WEBVTT - How Blimps Work 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to stuff you should know front House stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:13.319 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.040 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's with us, so 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:18.520 that makes this stuff you should know. How you doing, 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:21.400 I'm good man, this is I'm excited about this. Oh 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:29.080 are you sure? Blimps? Yeah, because they have like eight names, blimp, dirigible, zeppelin, yeah, 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:35.960 airship yeah. Uh well technically l t A I'm counting 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.639 that lighter than airship, yeah, which I think is ultimately 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:43.720 lighter than airship. L t A is the umbrella term 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.880 for all of those things which are slightly different. Yeah. 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.000 I think an l t A and an airship is 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.159 all of them. The dirigible is all of them, Zeppelin 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.760 is rigid, and a blimp is non rigid. Nice and 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.000 mostly we just said blimps. These days, not a lot 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:00.920 of rigid airships, aren't there? But would they would they 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.319 constitute Yeah? No, but there's they can be semi rigid 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.360 or non rigid, right, yeah, and I think the future 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:09.240 we'll talk about that obviously the end. But I think 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:14.800 those are some of those are more the semi rigid style, right, Yeah, 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.440 but they're made up some really lightweight but very strong 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:23.399 composite materials. Yeah. Boom so Chuck. Let's talk about the 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:25.760 history of blimps because I think when anybody thinks of 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.440 blimps they think Handenburg. They think they think the Handenburg 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:36.760 and then maybe concurrently or right after the Good Year blimp. Yeah, 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.840 those are the two that really laid it on the 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:45.560 line for blimp them. Uh. Yeah, you know what you 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:47.280 want to talk about the early history, I guess, and 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.160 then get to the tragedy. Yeah, because there wasn't that 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.440 much time in between the two to tell you the truth. Yeah, 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.560 I mean that all started, of course with hot air 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:59.960 balloons because uh, they're not so different. In a cup 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:06.520 of frenchees. Brothers Jacques Etienne and Joseph Michelle. They said 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.120 they were brothers, but they have different Last night, I 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.120 think Jacques Etienne is his first and middle name. Okay, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:16.639 that makes sense. They all had three names, uh, Mom, Golfier. 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.760 They invented the hot air balloon, uh, an unmanned hot 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.839 air balloon in three and then later that same year 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:29.240 a French physicist last name de Rosier had the first 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.760 manned balloon flight and they were just floating around because 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.800 that's what our balloons do. You can go up and 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:37.680 then if you're really good, you can come back down. 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.200 But left and right that's up to mother nature right, 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.119 which is a little scary, although I think these days 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:45.799 can they steer them at all. We have a great 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.079 article on this on hot air balloon. No, you're you're 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:53.040 subject to the winds to the the um was the 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.480 god of wind that you know he comes out of 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.200 the cloud and blows wind. Yeah that guy. Yeah, you're 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.280 you're subject to his whim. So if if you're headed 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.000 towards something, it's go over it or hit it. Yes, 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.760 And you remember there's that terrible bloom hot air balloon 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.440 accident and I think Virginia last year earlier this year 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.200 at Yeah, like they hit a power line I think, 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.560 and then the basket caught fire and like they had 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.600 to jump. It was really bad. Um, But yeah, you 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.240 can go up and over and I imagine it it's 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.799 like a power line, yeah, or a tunnel if you're 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:30.360 really good, or you're in a cartoon like the laugh Olympics, 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:35.040 that's something they do in there totally. But the I 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.280 think if you're really good, you could probably know where 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.800 to steer into the wind to maybe use the wind. 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.640 But no. With the blimp, the big distinction is, aside 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.760 from its distinctive shape, is that you can maneuver like 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.760 a pro That's right. And that's what Henry uh Jaffar 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.839 did in eighteen fifty two when he finally someone said 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.960 we should steer these things. He built the first powered 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:02.760 airship and it was cigar fielled like the classic shape 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.120 that we know and love now, had a propeller like 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.960 they have now, and a little engine although it was 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.920 a steam engine which they don't use now. Three horsepower 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.320 steam engine. Yeah, they're not huge engines. Still didn't take 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.160 a lot apparently, No, it really doesn't. Um And those 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:22.000 were rigid airships. Uh, it's a it's a metal framework. 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.760 And in nineteen hundred count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. That name 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.599 sounds familiar, Zeppelin of Germany. Uh, and that's where they 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.280 got the name, of course. Because but I never understood 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.640 the Led the lead Well it was I think someone 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.040 said as a joke, you guys are gonna go over 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.239 like a led Zeppelin, or they did when they played 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:42.200 on the BBC. Is that it? But why take the 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.920 A out Because the same reason you take the A 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.040 out of def Leppard. I've never understood that either in 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.120 the same wings you put it um out over Motley Crue. 