Not your father's Led Zeppelin....

[dando]

Good year replacing fleet of blimps with zeppelins. I hope this goes over better than....

466

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13576_3-57593561-315/goodyear-bids-goodbye-to-blimps-says-hello-to-zeppelins/

-Kevin

[gjc2]

I had no idea there was a difference between a blimp and a zeppelin.

I took this picture last weekend.

[stroker]

Unless I'm mistaken the Navy still maintains an absolutely staggering inventory of helium for their "airship" fleet from the 30's...

Just another case of what goes around comes around. I'd think an airship with a carbon fiber frame and high-efficiency turbine power would be a pretty efficient way to get around...

[opinionated ow]

Unless I'm mistaken the Navy still maintains an absolutely staggering inventory of helium for their "airship" fleet from the 30's...

Just another case of what goes around comes around. I'd think an airship with a carbon fiber frame and high-efficiency turbine power would be a pretty efficient way to get around...

as long as you don't feel the urge to actually get anywhere. The things are defeated by a small breeze.

[Andrew Longman]

I will keep an eye out. They hanger their eastcoast fleet nearby so I see them (and Metlife and Blue Cross blimps) all the time.

Cool. These will be a lot bigger.

I know there was talk a few years ago about using zepplins for freight hauling. It would take a lot of truck off the highways and address capacity and service problems with rail. The economic downturn killed that though. I think that was the Airship Ventures mentioned in the article. The problems the Navy had still haven't really been solved though as far as I can tell. These things don't do well in bad weather, especially thunderstorm. They just don't go fast enough to handling winds and downdtafts.

[SteveH]

Used to drive by their SoCal hanger when driving from LAX to Long Beach. Used to. sigh

[datachicane]

as long as you don't feel the urge to actually get anywhere. The things are defeated by a small breeze.

Not necessarily true. LZ129 would do 75 knots back in the '30s, with respectable fuel efficiency.
There was some amazing engineering that went into those ships.

[Napoleon]

I will keep an eye out. They hanger their eastcoast fleet nearby so I see them (and Metlife and Blue Cross blimps) all the time.

Who are you talking about? Goodyear?

[datachicane]

as long as you don't feel the urge to actually get anywhere. The things are defeated by a small breeze.

...and not to belabor the point, but LZ127 was the first aircraft to log over a million miles, spending nearly two years aloft over the course of 144 trans-oceanic crossings (mostly Germany to South America, and including one round-the-world trip), and carried 13,000 passengers over her decade-long career without a single injury to a passenger or crewman. It was finally retired for political, not operational, reasons.
These were not toys.

[Andrew Longman]

Who are you talking about? Goodyear?Yep. On may way to EWR yesterday I saw the DirectTV blimp flying beside me. I take it the blimps (not Goodyears) change out their liveries from time to time depending on who is sponsoring them. Several blimps work out of Solburg Airport in Readington, NJ when they are working the Northeast. I think Goodyear Blimps' permanent homes are in FL, OH and CA but they can't moor in just any airport when they are working far from home. Once I had two Goodyear blimps flying side-by-side low directly above me as I was fishing near there in Round Valley (NJ) Resevoir. Surreal.

[Napoleon]

I think Goodyear Blimps' permanent homes are in FL, OH and CA but they can't moor in just any airport when they are working far from home.

Yes those are their home bases of operation Shuffield, Oh (within 2 or 3 miles or so of where you passed the Goodyear Airdock a few months ago), Carson, CA and Pompano Beach, FL.

[opinionated ow]

what goodyear really needs is a skywhale
http://images.canberratimes.com.au/2013/05/10/4260884/EB-gal1024skywhale-20130510100107743999-600x400.jpg

[Andrew Longman]

Are those "udders" on a whale?

[JLMannin]

So, I take it that a zeppelin is a big-ass blimp?

[datachicane]

No, a Zeppelin is a product of Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, but informally any rigid airship is sometimes called a zeppelin. Dirigible is more accurate.
They have a rigid framework which gives them their shape, as opposed to a blimp, which is just a glorified balloon. A rigid structure give a dirigible much greater speed and maneuverability than a simple gasbag.

http://www.air-and-space.com/Zeppelin/LZ-127%20Das%20Luftschiff-Gerippe%20im%20Bau%20l.jpg

This is LZ129, and that's a bunch of aluminum. The gas bags would be hung inside the framework, along with crew quarters, causeways, ballast tanks, fuel, water, etc., etc., and a doped fabric skin stretched tight over the outside (much like period aircraft).

[cameraman]

Which is all fine and good until you run into a thunderstorm...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Zrs-4.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/NH43901-enhanced.jpg/773px-NH43901-enhanced.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Uss_Patoka_AO9.jpg

[datachicane]

Painting them with thermite didn't help.

[cameraman]

No those three were all lost to wind shear causing structural failure. No fires.

Akron, Shenandoah & Macon

[Andrew Longman]

Data you are absolutely correct but you may be coming off as a gas bag snob. Maybe that's not what you want. Jus sayin :gomer:

[opinionated ow]

Are those "udders" on a whale?

yes... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skywhale)
494

[datachicane]

No those three were all lost to wind shear causing structural failure. No fires.

Akron, Shenandoah & Macon

There's a reason why the Germans didn't lose their big airships to wind shear. The ring-frame truss that was favored here had been explicitly rejected over there as being structurally inadequate. IIRC, many of the key Goodyear engineers were ex-Zeppelin staff who had (unfortunately) been vocal proponents of that lighter design.

[gjc2]

It must be blimp month @ FRG