1
00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,600
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of Marvel comic books, you might

2
00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:32,480
Speaker 1: be familiar with an aircraft called the Hellic Harrier. This

3
00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:37,760
Speaker 1: thing is a floating base. It's a floating aircraft carrier

4
00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:41,520
Speaker 1: that's able to launch other smaller aircraft off of it.

5
00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:45,320
Speaker 1: It sounds really cool. It sounds impossible, It sounds like

6
00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:49,680
Speaker 1: a work of science fiction. But wait, hi, I'm Ben,

7
00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:51,920
Speaker 1: is there more? I'm no, I'm on, I'm on the

8
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,680
Speaker 1: edge of my seat. Ben. Yes, welcome to ridiculous history, folks,

9
00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:58,480
Speaker 1: where you paid for the entire seat, but you only

10
00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:02,120
Speaker 1: need the edge that Ben, you are on fire this morning.

11
00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:04,399
Speaker 1: It is the morning by the way, peak behind the curtain.

12
00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:09,160
Speaker 1: So if we sound a little groggy, you'll know why. Also, also,

13
00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:11,360
Speaker 1: I think that's a figure of speech from an old,

14
00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:16,280
Speaker 1: an old motorcade show or something. But yes, no, there

15
00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:19,240
Speaker 1: is a little bit more. And with the help of

16
00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:24,520
Speaker 1: our super producer, Casey Pegram, we won't stand on ceremony,

17
00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:29,160
Speaker 1: will dive right in so at the offset. That sounds crazy.

18
00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:31,800
Speaker 1: You're you're familiar with Marvel movies, right, No, I am,

19
00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:34,039
Speaker 1: but I just not the minutia like I don't I

20
00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:36,760
Speaker 1: wouldn't know the vehicle you're talking about, Ben, But it

21
00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:39,360
Speaker 1: does sound pretty cool and very much in line with

22
00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:43,199
Speaker 1: a science fact thing we're gonna talk about today. But

23
00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,520
Speaker 1: give us the segue. Oh sure, sure, So the segue

24
00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:52,160
Speaker 1: is the following. The reason this idea feels so cool

25
00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:55,840
Speaker 1: even in the realm of superhero comics and science fiction,

26
00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:59,480
Speaker 1: is because you have so much more mobility. For a

27
00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:03,760
Speaker 1: long long time, aircraft carriers were juggernauts, and they still

28
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,280
Speaker 1: are in terms of military hardware, vessels, warfare, and so on,

29
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:13,240
Speaker 1: but they are limited in their mobility. They can go

30
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,480
Speaker 1: close to a coastal area and they can send jets

31
00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:20,239
Speaker 1: right or other aircraft that can fly over land. And

32
00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,920
Speaker 1: we're talking about floating aircraft carriers here, as in like

33
00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:27,200
Speaker 1: by sea, right by sea, by sea. But imagine how

34
00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:30,240
Speaker 1: amazing it would be in theory if we could have

35
00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:32,800
Speaker 1: something that isn't restricted to water, if we could have

36
00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:37,800
Speaker 1: something that could fly overland itself and then launch smaller craft.

37
00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:40,720
Speaker 1: Why Ben, in theory, that sounds like a fantastic idea.

38
00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:45,120
Speaker 1: In theory, Noll, it does so much so that in

39
00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:49,760
Speaker 1: the early twentie century, the U. S. Navy started designing

40
00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:56,160
Speaker 1: a real life flying aircraft carrier and this for everyone

41
00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:00,280
Speaker 1: who tuned into our previous episode. Uh, this is where

42
00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:03,960
Speaker 1: we get to return to Dirigibles Airships. I know you

43
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,680
Speaker 1: are thrilled about this band, because, as you've mentioned before

44
00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,440
Speaker 1: on the show, you are a fan of these Leviathans

45
00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:13,799
Speaker 1: of the Sky. I'm I'm into the whole thing aesthetically.

46
00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,959
Speaker 1: I got really close, actually a few years ago to

47
00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:20,720
Speaker 1: writing in the Good Year Blimp and yeah, and I

48
00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:22,760
Speaker 1: think I might still do it. You know what, you

49
00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:25,280
Speaker 1: know a guy? Yeah, can you hook me up? Well,

50
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:27,000
Speaker 1: that's what I was gonna ask Casey. No, do you

51
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,560
Speaker 1: guys want to go try try to hop in the

52
00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,320
Speaker 1: Good Year Blimp? Could we do an extra credit segment

53
00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:34,120
Speaker 1: from the Good Year Blimp? I feel like we would

54
00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:35,520
Speaker 1: have to. I think we would have to. We would

55
00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:40,720
Speaker 1: be duty bound this ridiculous historians. So let's let's try

56
00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:44,080
Speaker 1: to get that off the ground. I don't know if

57
00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:45,560
Speaker 1: it was worth it. I think it was worth it, Ben,

58
00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:49,520
Speaker 1: So everything's worth it. You know, it's very It's very kind,

59
00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:53,120
Speaker 1: if if a little broad, I appreciate the sentiment. So

