WEBVTT - Selects: How Blimps Work 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.360 Hi, friends, have you ever flown into blimp? I haven't. 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.480 It's one of my goals, and on August I had neither. 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:11.040 But that's what we talked about and more in the 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:19.919 episode How Blimps Work coming up right now. Welcome to 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.600 Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:30.840 How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.159 Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's with us, 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:36.760 so that makes this Stuff you should Know? How you doing? 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:39.279 I'm good man, this is I'm excited about this one. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.400 Oh are you sure? Blimps? Yeah, because they have like 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:52.720 eight names, blimp, dirigible, zeppelin, yeah, airship yeah. Uh well 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.160 technically l t A I'm counting that lighter than airship, yeah, 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.000 which I think is ultimately lighter than airship. L t 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.240 A is the umbrella term for all of those things 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.800 which are slightly different. Yeah. I think an l t 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.880 A and an airship is all of them. The dirigible 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.360 is all of them. Zeppelin is rigid, and a blimp 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.119 is non rigid. Nice, and mostly we just said blimps. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.640 These days, not a lot of rigid airships aren't there? 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.880 But would they? Would they constitute. Yeah, no, but there's 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.640 they can be semi rigid or non rigid, right, yeah, 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:26.679 and I think the future we'll talk about that obviously 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:28.399 at the end, but I think those are some of 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:33.000 those are more the semi rigid style, right. That's very huge. Yeah, 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.640 but they're made of some really lightweight but very strong 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:41.600 composite materials. Yeah. Boom so Chuck, Let's talk about the 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.440 history of blimps because I think when anybody thinks of blimps, 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.200 they think Handenburg, they think, they think the Handenburg and 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:54.960 then maybe can currently or right after the Good Year blimp. Yeah, 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.040 those are the two that really laid it on the 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.800 line for blimped him. Uh yeah, you know, want you 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:05.480 want to talk about the early history, I guess, and 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.360 then get to the tragedy. Yeah, because there wasn't that 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.679 much time in between the two to tell you the truth. Yeah, 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.280 I mean it all started, of course with hot air balloons, 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.040 because uh, they're not so different. In Sight three, a 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:24.480 couple of frenchees, brothers, Jacques Etienne and Joseph Michelle. They 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:26.200 said they were brothers, but they have different Last night, 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.360 I think Jacques Etienne is his first and middle name. Okay, 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.720 that makes sense. They all had three names, uh last name, 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:37.080 serial killer, mong Gulfier. They invented the hot air balloon 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.400 uh an unmanned hot air balloon in seventy three, and 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.320 then later that same year a French physicist last name 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.600 de Rosier had the first manned balloon flight. And they 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.840 were just floating around because that's what our balloons do. 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:54.959 You can go up and then if you're really good, 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.800 you can come back down. But left and right, that's 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.480 up to mother nature. That's right, which is a little scary, 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.200 although I think these days can they steer them at all. 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.840 We have a great article on this. You're you're subject 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:11.520 to the winds, to the the um was the god 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.760 of wind that you know, he comes out of the 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:18.639 cloud and blows wind. Yeah that guy. Yeah, you're you're 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.120 subject to his whim So if if you're headed towards something, 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.240 it's go over it or hit it. Yes, okay, And 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.680 you remember there was that terrible blo um hot air 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.800 balloon accident and I think Virginia last year earlier this year. Yeah, 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:33.680 like they hit a power line I think, and then 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.200 the basket caught fire and like they had to jump. 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.240 It was really bad. Um. But yeah, you can go 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.440 up and over and I imagine it's under if it's 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.000 like a power line, yeah, or a tunnel if you're 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:48.560 really good, or you're in a cartoon like the laugh Olympics. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:53.440 That's something they do in there. But the I think 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.600 if you're really good, you could probably know where to 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.000 steer into the wind to maybe use use the wind. 