4 ms·
Allied forces went to great lengths in creating specialized bullets to ignite hydrogen from zeppelins. The common conception of zeppelins being wildly flammable
by aww_dang 7y ago
Allied forces went to great lengths in creating specialized bullets to ignite hydrogen from zeppelins. The common conception of zeppelins being wildly flammable seems misplaced in this context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomeroy_bullet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomeroy_bullet
In my eyes zeppelin travel would be a welcome alternative to current air accommodations. In the same way I prefer taking a room on a train to air travel, I would prefer a cabin on an airship to either. If cargo can be transported, then I would expect a similar arrangement to the existing container ship passages.
- rgblambda 7y agoIn the article they talk about how the airships would be unmanned due to the risk of fire.
- squarefoot 7y agoWhich is a very shortsighted view from them IMO. An unmanned hydrogen filled airship may spare passengers and crew in case of an accident because there is none of either, but if catches fire over a stadium or a highway while carrying 5 grand pianos that wouldn't make it less deadly than the Hindenburg.
- C1sc0cat 7y agoCompared to a landing accident with a plane an airship is safer.
- CalRobert 7y agoThey can plan routes to avoid places like that, and most space is not populated (fields, etc.)
- bewo001 7y agoIn fact, two thirds of people aboard the Hindenburg survived. Since the we had a lot more aircraft landing accidents where all passengers died in the jet fuel fire.
- mkl 7y agoThere also weren't many people on board altogether: "Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew aboard, 13 passengers and 22 crew died, as well as one member of the ground crew." [1] Many aeroplane disasters have involved far more people. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_129_Hindenburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_129_Hindenburg
- usrusr 7y agoBut on the other hand, the whole class made less than 100 flights, which makes it more than a thousand times more deadly than the 737 MAX even with two thirds surviving. So the bad reputation is not just the outcome of exceptional media coverage (I do wonder how the failure rate compares to it's fixed wing contemporaries though, they surely were quite terrible by today's standards as well)
- perlgeek 7y agoIf the unmanned zeppelins operate some time without any such incidents, maybe they'll reconsider this aspect. > An unmanned hydrogen filled airship may spare passengers and crew in case of an accident because there is none of either, but if catches fire over a stadium or a highway while carrying 5 grand pianos that wouldn't make it less deadly than the Hindenburg. The riskiest bits seem to be takeoff and landing, so one should take care that those don't happen near a stadium, at the very least.
- squarefoot 7y agoAs of today, one more problem with big slow bags filled with hydrogen flying around, is also that any fool armed with a shotgun and explosive bullets, or probably even a small drone carrying a small homemade explosive charge can bring them down. In a perfect world I wouldn't even think about that eventuality, but alas this one is far from being perfect.
- dredmorbius 7y agoFortunately, there's a lot of the Earth that's not (yet) occupied with stadia or highwaiim.
- alexpotato 7y agoI remember watching a documentary on the Hindenberg that said it was more likely that the fire was caused by the type of silver paint they used. Apparently it was very flammable.