60
00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:58,160
Speaker 1: in a previous episode on how Germany gave up sausages

61
00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,960
Speaker 1: for war or specifically sausage casey, and spoiler alert, we

62
00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:04,800
Speaker 1: go into some detail about what an airship is, the

63
00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,640
Speaker 1: difference between a blimp and a Zeppelin. That was also

64
00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:09,320
Speaker 1: the one where I profile the guy as a Nazi

65
00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:12,280
Speaker 1: because he had a Nazi sounding name, and I apologize

66
00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,360
Speaker 1: for that. V Graph von graph zap zap baron Graf

67
00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:20,840
Speaker 1: von Zeppelin and uh, you know wrong, war Brown. I

68
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,039
Speaker 1: think it's a I think it's a great name. You know,

69
00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:25,000
Speaker 1: it's a It's a fantastic name. And I also don't

70
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,920
Speaker 1: want to imply that every intensely German sounding name has

71
00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:31,640
Speaker 1: the Nazi ring to it. So I just want to

72
00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:32,760
Speaker 1: get that out of the way right now. And I

73
00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:34,560
Speaker 1: know we had a listener email and point that out

74
00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:39,159
Speaker 1: and you are seen and heard, and I hope you

75
00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,039
Speaker 1: don't beat yourself up. I beat myself up about any

76
00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,040
Speaker 1: number of things. Um, this is pretty low on the list,

77
00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:46,600
Speaker 1: but I did just want to air it out since

78
00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,640
Speaker 1: we are in fact again talking about uh Zeppelin's and

79
00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,279
Speaker 1: the Zeppelin name will come up a little later in

80
00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:58,120
Speaker 1: this episode. Yes, so the the idea is still here,

81
00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:04,479
Speaker 1: this amazing possibility, this fascinating concept of an aircraft carrier

82
00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:10,080
Speaker 1: that now can go anywhere. And when the US Navy

83
00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:14,120
Speaker 1: started really working on this, they said, you know, I

84
00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:18,680
Speaker 1: think we can actually, we can actually pull this off.

85
00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:25,880
Speaker 1: And so in nineteen twenty nine, November of nine, they

86
00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:29,920
Speaker 1: started building first ever ship of its kind, a new

87
00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:33,600
Speaker 1: sort of dirigible at the good Year Zeppelin Air Dock

88
00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,640
Speaker 1: in Akron, Ohio. That's right, and uh, in a burst

89
00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:40,479
Speaker 1: of creativity, as ben would like to say, it was

90
00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:43,360
Speaker 1: called the USS Akron get it. Get it because it's

91
00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:45,600
Speaker 1: in the same it's an acron where they were building it.

92
00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:49,719
Speaker 1: And it's really interesting because they actually, you know, these

93
00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,480
Speaker 1: government contracts, they go out for bids and the winner

94
00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:58,000
Speaker 1: was actually a partnership between the looked shift Abou Zeppelin

95
00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:02,560
Speaker 1: Company and the Goodyear Tie and Rubber Corporation, and they

96
00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:06,440
Speaker 1: had a joint venture called the good Year Zeppelin Corporation.

97
00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:10,200
Speaker 1: And as you said, Ben Um, they created this partnership

98
00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:15,160
Speaker 1: in nineteen three and set to work immediately building this

99
00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:21,640
Speaker 1: incredibly enormous ship. I got a few stats. So, just

100
00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:24,000
Speaker 1: as a reminder, the difference between a zeppelin and a

101
00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,400
Speaker 1: blimp is that a zeppelin has this rigid skeletal structure.

102
00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:30,359
Speaker 1: This the steel rings almost like a rib cage, and

103
00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:34,520
Speaker 1: they're divided up. Um. They're called deep rings actually, and

104
00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:39,440
Speaker 1: they typically would be fifteen meters apart um, but with

105
00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:42,239
Speaker 1: this one, because of the size, they were space twenty

106
00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:46,680
Speaker 1: two and a half meters apart um. And now instead

107
00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:50,040
Speaker 1: of using that intensely flammable hydrogen that we talked about

108
00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:53,520
Speaker 1: in the previous episode, they were using the much friendlier gas,

109
00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:55,919
Speaker 1: uh than the than the noble gas, one of the

110
00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,400
Speaker 1: noblest of gases, helium. Right, it was not flammable and

111
00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,960
Speaker 1: fit the um to make this thing lighter than air,

112
00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:05,760
Speaker 1: and it also allowed them to do things like you know,

113
00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:09,320
Speaker 1: cook they had they had a galley on this thing

114
00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:12,120
Speaker 1: because it was designed to you know, carry quite a

115
00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:14,520
Speaker 1: large crew. Oh and I think we're bearing the lead

116
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:16,640
Speaker 1: here a little bit, but if I'm not mistaken, they

117
00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:21,600
Speaker 1: were also designed to carry up to five of these

118
00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:26,400
Speaker 1: biplanes that they could deploy, right, Ben right, Uh, Yes,

119
00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:30,040
Speaker 1: the F nine C Sparrow Hawk. Just just to give

120
00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:34,600
Speaker 1: you a sense of perspective here, folks, the ship itself,

121
00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:39,560
Speaker 1: the acron itself is about as long as a sixty

122
00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:45,000
Speaker 1: story skyscraper is tall. Uh. The crew numbered close to

123
00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:48,480
Speaker 1: one hundred, right, and they had you know they had restrooms.

