this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025

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324

just because we screwed up once (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 3 days ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/memes@lemmy.world

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[–] carrylex@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

[–] twice_hatch@midwest.social 6 points 2 days 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 2 days ago

Yes, those things are really hard to park.

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

lol, the gilded blimp crashing into a junkyard

[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days 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

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 61 points 3 days 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.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are other gasses to use.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

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

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

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[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days 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 3 points 2 days 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 2 days ago (2 children)

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

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[–] cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

No cigarettes

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I fucking love Archer

[–] FrChazzz@lemmus.org 3 points 2 days 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 2 days ago

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

[–] TheRealKuni@midwest.social 5 points 2 days ago

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

[–] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 35 points 3 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 26 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days 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 3 points 2 days ago

forgot about helium

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 10 points 3 days 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 4 points 2 days 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.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago

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

[–] Headofthebored@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days 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?

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days 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 2 days 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 2 days ago

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

[–] Redredme@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days 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...

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days 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 3 days ago (1 children)

Big ass vacuum

[–] troybot@midwest.social 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A gigantic maid with a vacuum cleaner

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[–] ninjakttty@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days 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.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Far from the only fuckup they made.

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[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago (5 children)

what if it was made of helium though

that stuff doesn't burn

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Helium has problems of its own, sadly. Besides being a little bit less effective at actually lifting, it's relatively scarce on Earth and it leaks even faster than hydrogen

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 6 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I believe we're also already getting dangerously close to depleting our supply of helium, as well.

[–] Artyom@lemm.ee 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's actually not a big deal for blimps. Blimps don't lose a lot of helium, they only need to be serviced for if like once a year. When people say we have a helium crisis, they're talking about high-purity helium for advanced medical work and advanced science.

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Phew, so it's only a crisis for important shit. Dodged a bullet there! :D

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[–] Xanthrax@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The thing we're running out of?

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's a Noble gas that we can't synthesize chemically and is light enough it just floats away forever when released. And it provides less lift than hydrogen.

Helium's sole advantage is also why it's about the least-renewable thing out there.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The Empire State Building was designed as a zeppelin docking station. Boarding/de-boarding and flight times are barely competitive with the modern subway. It was fun and novel, but quite impractical.

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[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 5 points 3 days ago (4 children)

honestly, I bet we could probably make a hydrogen one reasonably safe, if we really wanted to. Sure, its flammable and all, but so is jet fuel, and we can throw giant tanks of that stuff into the air safely with enough engineering put into it.

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[–] takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

We had the pandemic, now likely a great depression, so why not Hindenburg?

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[–] son_named_bort@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

We shouldn't have made them from led.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

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