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Zeppelin Flies Again
rakerman writes "The Globe and Mail reports Japanese firm buys first new-look Zeppelin.
"Makers of the revived Zeppelin airship delivered their first helium-filled craft to a commercial user Saturday, a Japanese company that plans to use the 12-seat craft for sightseeing trips and advertising." They call themselves Zeppelin-NT, or as the Germans say "Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH"."
Sounds like those are going to have to be some very pricey tickets. They'd have to be with only 12 passengers for each flight.
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NSFWThankfully, this time the outer surface isn't coated in ROCKET FUEL with a nice HYDROGEN supply beneath.
It may be around for at least 10 years, but this is the first time they actually sold one.
Plus there was this thing called the airplane that came along and did all the same things that blimps did, but better.
Also, as it seems I was the last /.er to learn last time, the Hindenburg was caused by the doping material which was rocket fuel (and photo's of the time exaggerated the look of the explosion).
The thing is though, you are never actually the last person here to learn something. In fact, I think one needs to formulate some sort of law that no matter how many times something is pointed out, only a minority of the people here will know it, and one of them will get a +5 for explaining it next time.
Thus every X-Prize story has to have somebody explain that to actually orbit the earth, it isn't enough to get above the atmosphere, you also need a shitload of speed to keep you from falling straight down. And every story about airships, starting from God knows when, has to contain somebody explaining that it wasn't the hydrogen that ignited on the Hindeberg. You are welcome to your +5...
In WW 1, Germany used airships as bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Of course they got shot at by infantry and fighter airplanes, but despite their hydrogen filling they did ususally not burn but would go down slowly because of the loss of gas; presumably they were not painted with the "rocket fuel" paint. Here is more info. Terrorists would probably not bother to fire at a 12-Passenger Zeppelin anyway, because a 200-passenger airliner would be a more attractive target.
Hydrogen would have burned almost instantaneously. There was nothing keeping the hydrogen under pressure, so there would be no explosion -- just the bags popping off one at a time. If the gas bags and outer skin were both fireproof, I suspect the Hindenburg would have crash-landed with most people surviving even if the hydrogen burned.
The difference between a zeppelin and a blimp is that a zeppelin has a rigid hull, and a blimp doesn't
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.