124
00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:50,760
Speaker 1: I don't want to be crass, but I just wanted

125
00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:53,080
Speaker 1: to be clear that they're not, you know, whizzing off

126
00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:56,040
Speaker 1: the edge of the Zeppelin ben though it might. You know,

127
00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:58,600
Speaker 1: it would be a weird thrill, you know, especially if

128
00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,160
Speaker 1: you don't have to jump. After words, that's the secret.

129
00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:08,960
Speaker 1: And these by planes, the sparrow hawks themselves, are incredibly small.

130
00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:14,360
Speaker 1: These are single cedar by planes. These were stored, as

131
00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:19,400
Speaker 1: Asnell said, on the Akron itself, eight sparrow hawks were

132
00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:24,680
Speaker 1: produced to test this concept. And if you look at

133
00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:29,600
Speaker 1: the visual of how they deployed and attached these things,

134
00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:36,040
Speaker 1: it's terrifying because just as important as the diminutive size

135
00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:41,800
Speaker 1: of the sparrow Hawk was the creation of the trapeeze system.

136
00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,360
Speaker 1: It's almost it reminds me a little bit of it

137
00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:47,600
Speaker 1: was when one of the Christopher Nolan Batman's where they

138
00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:52,400
Speaker 1: use sky and I think enough times past that we

139
00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:54,160
Speaker 1: can talk about that, right. Yeah, it's not even that

140
00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:55,920
Speaker 1: biggest spoil. It's a pretty cool moment though, but hey,

141
00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:57,920
Speaker 1: let's do a little three to one countdown to spoiler.

142
00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:02,400
Speaker 1: Three to one spoiler, get over it. In the Nolan film,

143
00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:12,600
Speaker 1: Bruce Wayne also spoiler, that's Batman's real identity. Casey is livid. Sorry.

144
00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:15,840
Speaker 1: Sometimes when we crack these jokes, we we lean back

145
00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:18,680
Speaker 1: so we can we can stare at Casey through his

146
00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:23,360
Speaker 1: through his super producer window, and he's a tough crowd sometimes.

147
00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:28,720
Speaker 1: But sky Hook in this story is a mechanism invented

148
00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:31,800
Speaker 1: I think by an intelligence agency or some branch of

149
00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:34,920
Speaker 1: the military in the US, and it's able to scoop

150
00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:39,439
Speaker 1: people and things up from a flying vessel. And this

151
00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:42,360
Speaker 1: is real. There was a CIA program called sky Hook

152
00:09:42,440 --> 00:09:46,760
Speaker 1: that was designed to extract agents in the field at

153
00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:49,720
Speaker 1: a moment's notice and just have them boom. They It

154
00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:52,600
Speaker 1: was like some kind of parachute thing where he jumped

155
00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:55,160
Speaker 1: out of a window, parachute opened up, there was a

156
00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:57,440
Speaker 1: beacon on it, so he's kind of gliding along and

157
00:09:57,480 --> 00:09:59,880
Speaker 1: then the airplane scoops him up off of the hook

158
00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:01,680
Speaker 1: or a ring or something on the parachute and lifts

159
00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:03,920
Speaker 1: them back up into the plane. And this idea of

160
00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:07,480
Speaker 1: hooking something in mid air is really what the trapeze

161
00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:12,600
Speaker 1: mechanism is about. But with way lower tech, way lower tech,

162
00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,199
Speaker 1: and uh not, it doesn't seem like there's much of

163
00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:18,000
Speaker 1: a margin for error. Oh my god, I mean what

164
00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:20,960
Speaker 1: So they would lower the plane down on this wire

165
00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:23,480
Speaker 1: and then the plane would have to start up right,

166
00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:25,920
Speaker 1: and then they would release it and it would go.

167
00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:28,440
Speaker 1: My question, Ben, is how did they snatch them back up?

168
00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:30,600
Speaker 1: If the if the engines running? Can a plane just

169
00:10:30,679 --> 00:10:34,000
Speaker 1: idle in place? Like? I'm no airplane scientist, but you know, Ben, right,

170
00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:37,920
Speaker 1: and I don't even have my masters and zeppelins do

171
00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:39,920
Speaker 1: you have your amateur in it though? Don't you? I

172
00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:42,080
Speaker 1: have my armchair degree. There you go, so give it

173
00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,360
Speaker 1: to us. Yeah. So when we think about the way

174
00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:49,440
Speaker 1: these zeppelins or airships in general operate, they have the

175
00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:56,400
Speaker 1: ability to just float because of that lighter than air gas,

176
00:10:57,120 --> 00:11:02,280
Speaker 1: they can you know, reduce speed and not lose altitude.