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.880 But know, with a blimp, the big distinction is, aside 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.920 from its distinctive shape, is that you can maneuver like 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.960 a pro That's right, And that's what Henry uh Jaffar 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.080 did in eighteen fifty two when he finally someone said 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.800 we should steer these things and he built the first 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.719 powered airship and it was cigar field like the classic 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.040 shapes that we know and love now, had a propeller 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.080 like they have now, and a little engine although it 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.560 was a steam engine which they don't use now. Three 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.440 horsepower steam engine. Yeah, they're not huge engine still didn't 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.840 take a lot apparently, No, it really doesn't, um. And 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.200 those were rigid airships. Uh, it's a it's a metal framework. 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.000 And in nineteen hundred, count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, that name 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.840 sounds familiar, Zeppelin of Germany. Uh, and that's where they 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.599 got the name, of course, because I never understood the 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.239 led the lead well it was I think someone said 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.400 as a joke, you guys are gonna go over like 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:58.520 a led Zeppelin, or they did when they played on 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:00.520 the BBC. Is that it? But I take the A 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.400 out because the same reason you take the A out 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.400 of def Leppard. I've never understood that either, in the 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:08.280 same as you put a boom loud over Motley Crue. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.520 This just makes it cool, you know, different differentiates you 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:14.599 gotta mispell something in your band. I think I was 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.960 just looking too deeply into it. It's the problem. Yeah, 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.320 L E A d Zeppelin would be weird. Yeah, but 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.280 I think like our paradigm would have adjusted. We would 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.840 think L E. D Zeppelin would be weird if we 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.200 were used to led Zeppelin with an A, or if 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.640 the Beatles was spelled B E T L E S. Yeah, 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:37.599 instead of their penny name. Very punny, all right, boy, 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.080 we get sidetracks so easy with music stuff. Not really 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.120 Zeppelin was I think people saw that coming before the 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.039 press play. Uh. So that was the rigid Airship, the 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.320 first one, and those have a metal framework and it 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.320 had tail fins and rudders had combustion engines and could 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.159 cruise about feet with up to five people. Yes, not bad. 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.960 You could bring the whole family as long as you encounter, 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.440 as long as you total no more than five, as 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:06.800 long as you paid off the captain. Well then you 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.039 just have to be a family four, that's right, because 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.200 the captain's got to sit somewhere, right. Yeah, they got 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:17.599 their little captain's chair. So everything was going quite swimmingly. Actually. Um, 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:21.640 around the turn of the twentieth century, there there was. 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.919 It was just widely assumed that we would have a 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.960 future where blimps zeppelins were just a regular feature of 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.360 the sky. Well they were up until the Hinderberg went down. 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:36.440 There were more than two thousand flights carried um tens 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.000 of thousands of passengers over a million miles. Like that 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:43.040 was air travel, we should say, ultra wealthy passengers at 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:46.800 the time. Um. The Hinderberg in particular was it was 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.599 high class. It was the pride of Nazi Germany, and 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:52.360 it was on its maiden voyage, wasn't it. It It was 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.600 almost called the Hitler by the way, was it really? Yeah? 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.120 But Hitler was like I don't want my name on 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:00.280 that thing. Really yet not that he like foretold the few. Sure, 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.840 he just didn't. I don't know. He just didn't want 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.160 to him named after an airship. He didn't believe um 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.960 Freud's idea that sometimes the cigar is just a cigar, yeah, 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.840 or a cigar shaped airship is just a cigar shaped 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.280 there and it crashed and burned too, So he was 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.760 probably pretty stoked that he didn't have his name on it. Yeah. 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.200 He very famously went who yeah when he heard the 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.840 news exactly. So, uh, we should probably stopped making light 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:31.000 of this nearly eighty year old tragedy because people did die, 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.400 you know. Yeah, I mean, should we tell the story? 