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.600 This makes you cool, you know, different, different. You gotta 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:56.520 mispel something in your band. I think I was just 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.880 looking too deeply into it. It's the problem. Yeah. L 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.279 E A d. Zeppelin would be weird. Yeah, but I 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.279 think like our paradigm would have adjusted. We would think 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.800 L E. D. Zeppelin would be weird if we were 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.080 used to led Zeppelin with an A, or if the 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.440 Beatles was spelled B E T L E S. Yeah, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:19.400 instead of their penny name very penny. All right, boy, 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.880 we get sidetracks so easy with music stuff. Not really 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.040 Zeppelin was I think people saw that coming before their 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.800 press play. Uh So that was the rigid airship, the 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.080 first one, and those have a metal framework, and it 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.120 had tail fins and rudders, had combustion engines and could 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.360 cruise at about feet with up to five people. Yes, 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.320 not bad. You could bring the whole family as long 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.520 as you encounter, as long as you total no more 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:47.360 than five, as long as you paid off the captain. 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:49.880 Well then you just have to be a family of four. 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.800 That's right, because the captain's gotta sit somewhere, right, they 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:59.400 got their little captain's chair. So everything was going quite swimmingly. Actually, Um, 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:03.400 around the turn of the twentieth century, there there was. 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.720 It was just widely assumed that we would have a 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.640 future where blimps that blinds were just a regular feature 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.760 of the sky. Well they were up until the Hinderberg 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.359 went down. There were more than two thousand flights carried um, 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.600 tens of thousands of passengers over a million miles. Like 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.640 that was air travel, we should say, ultra wealthy passengers 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.479 at the time. Um. The Hinderberg in particular was it 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.800 was high class. It was the pride of Nazi Germany. Yeah, 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:34.080 And it was on its maiden voyage, wasn't it. It 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.320 was almost called the Hitler by the way, was it really? Yeah? 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:37.880 But Hitler was like, I don't want my name on 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:42.000 that thing. Really yet, not that he like foretold the future, 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.839 He just didn't. I don't know. He just didn't want 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:49.280 to him named after an airship. He didn't believe Freud's 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.880 idea that sometimes the cigars just a cigar, yeah, or 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.760 a cigar shaped airship is just a cigar shaped there 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.000 and it crashed and burned too, So he was probably 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.560 pretty stoked that he'd have his name on it. Yeah, 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:06.680 he very famously went yeah when he heard the news exactly. So, uh, 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.160 we should probably stopped making light of this nearly eighty 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:15.440 year old tragedy because people did die, you know. Yeah, 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.680 I mean, should we tell the story? All right? Well, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.960 it took off on May three seven, had thirty six 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:29.000 passengers and officers and crew members and trainees, left Frankfort 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:33.000 at about seven fifteen and then crossed out over the 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.040 Atlantic at about two am the next day. It's not 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.160 super fast travel. It was compared to the ship travel 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.800 at the time. It was it took about half the 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.200 time to cross the Atlantic as it did in a boat. Yeah, 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.440 but compared to what we're used to Oh yeah, you 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.880 were just it was leisurely. Um And apparently after reading 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.840 more about the Hindenburgh, it's not as um And I 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.040 guess ship travels sort of the same way, like we're 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.600 going to get there when we get there, like we're heading, 0:07:57.840 --> 0:07:59.720 we're trying to get there and then but you never 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:01.720 know what gonna happen, right, That's why they called them 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:06.160 the leisure class, that's right. Uh, it follows followed a 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:12.040 northern track across the ocean. Um eventually crossed uh into 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.920 North America, over the coast of Newfoundland and arrived in 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:20.520 lake Hurst, New Jersey about twelve hours late. And um, Germans, 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:25.320 they're always late, they're famous for it. And basically arrived 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.080 there at the Naval air station, and because of poor weather, 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:32.080 the captain and the commanding officer on the ground said, 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.680 you know what, the weather is not so great. Let's 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.520 wait a little bit, um, because they can fly around 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.560 forever in those things. And he said, all right, well, 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.360 the Jersey shore is nice. Let's just go fly about 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:44.120 that and tell everyone to look around and look at 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.120 all those old timey bathing suits and they're up to 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:52.439 the ankles and water. Um. By six pm, UM conditions 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:56.080 had improved and at six twelve he sent a message 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.000 sand it's suitable for landing. Recommended landing now. About seven 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.439 eight he finally UH pulled the blimp in. It was 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.840 a bit of a dodgy approach, but he eventually, you know, 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.720 got it down towards the ground pretty you know, uh skillfully, which, 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:12.800 as we'll see, it's not as easy as you'd think, 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:16.439 even though it's not in practice. No, they dropped the 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:23.480 landing lines and then things went south like really fast. Yeah. 