177
00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:05,960
Speaker 1: So these sparrow Hawks, which were also by the way,

178
00:11:06,080 --> 00:11:10,800
Speaker 1: referred to as parasite fighters because they lived on this

179
00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:14,640
Speaker 1: other ship, they do they clean the plankton from between

180
00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:17,240
Speaker 1: it to teeth. Well, that wouldn't be parasitic. Then that

181
00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,000
Speaker 1: would be more symbiotic. Well, I mean, I guess it's

182
00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,360
Speaker 1: a sword of symbiosis, but it would be more beneficial,

183
00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:25,559
Speaker 1: and you know, zeppelins don't have teeth. It was a

184
00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:28,120
Speaker 1: dumb joke for cutting it. No, let's keep it in

185
00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:31,320
Speaker 1: keep it. It's cool, and they were getting weird with

186
00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:35,680
Speaker 1: it anyway, right, so teeth, why not? But the ribs

187
00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:40,079
Speaker 1: they had ribs. There we go. So the sparrow Hawk flies, uh,

188
00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:43,640
Speaker 1: flies beneath the zeppelin and then it has to go

189
00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:49,559
Speaker 1: very carefully and just took back on and then kill

190
00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:52,680
Speaker 1: the engine. And then they take it back up into

191
00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:55,600
Speaker 1: the into the zeppelin. And I guess it would stay

192
00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:58,200
Speaker 1: balanced because of the equal weight of the wings on

193
00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:01,000
Speaker 1: each side. It wouldn't just flop overr you know, once

194
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:05,040
Speaker 1: it was hooked. But wouldn't that be terrifying? Yes, yeah,

195
00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:08,800
Speaker 1: it would. It would be incredibly terrified. No, of course,

196
00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:12,520
Speaker 1: we know. One strange thing about humanity is in general,

197
00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:15,520
Speaker 1: how quickly the most bizarre and dangerous things can become normal.

198
00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,040
Speaker 1: And of course, uh, these pilots, especially once you did

199
00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:24,000
Speaker 1: the first historic quote unquote landings, were pros. This was

200
00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:27,240
Speaker 1: what they were on earth to do. That's Lieutenant Daniel W.

201
00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:36,760
Speaker 1: Harrigan and Lieutenant Howard L. Young. And the thing about

202
00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:39,439
Speaker 1: the akron Um, this is the first of two of

203
00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:43,320
Speaker 1: these big mothers that were built. It was never really

204
00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:48,160
Speaker 1: used in combat. I think it was mainly just tested

205
00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:50,560
Speaker 1: and kind of used in these trial flights. Isn't that

206
00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:53,520
Speaker 1: right then? Yeah, that's absolutely right. It had its first

207
00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:57,839
Speaker 1: flight on September twenty three, nineteen thirty one, and then

208
00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:01,319
Speaker 1: it had a month's worth of test flights. You can

209
00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:04,559
Speaker 1: read all about this in the uss Akron and the Rise,

210
00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:10,280
Speaker 1: Fall and Rise of Airships on Ohio History host dot

211
00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:13,839
Speaker 1: org that comes from the State Library of Ohio. They

212
00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:16,600
Speaker 1: had extensive testing, as you would because this is the

213
00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:20,200
Speaker 1: first time the U. S. Navy has attempted anything like this.

214
00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:23,680
Speaker 1: I mean we could there are experiments that militaries have

215
00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:26,800
Speaker 1: done with hot air balloons, sure, and this is the

216
00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:29,120
Speaker 1: age of the airship, but this is the first time

217
00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:33,200
Speaker 1: anybody had said, let's remember exhibit on pent my ride.

218
00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:36,359
Speaker 1: Of course, it's like, you know, we heard you like aircraft,

219
00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:39,440
Speaker 1: so we're gonna put some aircraft in your aircraft, you know,

220
00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:43,320
Speaker 1: and also maybe like some ground effects and m H

221
00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:46,679
Speaker 1: spinner rims. Yeah, how do you feel about that kind

222
00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:49,000
Speaker 1: of stuff? You know what, they would look dumb on

223
00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:51,439
Speaker 1: a sparrowhawk. But if you own it and it makes

224
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:52,920
Speaker 1: you happy, you should do it. And with those are

225
00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:55,000
Speaker 1: those shows don't usually like take your car and do

226
00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:57,199
Speaker 1: all this stuff like without your knowledge, and they present

227
00:13:57,280 --> 00:13:59,719
Speaker 1: it to you and you're like, cool, what if you

228
00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:01,360
Speaker 1: didn't like it? What if? What if? What if it?

229
00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:03,040
Speaker 1: What if it was in the front. I'm sure they

230
00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:05,679
Speaker 1: have like three producers who were there just to handle it.

231
00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:08,920
Speaker 1: It does seem extravagant, because sometimes it seems like they

232
00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:10,760
Speaker 1: went too far and it's like, hey man, remember that

233
00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:13,959
Speaker 1: one time you mentioned donuts. We knocked out the back

234
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,720
Speaker 1: half of your van and built a dunkin Donuts and

235
00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:19,720
Speaker 1: this guy lives in there. Now. I want to see

236
00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:24,600
Speaker 1: Pimp my Blimp. I would. I would watch that so often.

