Yesterday, on the weekly chat, I brought up that I had recently seen Silicon Valley's own zeppelin. That caused a discussion of rigid, semi-, and non-rigid airship technology. Most everybody has seen a blimp at one time or another. They are quite popular in large cities as a means of photographing sports events. All the original zeppelins were destroyed during World War 2, and the aluminum of their frames used for the German war effort. What seems to be not so well known is that Count Zeppelin's airship company survived the end of WW2 (it's a part of the larger Zeppelin Baumaschinen GmbH, linbk), and is now manufacturing dirigibles again, the Zeppelin-NT (link). So far, there are four of the magnificent machines, two in Europe, one in Japane, and the newest one in Sunnyvale, California. It was brought by ship to Texas and then flown across the Southwest and up the coast to Sunnyvale (smack dab in the middle of the Silicon Valley link). Here's some pictures: landing, courtesy of NASA (which is the main tenant of Moffett Field), Hanger Number One (at Moffett Field).

Also, the folk etymology for blimp (from Class B, limp) was trotted out, but that was disproved a while back:

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"there was no American 'A-class' of airships as such—all military aircraft, heavier or lighter-than-air were designated with 'A' until the appearance of B-class airships in May 1917. There was an American B airship—but there seems to be no record of any official designation of non-rigids as 'limp'. Further, according to the Oxford Dictionary, the first appearance of the word in print was in 1916, in England, a year before the first B-class airship." ("Etymology of 'Blimp'" by Dr. A. D. Topping, AAHS Journal, Winter 1963.)

Here is the story of the disaster that ended commerical dirigible passenger service before WW2.

As I mentioned on the chat, I've read that an English soldier thumped one and thought it sounded like "blimp" when he did so, thereby giving non-rigid airships an onomatopoeic name. That seems as likely an etymology as any I've read.

As for Zeppelins, the US operated a couple of them after WWI, the Acron and the Macon. They were built by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation.

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As for Zeppelins, the US operated a couple of them after WWI, the Acron and the Macon.

I don't think they qualify for the appellation "zeppelin" since that was only applicable to German-made aircraft manufactured by the count's company. They were dirigibles based on the Zeppelin design. Calling them "zeppelins" would be like calling all flying wings "north americans" since that company made the first one.

They were Zeppelin designs, built in the US in co-operation with Goodyear, so, yes, they were Zeppelins IMHO.

As for flying wings, check out the Horten Brothers in Germany and Charles Fauvel in France who preceded Northrup by four years.

Asa the aviation nut

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Asa Lovejoy>,

hey were Zeppelin designs, built in the US in co-operation with Goodyear, so, yes, they were Zeppelins IMHO.

As is our good old Sunnyvale zeppelin.

As for flying wings, check out the Horten Brothers in Germany and Charles Fauvel in France preceded Northrup by four years.

Ah, yes. The Horten brothers hailed from Bonn, Germany. I've flown out of the small airport near Beuel where they tested their earlier, pre-war flying wing designs.

As for the onomatopoeic etymology of the word blimp. It's better than the "B-Class, limp", but I'll stick with origin uncertain.

"B-class limp" describes my jokes pretty well, alas...

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As for flying wings, check out the Horten Brothers in Germany and Charles Fauvel in France preceded Northrup by four years.

My error. I don't know how I confused Northrup with North American. Just trying to wing it, I guess. I think the Northrup design was the most successful of a group with control problems that weren't solved until computers took over in the 80s.

John Northrup was one very smart guy, but he did try to push the tailless aircraft concept too far too soon. Both Fauvel and the Hortens built very successful flying wing gliders. And don't forget Willy Messerschmitt's rocket-powered flying wing Me 163 Komet of late WWII. It killed more pilots than Brits or Yanks, but it went like stink - and with good stability.

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rocket-powered flying wing Me 163 Komet of late WWII

I always thought landing gear was a good idea. While I seldom fly, when I do I like to use planes designed by someone who attended the Hope-For-The-Best School.

Next Sunday: http://channel.nationalgeograp...ighter-3942/Overview

The History Channel did a report on "Secret Weapons of the Axis" several years ago and discussed this plane. Good thing it didn't get into mass production. We really dropped the ball as far as jets were concerned until the '50s.

Me 163 Komet

A bunch of engineers and enthusiast got together and built an Me 262 from scratch (link). It flies rather well.