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.280 All right? Well, it took off on May three, seven, 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.760 had thirty six passengers and six officers and crew members 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:49.760 and trainees, left Frankfort at about seven fifteen and then 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.520 crossed out over the Atlantic at about two am the 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.520 next day. It's not super fast travel. It was compared 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:57.480 to the ship travel at the time. It was about 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:00.000 it took about half the time to cross the Atlanta 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.040 because it did in a boat. Yeah, But compared to 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.920 what we're used to, you were just it was leisurely 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.680 um and apparently after reading more about the Hindenburgh it's 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.000 not as um, and I guess ship travel is sort 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:13.800 of the same way, like we're going to get there 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.520 when we get there, like we're heading, we're trying to 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:18.360 get there and then, but you never know what's going 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.000 to happen. Right, that's why they called them the leisure class. 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:25.320 That's right. Uh. It follows followed a northern track across 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:31.160 the ocean. Um eventually crossed uh into North America, over 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.040 the coast of Newfoundland and arrived in lake Hurst, New 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:40.199 Jersey about twelve hours late. And um, Germans, they're always late. Yeah, 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.880 they're famous for it. And basically arrived there at the 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:47.400 Naval air station and because of poor weather, the captain 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.640 and the commanding officer on the ground said, you know what, 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.720 the weather is not so great. Let's wait a little bit, um, 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.280 because I can fly around forever in those things. And 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.640 um he said, all right, well, the Jersey shore is nice. 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:01.319 Let's just go fly about that and tell everyone to 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.400 look around and look at all those old timey bathingsasically 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:10.120 they're up to the ankles and water. Um. By six pm, 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.920 conditions had improved and at six twelve he sent a 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.840 message sand it's suitable for landing, recommended landing. Now about 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.560 seven o eight, he finally pulled the blimp in. It 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.800 was a bit of a dodgy approach, but he eventually, 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.960 you know, got it down towards the ground pretty you know, uh, skillfully, which, 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.000 as we'll see, it's not as easy as you'd think. 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.560 Even though now easy, it's it's not in practice. No, 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:39.680 they dropped the landing lines and then things went south 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.199 like really fast. Yeah, but it was filled with hydrogen, 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:49.400 which is the lightest element, right, Yeah, and uh it's 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.760 also probably the most flammable or one of them. Yes, 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:57.320 inflammable was a big error at the time. Um, a 0:09:57.360 --> 0:09:59.280 lot of blimps had caught on fire. This was not 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.400 the first X event, and uh there was you know, 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.120 people testified afterward because not everyone died. We'll get to 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:08.920 the numbers here at the end of the story. But um, 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.640 there was testimony that, um, it appeared as if gas 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.080 was pushing against the cover. Maybe it escaped from a 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:22.000 gas cell. The first visible flames appeared, and it varies, 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.080 but most of witnesses say that the first flames are 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.400 either at the top of the hall, uh, forward of 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.000 the vertical fin or between the rear port uh engine 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.400 in the port fin and they described it as a 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:36.319 mushroom shaped flour and it pretty much engulfed the tail 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.920 like right away, and it was able to remain steady 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:41.880 for a little while. Like people could start jumping out 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:45.400 at this point. Well, those are the people who died, correct, No, 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.440 that's what I always heard, or that's what I have heard, 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:53.920 is that the people who stayed in the gondola lived 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:55.720 and the people who jumped were the ones that died 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.760 because the flames, because hydrogen is light, they were burning upward. 