237
00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:27,920
Speaker 1: I would rewatch episodes of it. I would. I would

238
00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:32,280
Speaker 1: watch the pilot, which will be the only episode, multiple times. Yeah,

239
00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:34,760
Speaker 1: then maybe maybe they could get to six. I don't

240
00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:36,280
Speaker 1: know if it would make it to season two. I'm

241
00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:38,320
Speaker 1: not sure either, because there's only like, how many blimps

242
00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:41,200
Speaker 1: could there be left in the world now right? The

243
00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,720
Speaker 1: number might surprise you. Yeah, there's more than you would think, yes,

244
00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:50,600
Speaker 1: because we there are a few classified very high altitude

245
00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:58,840
Speaker 1: blimps that are primarily It's an interesting questional because if

246
00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:02,040
Speaker 1: the primary difference between in a blimp and a zeppelin

247
00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:05,600
Speaker 1: is that rigid shell. I would be more tempted to

248
00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,160
Speaker 1: air on the side of a zeppelin of some sort

249
00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:11,000
Speaker 1: of some sort of structure beneath the you know, the

250
00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:14,240
Speaker 1: balloon for lack of a better word, or within it. Rather,

251
00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:18,560
Speaker 1: Lockheed Martin has been making something called a high altitude airship.

252
00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:23,800
Speaker 1: It's an unmanned airship. Who yeah, And it floats about

253
00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,840
Speaker 1: over sixty thousand feet in the air at a quasi

254
00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:32,440
Speaker 1: stationary position, and it's just checking us all out and

255
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:38,080
Speaker 1: just keeping tabs surveillance, aircraft, telecommunications or a weather observer.

256
00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:41,960
Speaker 1: Kind of creepy. That is super creepy. But let let's

257
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,120
Speaker 1: let let's gett's go back, Let's get back to w

258
00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:45,600
Speaker 1: W two. I I do want to point out that

259
00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:48,000
Speaker 1: this is kind of this episode in general. I feel

260
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,520
Speaker 1: like it's a sort of a sequel to the sausage

261
00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:53,760
Speaker 1: episode with the sausage skins being used for the Zeppelin

262
00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:57,400
Speaker 1: in World War One, because the Americans kind of got

263
00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:01,520
Speaker 1: inspired by that use of those Zeppelins by the Germans

264
00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:06,120
Speaker 1: um and felt like it was a potentially great strategic

265
00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:09,520
Speaker 1: move um. Even though in that episode we talked about.

266
00:16:09,560 --> 00:16:13,160
Speaker 1: It wasn't the most successful program in w W one

267
00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:16,200
Speaker 1: with the Germans, they didn't really have that many successful

268
00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:20,480
Speaker 1: kills comparatively, it was they were notoriously easy to spot

269
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:24,440
Speaker 1: and slow moving and potentially easy to shoot down. But

270
00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:27,600
Speaker 1: yet the Americans thought it was a smart idea to

271
00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:30,200
Speaker 1: have a fleet of our own, and we don't want

272
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,680
Speaker 1: a defense gap, right, That's what all this is about.

273
00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:36,760
Speaker 1: That's why all those crazy, crazy remote viewing experiments occurred

274
00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:40,880
Speaker 1: to much later in history, decades later. But uh, the

275
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:45,360
Speaker 1: uss Akron, it turns out, wasn't that great. It had

276
00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:47,920
Speaker 1: a lot of bumps in the road. It spent from

277
00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:50,800
Speaker 1: what we found, it spent a massive amount of time

278
00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:57,920
Speaker 1: undergoing repairs as well as trial flights, and people kept saying, look,

279
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,880
Speaker 1: on paper, this is a great idea, this is worth trying,

280
00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:07,560
Speaker 1: but we still need to test it again and again,

281
00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:13,280
Speaker 1: and then things began to go seriously wrong. Yeah, it's true, Ben.

282
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:16,120
Speaker 1: During the two years the uss Akron was in service,

283
00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:20,159
Speaker 1: it was not the most shining example of a of

284
00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:25,160
Speaker 1: a military program success. Um During one of its kind

285
00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:27,720
Speaker 1: of demonstration flights, I guess like a test trial flight,

286
00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:33,440
Speaker 1: it traveled from Lakehurst uh, New Jersey to Sunnyvale, California,

287
00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:35,919
Speaker 1: and it took a stop along the way at Camp

288
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:41,000
Speaker 1: Kearney near San Diego. UM. And there is some pretty

289
00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:44,440
Speaker 1: harrowing newsreel footage of this that made it into theaters

290
00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:50,040
Speaker 1: at the time of several sailors who have gotten tangled

291
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,840
Speaker 1: in the mooring lines, which were these like long wires

292
00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:57,119
Speaker 1: that were used to ground the ships and tether them down,

293
00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:00,480
Speaker 1: you know, to park them, I guess. And they're literally

294
00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:03,400
Speaker 1: attached to these wires. I don't know how this happens,

295
00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,480
Speaker 1: but it's it's it's like a bundle of humans attached

296
00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:09,880
Speaker 1: to this line being lifted up into the air against

297
00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,560
Speaker 1: their will and then lit one by one boo. They

298
00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:16,760
Speaker 1: just drop off and fall to their death untangling at

299
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:19,359
Speaker 1: the worst possible time. It's it's it's really rough. It's

300
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,480
Speaker 1: only two of the soldiers felled their death. Excuse me,

301
00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:23,160
Speaker 1: but you can see this footage if you just type

302
00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,000
Speaker 1: in the US s acron um deaths if you want.

