Monday , in the clouds

Re: Monday , in the clouds

Sounds like you were recently in Tillamook, visiting the blimp hanger.

Re: Monday , in the clouds

As I recall, NASA's hydrogen leak detector was a common household item.

Low hanging fruit and a wag ...

Well, I'll take a stab at the low hanging (math) based questions!

7,062,000 cubic feet should convert (if I'm using the right mtr/ft values) to 199,973.57 cubic meters which should give 239,968.28 lbs of lifting force (@1.2 lbs / m3)

Of course, the cost for a "fill up" at 9$/1000 ft3 would be $63,558 -- no small change back then!

As far as the detection of leaks, I'm guessing one of those parties used the same method I use for checking propane leaks in the bbq? The last thing you want are tiny bubbles ;-)

Another wag is I would guess that Hydrogen has a higher lifting power than helium?

Thanks for the question!

-Randy

Why not Helium?

I know the answer to this one, but the goverment won't let me tell it to you.

glc

Re: Why not Helium?

It makes you talk funny.

Re: Monday , in the clouds answers

Answers:

DB I haven�t been to the Oregon museum --but I know about it and did attempt to find out how much WOOD was used to make the hangar-no joy there. There�s a question for someone!

Bill Earl gets credit for the broom.

Gary gets the government holdback helium star, and Randy Miller I got you at 119.98 tons lift. And gas fill up dead on. Winners all

Math whizzes get to push me around here but basically you can take cubic feet and convert to cubic meters which are 35.315 cubic feet per cubic meter. 7,063,100/35.315=200002.8 sq meters x 1.2 lbs=

240003 lbs lift/ 2000 = 120tons This is apparently the useful lift. However the volume of the Hindenburg 882 feet x 135 feet max diameter was according to one web report (www.ciderpresspottery.com) 242 tons without all the structure. All in all I get 115 to 120 in the reading material. Not bad even for today.

The Germans used garlic smell to tell if hydrogen was leaking. NASA on the other hand told their employees to walk around with a broom held in front of them to discover if hydrogen was aflame.(seriously!)

Helium supplies were largely �owned� by the US govt. and we wouldn�t give it to them. There were cost and transportation/delivery problems to be sure but it was the Nazi swastika painted on the tail that shut them out of helium for good. Germany didn�t flinch. The lifting ratio between helium and hydrogen is slightly under 10% actually 25/27. They added ten staterooms because of the extra buoyancy and went on their merry way. (After all they had 30 years experience with hydrogen �even in wartime as a bombing platform�Opps could that have been the reason not to give them helium?�the possibility of bombs over New York-hmmmmm(Sounds like Japan in WWII)). Anyway a cheap fill up was $63,558 in 1937 dollars and in corrupt Spain the fees were $35/1000 cubic feet, not $9.

Aside: Because of the expense, pilots were told not to dump gas if the ship became light. They were to fly into fog or clouds to cool them down (are you kidding me!�INTO clouds with an explosive gas), or wait till night, or drive the ship to the ground using engines so that a ground crew in the hundreds sometimes could wrestle it to a stop and add sandbags and water

Blimp (a blimp is not a rigid or semi rigid air ship by the way)got its name from a British military guy who said it was the sound of a finger held back by the thumb and suddenly released. When it hit the skin of the non-rigid ship it went �blimp.� Lt. A.D. Conningham of the British Royal Navy in 1915 gets credit at least some of the time.

A cruise ship took a little over four days. The airship could do it in 2 1/2 at a top speed of 85 MPH. Driven by four 1200 horse Mercedes Benz engines and four 20 foot four bladed props. Not nearly as posh as a ship however as the walls were thin, and fifty people shared one shower.