this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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[–] carrylex@lemmy.world 30 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (4 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents

Apart from the 80% of the entries that are basically "Crashed during bad weather" - my personal highlights:

... breaks loose from its mooring during a storm and is blown over the English Channel; after sightings in Wales and Ireland and a brief touchdown in Belfast, the airship was blown out over the Atlantic Ocean and is never seen again.

Zeppelin LZ 8 Deutschland II (brand new) is caught by a wind gust while being walked out of its hangar and damaged beyond repair after it smashes on the roof of the hangar.

... the airship, weighed down with gold and burgundy paint, reached 600 feet altitude before beginning an unplanned right descending turn, making a "controlled descent" into a garbage dump, impaling the blimp on a pine tree, coming down just a quarter-mile from the site of the Hindenburg's 1937 demise.

... suffers an intentional mid-air collision with a radio-controlled airplane.

[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago

the airship was blown out over the Atlantic Ocean and is never seen again.

zeppelins are always just Phineas and Ferb plots

suffers an intentional mid-air collision with a radio-controlled airplane.

like you cannot tell me that this isn't just the platypus controlling the evil guys "overly complicated bomb holding RC plane" after stealing the remote from him

[–] twice_hatch@midwest.social 4 points 5 hours ago

the airship was blown out over the Atlantic Ocean and is never seen again.

Hastily stuffing "Ghost zeppelin" into my horror idea bag

[–] mmddmm@lemm.ee 7 points 11 hours ago

Yes, those things are really hard to park.

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

lol, the gilded blimp crashing into a junkyard

[–] cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)
[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 10 points 21 hours ago (2 children)
[–] FrChazzz@lemmus.org 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Agreed. Big Scott Bakula fan. Plus I hold that the show remains under-appreciated for the Star Trek fandom and— oh. THAT Archer. Nevermind. Please continue.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

I love Enterprise, I have all 4 seasons on blu-ray.

[–] TheRealKuni@midwest.social 5 points 14 hours ago

I still haven’t seen the series-ending movie because I was so underwhelmed by the final season.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 59 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Let's put a billion birthday balloons worth of MRI gas in a terminally slow aircraft and inexplicably fly it over sports stadiums.

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Modern airship designs can go hundreds of km per hour.

With modern technology we also can contain fire into pockets.

This isn’t much different than criticising a plane because petrol is flammable.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, no. I'm back at a real computer and thought about this so I went and looked.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/fastest-speed-for-an-airship

Guinness World Record is 115 km/h, a blistering 72 miles per hour.

That's a stripped down machine made for "speed". Anything made for "work" is going to be considerably slower. Don't get me wrong, airships were an important stepping stone for aviation but none of them can compete with an airplane for utility.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Wait, what? I'm in my phone at work so searching sucks, can you link one of those fast airships?

[–] lemmyartistforhire@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The Hindenburg with 90 year old tech had a cruising speed of 122 km/h.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 hours ago

woah! Everyone hold on to your hats!

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

There are other gasses to use.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

And that don’t readily explode when exposed to an ignition source?

(I actually think hydrogen party balloons would be fun).

100% hydrogen isn't explosive. It's only when about 30% of oxygen is mixed does it become dangerous.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

lol, I worked in one (dangerous) shop where a common prank would be to wait for someone to be in thier hood, upend a large styrofoam coffee cup from the break room on the edge of someone's bench, fill it with aceteline from a torch and spark it.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 4 points 12 hours ago

I’ve seen that prank too. Feels like an old fabricators’ rite of passage. Also probably where a lot of cases of tinnitus originate.

[–] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 33 points 1 day ago (3 children)

they were abandoned because commercial airliners were faster, safer, more durable, and could carry more people.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 5 points 16 hours ago

Also hard to maneuver, hard to park, and not very good in even moderately bad weather.

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

...and they don't fuck up our limited helium reserves en masse.

EDIT: they might fuck up other things, but it would be some serious waste, because there are much more important applications to our limited helium.

[–] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 2 points 7 hours ago

forgot about helium

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hard to say that theyre really safer, when the primary safety incident everyone thinks of, occurred during the 1930s, a time whose airplanes certainly wouldnt have been as safe as modern ones either

[–] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 3 points 8 hours ago

planes are safer because they are less prone to failure and can take more damage (and more significant damage) before falling out of the sky, as well as being able to maneuver on the way down instead of just actually falling.

[–] Headofthebored@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

Well, the Nazis were stupid and used hydrogen instead of helium. The Hindenburg, pride of Nazi Germany, was full of rich people when it blew up in New Jersey, so who really cares anyway?

[–] Redredme@lemmy.world 14 points 19 hours ago

The Nazis had to use hydrogen because that other gas was hoarded as a strategic reserve by another nation.

But still Nazis. So...

Anyway big flying things are cool. Still would be.

its just that planes are faster, cheaper to build, less of a hassle to land and take off...

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 18 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

It's also worth noting that it wasn't the hydrogen that caused the fire. The Hindenburg had an aluminium skin. It began having degradation issues, so they painted it. The paint was iron oxide based. Aluminium and iron oxide are the 2 main ingredients in thermite.

Analysis of the video shows that it was the skin burning off. It would have gone up almost as badly, even if filled with helium.

[–] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 8 points 18 hours ago

Thermite is known for being freaking hard to ignite, even torching it is not enough sometimes. So I doubt that had anything to do with the fire.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

Not according to myth busters. Although some thermite reactions likely accured the blimp would have gone up without it

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Far from the only fuckup they made.

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 2 points 15 hours ago

Yeah, but how were they to know the central reservation on the autobahns would need a barrier as well as earthworks?

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 17 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Helium is very finite and very leaky. If you want flying ships you need something else.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] troybot@midwest.social 11 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

A gigantic maid with a vacuum cleaner

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

And a big ass.

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[–] ninjakttty@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours ago

Well they weren’t totally stupid, they couldn’t get helium because the US restricted them from getting it as the largest supplier. The plan was originally to use helium, but they went with the second best option.

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[–] son_named_bort@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

We shouldn't have made them from led.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (23 children)

Every 100 years, I guess. We gotta go through all the shit every 100 years.

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[–] Skua@kbin.earth 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's some research done on aerogel airships. There's still hope

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