303
00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:28,720
Speaker 1: It's not it's nothing grizzly, it's it's so it's a

304
00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:31,560
Speaker 1: it's a long shot, um, but you do see the

305
00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,560
Speaker 1: full fall and the impact and the dust just popping up,

306
00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:36,199
Speaker 1: and it's like they did not make it. That was

307
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:44,159
Speaker 1: a seriously long fall. And despite this disaster, the Navy

308
00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:50,760
Speaker 1: decided we're going to continue experimenting with the Akron, and

309
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,439
Speaker 1: they sent it on other flights, including patrols of Cuba

310
00:18:54,560 --> 00:19:00,320
Speaker 1: the Panama Canal until that is. The airship encountered severe

311
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:05,200
Speaker 1: weather on April four, and the severe weather is gonna

312
00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:07,800
Speaker 1: is a theme that's gonna come up again. It clears

313
00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,720
Speaker 1: clearly weather was the worst enemy of the Zeppelin. Um.

314
00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:14,400
Speaker 1: But yeah, I was right off the Jersey coast. Uh.

315
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:17,919
Speaker 1: And of the seventy six crew members on board, only

316
00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:22,760
Speaker 1: three survived when the Akron crashed into the ocean. Yes,

317
00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,240
Speaker 1: they were vulnerable to gusts of wind. Wind is a

318
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:30,480
Speaker 1: huge factor in the performance of a craft like this.

319
00:19:31,359 --> 00:19:36,159
Speaker 1: If they were encountering high winds when they were attempting

320
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:40,920
Speaker 1: to redoc with the Akron, it would take the sparrow

321
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:44,120
Speaker 1: Hawk pilots several tries, which to me is even more

322
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:46,720
Speaker 1: nerve racking. I think I have to go in again.

323
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:51,200
Speaker 1: Uh Uh. There are times the charm I hope is it.

324
00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:57,200
Speaker 1: We'll see. So the Akron breaks up rapidly, it sinks

325
00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:01,000
Speaker 1: into the Atlantic. There's a nearby ship up a German

326
00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:04,600
Speaker 1: ship actually, that sees the lights hitting the ocean, and

327
00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:09,920
Speaker 1: they alter their course to investigate, and that's when they

328
00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:15,480
Speaker 1: pick up three survivors. Ultimately several other people. Well, the

329
00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:17,919
Speaker 1: vast majority of people, as you said, seventy three of

330
00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:22,480
Speaker 1: the seventy six do pass away. Most of the casualties,

331
00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:27,040
Speaker 1: experts to magic were caused by drowning and hypothermia because

332
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:30,600
Speaker 1: the crew had not been issued life jackets and there

333
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,200
Speaker 1: have been no time to deploy the single life raft.

334
00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 1: In many ways, Akron's loss spelled the not the operative end,

335
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:42,200
Speaker 1: but maybe the beginning of the end for US experimentation

336
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,000
Speaker 1: with militarized airships. But they had another one we haven't mentioned,

337
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,399
Speaker 1: the USS Making and and a and a blast of

338
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:54,920
Speaker 1: creativity built in Making and also bigger than the Akron.

339
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,280
Speaker 1: And one of the survivors of the Acron I believe

340
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:06,000
Speaker 1: was the commander of the Making, Lieutenant Commander Herbert Wiley's

341
00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:08,639
Speaker 1: Robbin's Air Force base is at the base and Making,

342
00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:16,239
Speaker 1: I believe. Yes. So not only was the Making much

343
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,399
Speaker 1: larger than the Akron, it also had a more productive

344
00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:25,760
Speaker 1: career because they realize more effective ways of using this

345
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:29,760
Speaker 1: asset stay out of sight just to see and not

346
00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:32,720
Speaker 1: be seen, and mainly what they did with surveillance exactly.

347
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,800
Speaker 1: But also we haven't really mentioned, um, the whole idea

348
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:37,439
Speaker 1: of having these air care you sort of did at

349
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:39,080
Speaker 1: the top of the show with having these aircraft on

350
00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:43,320
Speaker 1: board which were not long range aircraft. These were small,

351
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: you know, small capacity tank planes, so you could get

352
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,280
Speaker 1: them within range of enemy territory and then deploy these

353
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 1: planes for surveillance and they could zip around and not

354
00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 1: be seen as opposed to this big, giant, you know

355
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:01,000
Speaker 1: airship just hovering in your air space. That's that's gonna

356
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,760
Speaker 1: set off some some alarms, right, So that was the idea,

357
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:08,920
Speaker 1: and with the Making, they really started thinking, Okay, we're

358
00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,680
Speaker 1: onto something here. Akron didn't work out, but we've got Making.

