This video is brought to you by Squarespace. Ever heard the phrase what goes up must come
down? Well In the brief time that airships were
a popular means of air transport, they were involved in numerous incidents that shocked
the world. These incidents ranged from harmless and amusing,
to deadly tragedies that forever shook confidence in the validity of the vehicles, but all of
them are interesting to study. Number 5, Los Angeles 1927 The USS Los Angeles was a massive airship
given to the United States by Germany in 1924 as war reparations. She enjoyed a few years of service until her
incident in New Jersey on the 25th of August 1927. After being refitted and undergoing repairs,
the Los Angeles was supposed to conduct an eight-hour flight at 10,000 feet in the air. The airship was docked on the high mast of
the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, preparing for its flight, when a breeze blew in from
the southeast at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Rather than spinning to face the wind, the
breeze began to lift the tail of the ship into the air. It kept on rising by its tail, and the men
on board were forced to grab hold of the ship’s girders to avoid falling over. Suddenly, the ship was standing at a 90-degree
angle over its mast. In the engine room at the back of the airship,
now high in the air, one of the engineer’s reportedly shouted, “Holy Christ, I can
see New York”. Nobody was quite sure what to do, and the
commanders of the mast and the airship got into an argument about whether they should
disconnect or not. Luckily, as quickly as things had gone wrong,
they solved themselves. The ship did a complete flip of the high mast
and lowered herself down onto the other side. She was quickly returned to her hanger to
be inspected for damage, but nothing had been broken during the incident. The most damage to the airship had occurred
inside the cars, where falling tools and objects had crashed into each other. The accident was quickly moved on from, and
nobody was hurt. The crew at least left with a story to tell. A century on from the incident, we can look
at the extraordinary photos of an airship hovering vertically in the air over its naval
base and appreciate the pioneering efforts of early aviators, who made flight what it
is today. Number 4, USS Shenandoah 1925 The USS Shenandoah was the first attempt by
the United States Navy to create a rigid airship that could patrol the skies over North America
and its oceans. At 680 feet long and with a crew of more than
forty, when it was built in 1923 it was one of the largest airships in the United States. It was even the first airship to cross the
Atlantic, as well as the first to conduct a transcontinental flight of America. She took part in naval exercises as a scout,
and was ordered to conduct Arctic exploration, until a tear in her balloon prevented the
mission from proceeding. It was a short career, but she was a popular
vessel and became a symbol of the navy, flying all over the country and drawing large crowds
of spectators wherever she went. The US government took notice of this popularity,
and the Shenandoah was sent on a tour of United States in 1925. She was to visit forty cities all across the
American Midwest. On the 2nd of September, she set off on her
journey, but it didn’t take long for things to go tragically wrong on board. The next day, on the 3rd, a sudden storm hit
the Shenandoah as she was travelling over Ohio. The storm lifted the Shenandoah and the change
in pressure tore the balloon to pieces. The airship split in three and crashed to
the ground outside the town of Caldwell. Fourteen of the crew were killed, either by
falling out of the airship while it was being torn to pieces, or when it hit the ground. Remarkably, the rear section of the airship
remained afloat, and the seven men inside managed to remain afloat for a time without
the rest of the airship. The story of the Shenandoah didn’t end there
however. This was not merely a deadly crash, but the
destruction of an icon of the United States. Naturally then, the looting began almost immediately
when the pieces of the ship made landfall. The Department of Justice and the Ohio National
Guard tried to secure the site, and over the next few weeks confiscated over four truckloads
and materials that had been looted by locals from the wreckage. However, there was simply no way of finding
it all. Even the logbook had been taken, depriving
investigators of a valuable resource with which they could determine what had happened. Everything, from the metal framework to the
canvas of the balloon itself was an attractive item to try and grab. One report even stated that a piece of the
canvas of the balloon was turned into a lampshade during the Great Depression. Once the looting had been stopped, the wreck
site itself became a tourist attraction, with thousands coming to view the crash site, and
a small local economy developing around it. Stalls were set up selling soda and water
to the tourists flooding into the area. The cause of the crash was investigated by
the Army and Navy, who found the causes were twofold. One, the weather conditions of Ohio had been
ignored in favour of a publicity stunt for the military, and two, the Helium inside the
balloon was considered too valuable to allow any waste, and so safety valves had been removed
from the airship. This prevented pressure control during the
rapid ascent. Safety requirements for airships were changed
after this disaster but airships would not remain in flight for much longer anyway. Before we crack on with this list I wanted
to tell you a quick story about my business, Oceanliner Designs and today’s sponsor Squarespace. Number 3, LZ 104 1917 In 1917, the beleaguered troops of German
East Africa were fighting a guerrilla war against the British, cut off from home and
running low on supplies. A resupply mission by sea would be impossible,
as the Royal Navy prevented any German ships from reaching so far away. A new plan would be needed, and the answer
came in the form of the LZ 104 airship. Operation China Snow was launched, in which
the LZ 104 would fly from Bulgaria, across the Mediterranean and over Egypt, making its
way south until it could resupply the army. This was to be a one-way mission, and even
the fabrics that made up the airship were planned to be disassembled and turned into