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.120 Well it says here basically it was all depended on 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.440 where you were. If you were close to a means 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:10.160 of exit, you generally survived. Um, if you were deep 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.360 inside the ship, like in the power room along the keel, 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:15.719 or in the smoking room. They had a smoking room 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:20.160 in the Edinburgh. I'm supposed it wasn't all smoking with 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.680 a big blimpful of hydrogen. Oh yeah, yeah, I thought 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:26.679 it was not a good yet. They had apparently a 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:32.439 double um air locked door, one electric lighter and um 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.520 you were allowed to smoke as long as you put 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.360 it out before you left. And um, so like I said, 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:41.560 if you were in the smoking room on B deck, 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:45.360 you're in big trouble. Um. If you were one of 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.360 the nine men closest to the front of the ship, 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:52.640 you definitely didn't survive. Yeah. So out of the ninety 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.760 seven people on board sixty two survived. I think when 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:57.560 you see the footage, I mean you can watch it 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.400 on YouTube, it looks like, how on the world could 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:02.760 anyone survive it? Because it goes I mean it's fully 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.920 burned in less than a minute and on the ground. Yeah, 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.120 it went up fast. But sixty two to survive, thirteen 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:10.760 of the thirty six passengers and twenty two of the 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:15.240 sixty one crew. And there's still two guys alive today 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.160 checked as of two years ago. But they don't like 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.840 to talk about it. I can imagine. Yeah, there's one experience. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.160 They're both named Verner Verner Franz and Werner Donor, the 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.760 two Verners, and one was a little cabin boy and 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.280 one was a passenger with his family, and uh, they 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:36.079 were contacted for like the you know, the ceremony. I 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:42.360 guess you don't call it an anniversary, I guess, uh memorial. Yeah, 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.920 it just sounds like a party, you know. But they said, no, 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.000 we're not coming. We don't like to talk about it. Yeah. 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.720 So it's been a long standing mystery exactly what happened. 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.559 And I found an article in the UK Independent from 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.800 two thousand thirteen about a study from that year that 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.480 found they said they they figured it out. They built 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.200 like scale models of the Hindenburg, which was like two 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:06.720 and a half football fields long by the way, They 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.040 were building scale models that were like like sixty ft long, 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.559 so good sized ones, and they tried to blow them 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.120 up because there was a rumor that it was sabotage. 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:19.080 You know that everybody hated the Nazis even then. Um 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.800 and uh. They tried all all manners stuff, and what 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.080 they finally figured out was that probably what happened was 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:30.640 from being in that stormy weather, that exterior the envelope 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:36.280 of the blimp became um electrified and when the ground 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.880 crew ran up and grabbed the cables, they completed the 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.640 current from the blimp to the ground, which caused a 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:46.480 spark which actually um ignited a hydrogen leak that fire 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.960 caused pushing out. Yeah. Yeah. One thing they say it 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.920 definitely isn't which they long thought it was, was the 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:57.200 actual fabric was like painted in this flammable stuff, and 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.480 that's not true. It was the standard fabric, Okay, it 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:06.040 was just a big balloon fill of hydrogen. Yeah, So 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:12.640 when that happened, UM, the future of blimps were just 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.080 pretty much like that was it for blimps. That wasn't 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.320 the immediate end. But as far as like commercial blimp travel, 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.040 that's tough for an industry to get over, so it 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.200 kind of fell on the wayside, although they did continue 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:28.680 on UM in a couple of forms. Up until the sixties. 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.960 The US government, especially the Navy, maintained blimps. One of 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.480 the UM I think that I guess the Air Force, 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:37.560 I don't know is the Navy, but one of the 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.560 branches of the U. S Military use blimps as UM 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:45.400 giant aircraft carriers of the air, not not the sea, 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.360 the air, which is pretty awesome. And apparently they had 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.760 them so you could connect like a light plane to 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.920 what's called like a trapeeze mechanism coming out of the 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.280 bottom of the blimps and just like hook your plane on, 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.520 climb up and say, hey, guys, where are we going? 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.000 Or you can take off from there too. What, yes, 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.000 how do you take off, you just drop. I think 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.640 you just released the hook from the trap peas and 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.440 started to free fall, and then you just go off 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:14.640 into the distance and go thanks for the ride, lady. 