Goodbye old fashioned fixed wing aircraft!

[DaveB]

Believe it or not Darren, I'd not noticed that but yes, funnel smoke and also bow wave also do odd things It was simply seeing Ark Royal, I remembered my shutdown Sea Vixen being ejected off the deck after resuming the sim.. much to my annoyance as I was trying to track where it was going to be at any given hour on it's trip from Liverpool to Plymouth via the CI

ATB

DaveB

[petermcleland]

S'Alright, the Macon was Hydrogen filled.

I would hope it was Helium filled Skippy

[emfrat]

Among my books - I wouldn't call it a library - I have a Dover publication titled "The Great Dirigibles -their triumphs and disasters" by John Toland. Apparently the original print was titled "Ships in the Sky". It is a fascinating read, and it becomes clear that it was the fact of these great machines being lighter than air that made them so vulnerable. Macon was mortally wounded by what today we would call a microburst; Shenandoah was torn apart when she could not fully penetrate a squall line, or front. The R100/R101 saga is also covered.
Ever since I first read it some years ago, I have been wondering just how much momentum a powered lighter-than-air craft actually has.
To go with it, I later bought a DVD titled "The Airships" which was put out by the (Oz) ABC. Like my videos and DVDs of old railway stuff, it is the things in the background rather than the main subject which provide the most enjoyment.

Recommended, if a tad
MikeW

[SkippyBing]

I would hope it was Helium filled Skippy

That being what I meant to type!

[jonesey2k]

I like Hydrogen, especially its heavy isotopes, power of the future!

[Garry Russell]

Instead of gas, could they just not instal a small office in the cabin from where a Government official could annouce Government plans and polices with a pipe tapping all the hot air and pumping it into the envelope.

[HawkerHart]

That balloon race the other day was with hydrogen filled balloons. The Gordon Bennett, oldest air race in the world apparently. Sadly one balloon and crew went missing over the Adriatic and still no news

[Tom Clayton]

FS doesn't have the provision to anchor an aircraft by the nose, so the designer just put an invisible "roof" out from the tower. The zep is sitting on that surface, so FS thinks there should be a shadow. If you really want to play with somebody's brain, do a few touch and go's with a Piper Cub!

[Patron7]

Hi Guys,

Somehow I missed this thread. If you have any questions about either the Macon model (I was the project coordinator) or the actual dirigible - just ask. All dirigibles dropped ballast (water) in order to lighten up so that they could rise. Both the USS Macon and her sister-ship (USS Akron) had water recovery devices to trap condensate and therefore add weight while underway. Helium was fantastically expensive, so they could not afford to just valve it off like you would hydrogen (which was dirt-cheap) to loose weight while landing .

Bill

[blanston12]

S'Alright, the Macon was Hydrogen filled.

Now how about some fighters to drop out the bottom of it?

For the record both USS Macon and her sister-ship USS Akron where filled with Helium! Hindenburg was designed to use Helium also, but the US government would not sell the Helium to Germany.