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:29.760 It was filled with hydrogen, which is the lightest element, right, Yeah, 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:33.760 and uh it's also probably the most flammable or one 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:38.960 of them. Yes, inflammable was a big error at the time. Um, 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:40.839 a lot of blimps had caught on fire. This was 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.160 not the first accident, and uh there was you know, 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:47.920 people testified afterward, because not everyone died. We'll get to 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.719 the numbers here at the end of the story. But um, 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.400 there was testimony that, um, it appeared as if gas 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.840 was pushing against the cover. Maybe it escaped from a 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:03.760 gas cell. The first visible aimes appeared, and it varies, 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:05.760 but most of witness to say that the first flames 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.079 are either at the top of the hall uh, forward 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.760 of the vertical fin or between the rear port engine 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.160 in the port fin. And they described it as a 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:18.120 mushroom shaped flower. And it pretty much engulfed the tail 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.720 like right away, and it was able to remain steady 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:23.679 for a little while. Like people could start jumping out 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.040 at this point. Well, those are the people who died, 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.600 correct Now, That's what I always heard, or that's what 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.480 I have heard is that the people who stayed in 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.880 the gondola lived and the people who jumped were the 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.040 ones that died because the flames, because the hydrogen is light, 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.520 they were burning upward. Well, it says here basically it 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.520 was all depended on where you were. If you were 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.280 close to a means of exit, you generally survived. Um, 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.880 if you were deep inside the ship, like in the 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.600 power room along the keel, or in the smoking room. 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.600 Smoking room in the end, I'm supposed it wasn't all smoking, 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.920 big blimpful of hydrogen. Oh yeah, yeah, it's not a 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.880 good yet. They had apparently a double um air locked door, 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.199 one electric lighter and um you were allowed to smoke 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:17.240 as long as you put it out before you left. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.599 And UM, so, like I said, if you were in 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:25.160 the smoking room on B deck, you're in big trouble. Um. 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.360 If you were one of the nine men closest to 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.600 the front of the ship, you definitely didn't survive. Yeah. 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.000 So out of the ninety seven people on board sixty 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.360 two survived. I think when you see the footage, I 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.400 mean you can watch it on YouTube, it looks like 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.199 how in the world could anyone survive it? Because it 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.640 goes I mean it's fully burned in less than a 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.480 minute and on the ground went up fast. But sixty 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.800 two to survive, thirteen of the thirty six passengers and 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.520 twenty two of the sixty one crew. And there's still 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:58.960 two guys alive today. Yeah, we checked two years ago, 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:01.200 but they don't like to talk about it. I can 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.280 imagine there's one kinetic experience. They're both named Verner, Verner 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.400 Franz and wernerd Doner. The two Verner and one was 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:10.800 a little cabin boy and one was a passenger with 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.600 his family. And uh, they were contacted for like the 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.599 you know, the ceremony. I guess you don't call it 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:25.079 an anniversary. I guess, uh memorial. Yeah, it just sounds 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.040 like a party, you know. But they said, no, we're 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:29.800 not coming. We don't like to talk about it. Yeah. 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.520 So it's been a long standing mystery exactly what happened. 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.360 And I found an article in the UK Independent from 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.680 two thousand thirteen about a study from that year that 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.280 found they said they they figured it out. They built 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.920 like scale models of the Hindenburg, which was like two 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.520 and a half football fields long. By the way, they 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.800 were building scale models that were like like sixty ft long, 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.360 so good sized ones, and they tried to blow them 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.880 up because there was a rumor that it was sabotage. 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:01.040 You know that everybody hated the Nazis even then. Um 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.600 and uh, they tried all all manners stuff, and what 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.880 they finally figured out was that probably what happened was 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:12.439 from being in that stormy weather, that exterior the envelope 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:18.000 of the blimp became um electrified, and when the ground 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.640 crew ran up and grabbed the cables, they completed the 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.400 current from the blimp to the ground, which caused a 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:28.240 spark which actually um ignited a hydrogen leak that fire 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:32.160 caused out. Yeah. Yeah. One thing they say it definitely 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.080 isn't which they long thought it was, was the actual 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:39.240 fabric was like painted in this flammable stuff, and that's 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.640 not true. It was the standard fabric. It was just 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:50.520 a big balloon fill of hydrogen. Yeah. So when that happened, Um, 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:55.800 the future of blimps were just pretty much like that 