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.880 That sounds really weird. Um. And they had even bigger 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.520 plans that were never realized because the Navy scrapped the 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.400 program and I think nineteen two UM to have like 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.400 a landing strip on top of the blimp, so you 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.360 could have just like planes takeoff and land and then 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.600 be stored like in the blimp, which would have been 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.560 pretty awesome. Well, cargo airships are the wave of the future, perhaps, 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:41.560 so we'll see. Yeah. So, but that was the military 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:45.000 was involved in blimps for most of the first half 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.240 of the twentieth century and then um, our friends a 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.760 good Year came up with a blimp that has really 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.560 served them well. Like they were making blimps for the military, 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.640 and then um, they started using them for commercial purposes 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.480 and everybody he knows about good Year thanks to those blimps. Yeah, 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:04.240 and they're going to figure in here, of course, because 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.120 you can't talk about blimps a lot without a ton 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:10.600 of buzz marketing for good Year. Um. But you know 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.760 that's where they make their name. In fact, my in 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.720 laws almost wrote on the one based out of Akron 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.400 because that's where they're from, and they I think he 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.280 was going to put in a bid on a like 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.640 an auction bid to win a trip Nate, and I 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.720 think it never happened. The trip never happened. I think 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.000 he either lost the bid. I'll have to ask him, 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.160 but I don't think they ever wrote on the blimp. Okay, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.320 I was gonna say the trip never happened. That doesn't 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.600 sound like the Good Year I know. No, No, they're 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.440 very They're like the Germans. So they've got there's three, 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.280 um Good Year blimps. Actually there's one and I believe Texas. 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.040 There's one in California. There's one in Ohio or is 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.960 it Florida California and Ohio is what it is. I'm sorry, Um, 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.320 the spirit of good Year, the Spirit of America, the 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.840 spirit of Innovation and Chuck. About the time this episode 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:03.160 comes out, Robin Roberts, the TV personality, is going to 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.760 be christening the newest member of the fleet, the wing 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.800 foot one. Nice. So they're gonna have four, yeah, because 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.040 there's a lot of sporting events there. Sure, and you 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.240 can't watch a big sporting event without hearing the words. Uh. 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:19.280 Aerial coverage provided by Goodyear and those shots. Man, they're 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.879 pretty great. They really are. Haven't been around forever. It 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.040 was I think an Orange Bowl in Miami where the 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.240 first one was broadcast and what like the sixties maybe 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:33.119 I don't know, something like that, and it changed America. Yeah, 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.359 well it um certainly gives them a lot of press 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.120 and saves well, I don't know about saves some money. 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.199 Haven't seen their balance sheet, but it's they don't just 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:44.040 spend money on that thirty second spot. They still do 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:51.080 to tie into the blimp. But it's great advertising for them. Yeah. Um. 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.800 They also were good sports in a movie called Black Sunday. 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.200 Did you ever see that movie? Of course I never 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:01.280 saw it. Um, but apparently the seventies they provided Um, 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:05.200 they provided some of the footage for the movie, and UM, 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.840 let their blimps be used, uh, and let their name 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:12.600 be used even like it wasn't like the the good 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.040 Wire blimp. You know, they didn't try to have to 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.960 change it just enough. They used good Year, which made 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.520 the whole thing even more terrifying and realistic. Yeah, they 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.560 wanted to kill everyone at the Super Bowl. That was 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:27.680 the plot, right, uh with a blimp right that shot darts, 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.159 which is weird. But it was written by the guy 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.760 who wrote Silence of the Lambs. Oh. Yeah, he's a 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.960 good writer. Have you ever read any of his books? 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:41.320 Oh he was the bookwriter. Oh no, I didn't know that. No, 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:42.960 I haven't read any of Silence of the Way. He 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:48.120 does very good research. Interesting guy. Um. Anyway, so good year, 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.320 good year in the military. After the Hindenburg. That was 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.320 the two cases of blimps. But like you said, there 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.679 is potentially a future for blimps, which we'll talk about. 