useful material for the army. On the 21st of November 1917, the ship set
off from Yambol in Bulgaria. For several days it sailed through the air,
managing to travel through harsh weather and turbulence. Eventually, one of the five engines on board
seized up, which reduced the airship’s speed, and the electronics failed, rendering it unable
to send signals (Though it could still receive them). Then over Khartoum, a signal was received
from the West African army, calling off the mission as they had lost control of the landing
sight. This signal may have actually been faked by
the British, but records are unclear. Either way, the ship turned back from its
mission and retreated to Bulgaria. Though the mission was a failure, the LZ 104
managed to set a new record for airtime and distance travelled in an airship, having spent
ninety-five hours in the air and travelling four-thousand two-hundred miles in total. The celebration was short-lived however. The airship began operating out of Yambol,
attacking targets across the Mediterranean in bombing raids. On the 7th of April 1918, she attempted to
attack the British at Malta. An observing submarine commander reported
seeing two bursts on board the airship, before it was engulfed in a “gigantic flame…
and it nosed down into the water”. There were no survivors on board among the
21-man crew. Strangely, neither the British nor Italians
claimed the kill, and the destruction of the airship is likely the result of an accident
on board rather than fire from enemy forces. Number 2, C-8 Blimp 1919 The C-Class blimps were a type of patrol airship
developed by the US Navy after the first world war, very simple in their design and function. Unlike a zeppelin the C-class did not have
a rigid metal frame but were more like a conventional balloon with a cab slung underneath. 10 of the blimps were completed and they would
go on to have tumultuous lives. On the 2nd of July 1919, the C-8 attempted
to dock at Camp Holabird in Maryland. There were many spectators of the event watching
the balloon come in when suddenly something went badly wrong; the blimp somehow spontaneously
ignited and detonated above the ground. Unfortunately, more than 80 adults and children
on the ground were injured in the blast and the six-man crew on board the ship was lost. A mile away from the explosion windows in
houses were even blown out! This would not be the only disaster that the
C-class of ships was involved in. Only two months earlier, the C-5 had been
lost in a gale off the coast of Newfoundland when it was blown out to sea while attempting
a transatlantic crossing; the wind simply picked it up while the ground crew were trying
to pull it with ropes into position. Two years later, the C-3 would catch fire
and crash while attempting to dock in Norfolk. The US navy eventually switched to non-flammable
helium gas instead of hydrogen but this limited the range of their airships; helium weighs
twice as much as hydrogen and only allowed 93% of the lifting capacity. In the end the ultimate cause of the C-8’s
explosion was never discovered. Number 1, Akron 1933 The USS Akron was the world’s first flying
aircraft carrier, operated by the United States Navy and flying between 1931 and 1933. It was capable of carrying four planes that
could be launched from its hold and used to attack the enemy, and then recovered through
a trapeze mechanism. Though it never saw combat, it was a valuable
experiment for the shirt time it was in service. On the 3rd of April 1933, just two years after
it had been launched, the Akron cast off on a voyage along the coast of New England. This would be its last journey. The airship left dock at 7:30 in the evening,
with many distinguished guests on board, including a Rear Admiral, the Commander of the Lakehurst
Naval Sir Station, and others. It was intended to be a display of the potential
uses of the airships in naval service. Unfortunately, the day she left was also the
beginning of a huge storm that would sweep the American coast. Fog soon rolled in, and within a few hours
the ship had become difficult to control in the wind and rain they had flown directly
into. Shortly after midnight, the Akron began a
rapid descent into the ocean. The crew managed to eject ballast, which briefly
stabilised the height, but it did not last long. The ship quickly began to sink again, this
time hitting the ocean tail-first. The waves quickly dragged the ship down, and
the Akron was lost with almost all on board. Of the seventy-six men on board the vessel
at the time of the crash, seventy-three died. This makes the Akron the single worst airship
disaster in history. To make matters worse, the rescue efforts
also resulted in several dead, as a Naval Blimp was sent to help search for survivors
in the water. This blimp found itself victim of the same
stormy conditions, and it also sank, killing two of its crew. The reason for the deadliness of the Akron
crash is that despite sailing over the ocean, there were no lifejackets on board the vessel,
and only a single raft. The reports of survivors indicate that it
was not the crash that resulted in the deaths but drowning and the freezing temperature
of the Atlantic. After this, safety measures aboard airships
were changed and all were equipped with lifejackets. President Roosevelt gave a speech in the aftermath
of the disaster, in which he described the “National disaster”, and praised the men
lost in the crash as “Upholding to the end the finest traditions of the United States
Navy”. The exact cause of the crash is still unknown,
but numerous theories have been presented as to what caused the descent of the Akron. It’s possible that it was simply a downdraft
that caused the tail of the Akron to sink into the water and it was subsequently pulled
down. However, it’s also possible that the altimeter
on board was not properly calibrated for the low air-pressure caused by the storm. Given the nearly 800-foot length of the ship
and the difficulty in manoeuvring such a large vehicle, if the captain thought he was at
a higher altitude than he was, the ship’s tail might have touched the water when the
crew tried to pull up too quickly. The answer will likely never be known for
sure. Just another reason why I never travel by
hot air balloon - I’ll stick to good old Terra Firma!
