the Hindenburg was painted with rocket fuel. The same stuff that powers the shuttles SRB's.
Was said to have been sabotage, though nobody will say for sure. I think that hydrogen got an unfair rap as a blimp-fuel-and-filler from that incident (I'm sorry it happened on film, for that reason). Pictures make emotions.
Yes, hydrogen's flammable stuff, but it's lighter than helium and it burns cleanly, so I think blimps should still use it. Yes, there will still be sabotage and terror and all that, but there's no reason not to use hydrogen in lighter-than-air craft, except emotion. IMO.
JMR
Try e-gold - (contact me). I'm NOT e-
It won't work everyone will think there's a football game going on under it and run to it. Oi!
Won't the terrorists notice the big shadow on the ground? Ba da bing!
How can you take a soldier seriously when he sounds like Mickey Mouse(the helium). Doh!
Some kid(ie. American) with a gun will shoot it down. *pop* fzzzzz..... Johnny's Mother: "Johnny stop shooting down those nice soldiers in the balloons they don't like that!" Hary har har!
How can it be taken seriously when everyone make jokes about it? ouch!
*tap tap* Is this thing on?
Quite simply, it would watch for people who are crossing the boarder at non-designated boarder crossings. The boarder between Canada and the US, from what I recall, is highly unguarded, and allows for basically anyone to pass over with no real effort. Furthermore, I believe any Canadian can waltz through legitimate checkpoints whenever they want, as long as they're not carring prohibited materials.
Thus, anyone who intentionally avoids those checkpoints may be assumed to be transporting prohibited materials or prohibited people from Canada into the US. Legitimate people who wished to visit the US would cross through the boarder crossing, the 'terrorists' would skip those checkpoints, and these blimps would be better suited to spot such activity from high above for long periods of time.
This operates under the assumption that Canadian customs processes aren't secure enough for the US, and thus we need to double check their work. For example, Canadians may freely come and go to Cuba, while members of the US may not. Thus, it stands to reason, that it'd be easier for a Cuban terrorist to enter Canada, and then sneak across the boarder to the US with his vile intentions.
Of course, this does very little to stop new terrorist attacks, however the US political mindset right now seems to be 'any minor improvement should be done.' Flying blimps across the boarder decreases the chance of terrorists by a fraction of a fraction of a percent? Do it. Running around declaring people you don't like an Axis of Evil and invading them might stop the family of a suicide bomber from getting some money, go for it. I guess they thing every minor amount will eventually add up.
They're not that solid. There's a skeleton, and the skin is fabric stretched over it, but it's not as though the entire thing is as rigid (or as fast, or as loaded with fuel) as a plane.
It'd still do some damage though, just like that little prop plane did in Tampa.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
During a subsequent refit, after one or two seasons, staterooms were added since hydrogen provides more lift than helium.
The movie "The Hindenburg" does a very good job at recreating the luxurious interior (the grand piano was made out of aluminium; the lavish duralumin armchairs weighed something like 5 pounds each). The LZ-128 also appeared in the Indiana Jones "The last crusade" movie, but don't expect much in terms of historical accuracy (the LZ-128 DID NOT have aircraft launch ramps!!!)
But the LZ-128 was not the last passenger zeppelin built: the far more luxurious LZ-129 (Luftschiffe Graf Zeppelin II) was completed shortly before the fateful New Jersey crash, but never entered revenue service. It was instead used for nazi tract spreading, and was promptly broken-up for aluminium when the war broke out.
If I remember from that National Geographic documentary, the doping compound used on the Hindenberg was a combination of powdered aluminum and nitrocellulose. Which is the EXACT formula used on solid rocket fuel.
Small wonder why when the airship burned there was almost no fabric cover left from the fire.
A secret 1938 report inside the Zeppelin company confirmed that the doping compound was extremely flammable.