359
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:16,040
Speaker 1: So we're starting to see this threat in the Pacific

360
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:22,119
Speaker 1: right then, right, the activity of the Japanese government in

361
00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:29,120
Speaker 1: the Pacific expansionist tendencies. So they noticed that Japan had

362
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:33,440
Speaker 1: been quickly building up its military and they were hoping

363
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 1: the US, that is, to increase the distance these planes

364
00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:40,680
Speaker 1: could travel on scouting missions. So now you can do

365
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 1: a lot of the heavy lifting by you know, just

366
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:47,520
Speaker 1: putting them on the make and putting the Sparrowhawks on

367
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,920
Speaker 1: the make, and and then having this fly at a

368
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 1: very high altitude over much of the distance. And this

369
00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:59,439
Speaker 1: is an interesting part. Eventually on the make and it

370
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 1: became a standard practice for them to remove the landing

371
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:07,720
Speaker 1: gear of the Sparrowhawks and replace it with a fuel

372
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 1: tank modification, like like an extender, kind of like give

373
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,880
Speaker 1: them a little more capacity. Wow, Okay, interesting because they

374
00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 1: never had to land. They got snatched out of the

375
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:20,200
Speaker 1: air hopefully or you know, crashed. We we we didn't

376
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:25,679
Speaker 1: see any evidence of of botched no skyhook situations, but

377
00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:30,119
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if if there were some. Well also,

378
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: I don't know if there was a long enough uh

379
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: span a time for one to occur. You know, It's

380
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,960
Speaker 1: true this was more or less an experiment than kind

381
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 1: of fizzled pretty quickly. Uh. And it fizzled in the

382
00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:47,720
Speaker 1: form of another tragic crash. Right on February twelve, nineteen

383
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:52,280
Speaker 1: thirty five, the USS making also ran a foul of

384
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 1: severe weather off the coast of California. Yeah, and I

385
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: think at the top of the show I may have

386
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 1: made it sound like these were actively you was during

387
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,520
Speaker 1: World War two, But it was really just technology that

388
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:06,679
Speaker 1: was in play leading up to World War two that

389
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 1: could have potentially come in handy in a very interesting

390
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,439
Speaker 1: way that we'll talk about in just a second. But

391
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,800
Speaker 1: that's right. Then, the making hit that severe weather the

392
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:23,640
Speaker 1: kryptonite to these ships, and it sank very slowly off

393
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 1: the California coast. And that was lucky because it it

394
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:32,160
Speaker 1: saved a lot of lives, right, And it's incredibly fortunate

395
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:34,959
Speaker 1: that there was this slow, inevitable descent. The crew had

396
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 1: enough time to put some life jackets on, and only

397
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 1: two people in the crew died, one from jumping into

398
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 1: the ocean from too high a distance and another from

399
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,760
Speaker 1: uh swimming back into the galley while it was sinking

400
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,879
Speaker 1: to retrieve some of his stuff. He drowned. What are

401
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 1: you What are you doing? Man? What are you thinking? Well,

402
00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 1: who know, we don't know what he was going to

403
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:02,720
Speaker 1: treat and now we shouldn't judge. Yeah, but so there

404
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:07,639
Speaker 1: we go. That's essentially the end of the the airship program.

405
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,560
Speaker 1: It was just too risky, right at least in terms

406
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:14,679
Speaker 1: of manned aircraft because, as we said, the high altitude

407
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:19,159
Speaker 1: airships that at least five countries are working on building

408
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: now are all unmanned, as one of the big differences

409
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 1: between them and something like the Akron or the Making,

410
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 1: with which whom they share a lot of DNA. There's

411
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,480
Speaker 1: an interesting point you alluded to, Noel, that I think

412
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,920
Speaker 1: we should emphasize here explore a bit, which is that

413
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:40,000
Speaker 1: for a lot of military historians, the story of war

414
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:44,439
Speaker 1: is also a story of what if. Erry of course,

415
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: so what would what would have happened if the Akron

416
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:52,200
Speaker 1: and the Making had not crashed? Well, um, given what

417
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 1: we talked about, with their ability to kind of like

418
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 1: get close to enemy territory and then send these guys out,

419
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 1: um that were much less easy to detect, there's a

420
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:07,080
Speaker 1: potential that they could have spotted an event, a very

421
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:11,679
Speaker 1: important event, in advance, and possibly headed it off at

422
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 1: the past. Had the USS Makeing been in service and

423
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:20,440
Speaker 1: active in it may well have been able to send

424
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 1: warning of the Japanese fleet headed to Pearl Harbor. However,

425
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:30,200
Speaker 1: it was not active, and as a result, the course

426
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 1: of history was set. Yeah, and you know, no other

427
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 1: dirigibles of this kind were ever commissioned for use as

428
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:41,159
Speaker 1: aircraft carriers. And I think it's super cool that they

429
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 1: still exist in some capacity, and that unmanned capacity that

430
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Ben, But you don't think that's a little creepy.