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.960 was it for blimps. That wasn't the immediate end. But 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.240 as far as like commercial blimp travel, that's tough for 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.320 an industry to get over. So it kind of fell 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.360 on the wayside, although they did continue on UM in 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.520 a couple of forms. Up until the sixties, the US government, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:16.080 especially the Navy, maintained blimps. One of the UM I 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:17.600 think that I guess the Air Force. I don't know 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:19.920 is the Navy, but one of the branches of the 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:24.200 U s military use blimps as UM giant aircraft carriers 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:28.840 of the air, not not the sea, the air, which 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.720 is pretty awesome. And apparently they had them so you 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.440 could connect like a light plane to what's called like 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.240 a trapeeze mechanism coming out of the bottom of the 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.080 blimps and just like hook your plane on, climb up 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.120 and say, hey, guys, where are we going? Or you 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.120 can take off from there too. What yes, how do 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:49.120 you take off? You just drop I think you just 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.240 released the hook from the trapeez and starting of free 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.920 fall and then you just go often to the distance 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.160 and go thanks for the ride, lady. That sounds really weird. UM. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.040 And they had even bigger plans that were never realized 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.680 because the Navy scrapped the program, and I think nineteen 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.640 two UM to have like a landing strip on top 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.280 of the blimp so you could have just like planes 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.280 takeoff and land and then be stored like in the blimp, 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.920 which would have been pretty awesome. Well, cargo airships are 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.320 the wave of the future, perhaps, so we'll see. So, 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:25.280 but that was the military was involved in blimps for 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.840 most of the first half of the twentieth century and 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.520 then um, our friends a good Year came up with 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.840 a blimp that has really served them well. Like they 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.960 were making blimps for the military, and then um they 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.320 started using them for commercial purposes and everybody knows about 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:44.640 good Year thanks to those blimps. Yeah, and they're going 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.440 to figure in here, of course, because you can't talk 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:48.840 about blimps a lot without a ton of buzz marketing 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.880 for good Year. Um. But you know that's where they 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.560 make their name. In fact, my in laws almost wrote 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.160 on the one based out of Akron because that's where 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.720 they're from. And they think he was going to put 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.800 in a bid on a like an auction bid to 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.680 win a trip Nate, And I think it never happened. 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.880 The trip never happened. I think he either lost the bid. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:12.360 I'll have to ask him, but I don't think they 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.760 ever wrote on the blimp. Okay, I was gonna say 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:16.520 if the trip never happened. That doesn't sound like the 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.920 good Year I know. No, No, they're very uh, they're 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.960 like the Germans. So they've got there's three, um good 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.440 Year blimps. Actually there's one and I believe Texas, there's 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.600 one in California. There's one in Ohio orres A, Florida, California, 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.080 and Ohio is what it is. I'm sorry. Um, the 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.520 spirit of good Year, the spirit of America, the spirit 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.000 of innovation, and chuck. About the time this episode comes out, 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.640 Robin Roberts, the TV personality, is going to be christening 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.080 the newest member of the fleet, the wing foot one. Nice. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:51.960 So they're gonna have four, Yeah, because there's a lot 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.480 of sporting events there. Sure, and you can't watch a 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.960 big sporting event without hearing the words uh aerial coverage 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.040 provided by good Year. Yeah. And those shots, man, they're 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.520 pretty great, they really are. We haven't been around forever. 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:06.760 It was I think an Orange Bowl in Miami where 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.600 the first one was broadcast and what like the sixties 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:14.880 maybe I don't know, something like that, and it changed America. Yeah, 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.159 well it um certainly gives them a lot of press 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:19.920 and saves well, I don't know about saves some money. 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.840 I haven't seen their balance sheet, but it's they don't 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.280 have to spend money on that thirty second spot. They 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:29.400 still do to tie into the blimp, but it's great 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:34.480 advertising for them. Yeah. Um. They also were good Sports 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:37.440 in a movie called Black Sunday. Did you ever see 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.520 that movie? Of course I never saw it. Um, but 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.600 apparently they provided Um, they provided some of the footage 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:49.760 for the movie, and UM let their blimps be used. Uh, 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.080 and let their name be used even like it wasn't 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:56.320 like the the Good Wire blimp. You know, they didn't 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.280 try to have to change it just enough. They used Goodyear, 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.160 which made the whole thing even more terrifying and realistic. Yeah, 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:04.240 they wanted to kill everyone at the super Bowl. That 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:09.440 was the plot. Uh, with a blimp right that shot darts, 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.960 which is weird. But it was written by the guy 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.560 who wrote Silence of the Lambs. Oh. Yeah, he's a 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:17.760 good writer. Have you ever read any of his books? 