OK, I'll put on the alternative-history cap for a moment..... I don't think it would have made much difference in the long term. Lighter-than-air aviation technology was somewhat ahead in the 1930s. But heavier-than-air caught up rapidly, and never looked back. Dirigibles/zeppelins couldn't go high enough to get above bad weather, nor fast enough to outrun/outflank it. Nor could they be made rugged enough to go through bad weather without being so heavy they'd not have much payload. While not needing runways, they needed enormous hangars to protect them from the elements. The main advantage of commercial airliners over surface transportation is speed. Dirigibles weren't fast enough to be competitive with 1930s land transportation - steam trains could do 70-90 mph or so reliably, with little regard for weather, and would go to city centers rather than distant mooring stations. Dirigibles' only real competitive chance was over water, where they were somewhat faster than liners like the Queen Mary, but not nearly as fast as airplanes would become in a decade or two. ----- Recent investigation shows that the real villain in the Hindenburg disaster was the fabric skin - or rather, the highly flammable treatment it received. Modern analysis of the fabric (including some actual samples from the Hindenburg) indicate that the treated fabric could easily be set on fire by static electricity alone. Tests showed the treated fabric would burn fiercely, and spread the fire rapidly, all by itself. Analysis of the movie made of the landing, and eyewitness reports, shows fairly convincingly that a static discharge near the upper vertical stabilizer set the fabric skin on fire, which then spread and burned until it burned through the lift cells containing the hydrogen. IIRC, the Graf Zeppelin did not use the same fabric treatment. If this information was known to the Germans at the time, (and some documents indicate that it was), they'd have reason enough to keep it quiet back then. Better to blame the Hindenburg on the Americans' refusal to sell helium than admit to a flaw in German zeppelin engineering. 73 de Jim, N2EY 'oh, the huge manatee' -----Original Message----- From: Ron D'Eau Claire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Makes one wonder what aviation history had been like if she were carrying helium as originally planned... _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