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:00.320 But first, let's talk about how blimps work. Can enroll 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:19.520 after these messages. So you want to know how blimps work, buddy, 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.480 I do. They're pretty simple. This is the delight to 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.080 learn because it was like, oh, I thought that would 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.240 be just that little to it, and that's really kind 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.560 of the case, right yeah. Yeah, there's not like oh 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.159 and here's where it gets really hard. They're like the 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.560 pontoon boats of this guy. Yeah. Like the most complicated 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:39.879 thing on the blimp is probably the gyroscopic camera on 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.919 the front of it to film the football stadium. I 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.080 think you're right. Uh so, let's talk about the anatomy 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.080 of a blamp you have. You mentioned the envelope earlier. 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:49.920 That is the thing that you're looking at. That is 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:57.040 key big cigar shaped balloon. It's filled nowadays with helium. 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.800 It is that shape because of aero done amics, of course, 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:03.720 and they are super lightweight and super strong. Like you 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:08.320 were saying, neoprene to ply neoprene polyester generally, is that 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.160 what the envelopes made of. There's a company UM called 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:13.560 the I LC Dover Corporation. They make a lot of 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:18.080 skins UM and they use the same material that they 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.960 make UM space suits out of for NASA for blimps. 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.040 Too good enough for Neil Armstrong, Buddy, good enough for 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.920 my blimp. This is like all about Ohio. This one 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.600 oh is here? Ohio? Yeah, yeah, let have done that 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.400 so it was good here? No, No, I knew that, Um, 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.919 so were your in laws. That's right. The envelopes they 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:41.080 hold UM and it depends on the blimps for all 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.560 of these statistics, of course, but between sixty seven thousand 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.280 and two hundred and fifty thousand cubic feet of helium 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.000 and UM, it's not super The pressure is really low 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.640 inside point zero seven pounds per square inch. So that's 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.639 why if you shot a blimp, it wouldn't like fall, No, 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.520 just leak very slowly and you just land it and 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:05.639 patch it up. I guess, yeah, very slowly. Yeah. British 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:08.880 Ministry of Defense fired hundreds of bullets into an airship 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.320 just for fun, well, not to see what if it 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.720 would could be shot down in battle basically, and it 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:17.560 took many hours to deflate and land. So cool. And 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:19.560 they don't even deflate them, they just leave them that 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:23.399 way so that they're natural structure will not natural, but 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:27.600 their original structure UM prevents them from being shot down. 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:30.320 That's one big benefit. Because I was wondering about that. 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.400 I was like, you're just providing a target for every 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.040 teenager with a gun in any country that you hover 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:40.199 a blimp over. UM. Now I understand. But secondly, as 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:42.520 we'll see, it also has to do with the dynamics 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:48.320 of the flight of UM hovering in the atmosphere. UM. 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.160 So you've got the envelope, and the envelope also has 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:54.800 something called nose cone battons, which is basically like a 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.560 support structure for the nose the front of it. Just 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.879 the very very tip and it keeps the the the 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.640 the blimps front from being mashed in as it moves forward, 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:07.720 which is pretty smart. Yeah, I think I misspoke. The 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:09.639 nose cone is on just the very tip, and then 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:12.320 the batons are like the fingers that distribute the stress 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.080 over the front of the conetch. Okay, so they're like 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:19.280 the the the structure that comes out of the nose, right, 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:23.320 and then also on the nose as the mooring. Um 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.160 hook because you got to hook a blimp up to something. Yeah, 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.320 it's got a little spindle there and um, it's got 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:33.640 a little wheel under the tail rudder and that's basically 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:37.560 how it sits. You just tie it down, very simple. Um, 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.960 just like a balloon. That's right. So there's here's where 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.560 it gets a little craftier, like nineteen century crafty, but 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:50.879 still neat. Nonetheless, Um, there's something called balonetts, right, and 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:53.840 these are basically air bladders that are located within the 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:59.000