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.680 Oh he was the book writer. Oh no, I didn't 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.359 know that. No, I haven't read any of Silence at 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:29.200 the way. He does very good research. Interesting guy. Um. Anyway, 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.639 so good Year good Year in the military. After the Hindenburg. 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.359 That was the two cases of blimps. But like you said, 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:39.399 there is potentially a future for blimps, which we'll talk about. 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.080 But first let's talk about how blimps work in general. 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:53.679 After these messages, you want to know how blimps work, buddy, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.600 I do it pretty simple. This was the delight to 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.359 learn because it was like, oh, I thought would be 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.440 just that little to it. And that's really kind of 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.760 the case, right, Yeah, yeah, there's not like oh and 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.840 here's where it gets really hard. They're like the pontoon 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.840 boats of the sky. Yeah. Like the most complicated thing 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.119 on the blimp is probably the gyroscopic camera on the 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.240 front of it to film the football stadium. I think 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.280 you're right. Uh So, let's talk about the anatomy of 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.320 a blamp you have. You mentioned the envelope earlier. That 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.320 is the thing that you're looking at. That is key 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:31.600 big cigar shaped balloon. It's filled nowadays with helium. It 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:35.959 is that shape because of aerodynamics, of course, and they 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.280 are super lightweight and super strong. Like you were saying, 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:42.639 neoprene to ply neoprene polyester generally, is that what the 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.440 envelopes made of. There's a company um called the i 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.800 LC Dover Corporation. They make a lot of skins UM 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:53.040 and they use the same material that they make UM 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.960 space suits out of for NASA for blimps. Too good 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.720 enough for Neil Armstrong, Buddy, good enough for my blimp. 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:05.040 This is like all about Ohio. This one. Oh was here, Ohio? Yeah, yeah, 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.840 I let have done it. So it was good here. No, 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.560 No I knew that. Um, there were your in laws. 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.159 That's right. The envelopes they hold UM. And it depends 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:16.480 on the blimps for all of these statistics, of course. 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.800 But between sixty seven thousand and two hundred and fifty 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:24.200 thousand cubic feet of helium and um, it's not super 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.960 The pressure is really low inside point zero seven pounds 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.600 per square inch. So that's why if you shot a 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.760 blimp it wouldn't like fall. No, I just leak very 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.439 slowly and you just land it and patch it up. 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:40.560 I guess, yeah, very slowly. Yeah. British Ministry of Defense 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.560 fired hundreds of bullets into an airship just for fun, well, 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:46.360 not to see what if it would could be shot 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.720 down in battle basically, and uh it took many hours 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.840 to deflate and land. So and they don't even deflate them. 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.880 They just leave them that way, so they're they're natural 0:20:56.000 --> 0:21:00.399 structure will not natural, but their original structure UM events 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.480 them from being shot down. That's one big benefit. Because 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.199 I was wondering about that. I was like, you're just 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:08.679 providing a target for every teenager with a gun in 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.440 any country that you hover a blimp over. UM. Now 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:15.280 I understand. But secondly, as we'll see, it also has 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.879 to do with the dynamics of the flight of UM 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:23.720 hovering in the atmosphere. UM. So you've got the envelope, 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.240 and the envelope also has something called nose cone battons, 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.600 which is basically like a support structure for the nose 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:32.840 the front of it just the very very tip, and 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:37.040 it keeps the the the the blimps front from being 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.960 mashed in as it moves forward, which is pretty smart. Yeah, 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:42.919 I think I misspoke. The nose cone is on just 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:44.600 the very tip, and then the batons are like the 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.399 fingers that distribute the stress over the front of the cone. Okay, 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.440 so they're like the the the structure that comes out 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.399 of the nose, right, and then also on the nose 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.600 as the mooring um hook. Because you've got to hook 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:01.880 a blimp up to something. Yeah, it's got a little 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.720 spindle there, and it's got a little wheel under the 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:08.560 tail rudder, and that's basically how it sits. You just 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:12.560 tie it down. Yeah, very simple. Um, just like a balloon. 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:17.520 That's right. So there's here's where it gets a little craftier, 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:22.600 like nineteen century crafty, but still neat nonetheless. Um, there's 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:26.520 something called balonetts, right, and these are basically air bladders 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.840 that are located within the envelope, and you inflate or 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:33.879 deflate them depending on whether you want the blimp to 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:36.160 go up or down. If you wanted to go up, 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.439 you deflate these balonets. You wanted to go down, you 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.080 inflate them. And the reason that works is because you're 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:47.440 inflating or you're inflating these balonettes with air and helium, 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.520 which blimps fly using now is lighter than air. So 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:54.600