Wired magazine's fav SF movies.
And, since geekiness is not limited to science/speculative fiction, Wired reminds us that the US Navy dirigible USS Shenandoah went down in an electrical storm on this date in 1925.
(I don't believe that the navy airships were equipped, as the Army Air Corps'
Ahem. Edited/corrected/additional material follows:
The Shenandoah was not equipped, as the Navy's later Macon and Akron were, with biplane fighter aircraft with a "trapeze" apparatus for "landing", a la the German airship in Indiana Jones and the Lost Crusade.) (Actually, so far as I know, neither were German airships...)
Ahem. Edited/corrected/additional material follows:
The Shenandoah was not equipped, as the Navy's later Macon and Akron were, with biplane fighter aircraft with a "trapeze" apparatus for "landing", a la the German airship in Indiana Jones and the Lost Crusade.) (Actually, so far as I know, neither were German airships...)
USS Shenandoah (ZR-1)
ZR-2 (Originally the British airship R38.)
USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) (The only one of the five ZR class to have survived to be decommissioned and scrapped, instead of crashing...)
USS Akron (ZRS-4)
USS Macon (ZRS-5)
The pages for the Akron and Macon include photos of the heavier-than-air groups in flight, and good pix of the trapeze apparatus. I didn't realize that they removed the undercarriage of the aircraft for operations from a lighter-than-air carrier! I think I would have objected, at least when operating over or near land...
These naval History and Heritage pages all have instructions for how to order hi-rez reproductions of the photos they have, so historians and modelers should take note...
ZR-2 (Originally the British airship R38.)
USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) (The only one of the five ZR class to have survived to be decommissioned and scrapped, instead of crashing...)
USS Akron (ZRS-4)
USS Macon (ZRS-5)
The pages for the Akron and Macon include photos of the heavier-than-air groups in flight, and good pix of the trapeze apparatus. I didn't realize that they removed the undercarriage of the aircraft for operations from a lighter-than-air carrier! I think I would have objected, at least when operating over or near land...
These naval History and Heritage pages all have instructions for how to order hi-rez reproductions of the photos they have, so historians and modelers should take note...
2 comments:
I think the aircraft-within-a-ship was a much later development that relied on a bigger airframe and smaller, more powerful aircraft - and the whole trapeeze apparatus, and I'm pretty sure the Macon was a Navy vessel since it was piloted by a Navy guy who was the father of another navy guy that my dad went to school with.
le sigh.
Fixt. At 0100, it's amazing I can type well enough for spell check to work...
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