431
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:50,399
Speaker 1: I think it's no creepier than anything else. You know,

432
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 1: then creeper. Oh wow, he really took it. He took

433
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,040
Speaker 1: it to a place there. Now it's all pretty creepy, Ben.

434
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: But you get to a point where you just gets

435
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 1: so comfortable with your ability to play words with friends

436
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:05,879
Speaker 1: that out that you can have all my data. It's fine,

437
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,199
Speaker 1: just just take it. I want to point out that

438
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:12,119
Speaker 1: Facebook is also developing a high altitude flying wing u

439
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:17,880
Speaker 1: a V. Is that true? That is true? It's uh,

440
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,520
Speaker 1: it had it's designed to stay aloft for like ninety days.

441
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:26,639
Speaker 1: The stated purposes to provide internet connectivity, so maybe like

442
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:31,440
Speaker 1: remote areas, maybe maybe can have infrastructure. Yeah, that's cool.

443
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's no other underhanded, secret, creepy motive for it. Well,

444
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 1: and do remember, folks, that, as as Coast mentioned here,

445
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:47,920
Speaker 1: you can go see newsreel footage of not just these

446
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: airships nection, but another thing as well. Yeah. Well, the

447
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:56,119
Speaker 1: more recently a crew in two fifteen, actually a a

448
00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: underwater crew all like James Cameron, you know, went um

449
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:04,640
Speaker 1: and explored the wreckage of the USS making and made

450
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: some amazing like photo mosaic shots of it where you know,

451
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:10,879
Speaker 1: you take photos from all different angles and there is

452
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: real video you can see where they you know, you

453
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:16,360
Speaker 1: can see the galley and all of the different spaces

454
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: that would have been you know, occupied in this giant airship.

455
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:22,720
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool and you can actually see it at

456
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:25,879
Speaker 1: the article on how stuff works called Ridiculous History. The U. S.

457
00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 1: Navy used dirigibles as flying aircraft carriers by laure L Dove.

458
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: There's a there's a link at the bottom of to

459
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 1: a YouTube clip of the feed from from one of

460
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 1: these expeditions. It's pretty cool stuff, um and yeah, currently

461
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 1: it's still there fourteen hundred feet below the surface of

462
00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 1: the ocean um and they there is a concern that

463
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,320
Speaker 1: because of the salt water that all of this stuff

464
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: is is going to eventually just degrade to nothing. So

465
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool that you can see it. It was

466
00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 1: actually made a historic place by the National Register in

467
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 1: so do check it out. Let us know what you think.

468
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:07,960
Speaker 1: Would you ride in an airship? I think most people

469
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: would say, of course, as long as there's no one

470
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:13,400
Speaker 1: shooting at me. If you'd like to learn more about airships,

471
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: you can check out our previous episode we mentioned earlier

472
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,080
Speaker 1: in the show. You can also check out the rise

473
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: and fall of airships on our peer podcast car Stuff.

474
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 1: And uh, speaking of Facebook, Hey, guess guess what We're

475
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 1: on it? Boy? Are we ever? We're on Facebook? Um,

476
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:34,400
Speaker 1: you can check us out there Ridiculous History we have

477
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,480
Speaker 1: I am really digging the Facebook group, the Ridiculous Historian.

478
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: Just some really smart people on their having really smart

479
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 1: and interesting conversations. Um, we've been popping in there here

480
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 1: and there and uh and having some fun and yeah,

481
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:48,560
Speaker 1: so you can check that out if you're interested in

482
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:50,959
Speaker 1: being a moderator or something and that sort of thing

483
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 1: floats your boat, let us know, and ridiculous at how

484
00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,600
Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com. As always, we'd like to thank

485
00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: uh Casey Zeppelin, Pegram what do you think is that

486
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: gonna work? I'll take it, c z P. I'm in

487
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 1: the Yeah, and I personally would like to thank like

488
00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 1: keep Martin for keeping airships alive and so forth. Yeah,

489
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:11,400
Speaker 1: keep the keep the dream alive, man, the the X

490
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: Men dream. And of course thanks to our composer Alex Williams.

491
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,080
Speaker 1: I love that we can say we have a composer. Man,

492
00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 1: that's the best. Just it feels like such a such

493
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 1: a cool thing to drop in conversation. Anyway, I was

494
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: talking to my composer, to be fair, he only wrote

495
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 1: one song, but he's not technically our composer. He composed it,

496
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: he did, that's true. What if he composed the soundtracks

497
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 1: of our lives? We just we just had his music

498
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: playing when we walked into a room. You know, that'd

499
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: be great. He has fantastic taste in music. Really, I

500
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: mean you do too. I'm not I'm not taking you,

501
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: but that's this case of course. Uh and this is

502
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:47,479
Speaker 1: the big up section in the show. We pick up

503
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 1: each other and our pals. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like it.

504
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 1: So I think it's I think it's a cool, regular

505
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 1: thing to end on. But of course the biggest of

506
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: ups go to you, specifically you, friends and neighbors. Thank

507
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 1: you so much for tuning in, and we hope you'll

508
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 1: tune in again next time for another episode of ridiculous history. Goodbye, everyone,