Up Ship! The Airship History Podcast

"Remember - there are 7,000,000 cubic feet of hydrogen at the end of a fishing pole!" A slightly different bonus episode today - my film nerd husband and I recap the plot of the 1975 disaster movie The Hindenburg, starring Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott!  My husband knows a lot about films but not much about airships (although he helps me produce these podcasts, so you'd imagine that by osmosis some knowledge has crept through). After a few drinks, we go back over the story scene-by-scene, discussing the characters, the story, the effects and the recreation of the airship itself. At the end, we discuss the film as a whole and our thoughts on it. Let me know if you agree or disagree with our opinions... This episode contains spoilers from the very beginning!! PS - this was originally uploaded on my Patreon account, since shut down, so ignore references to that.

In the years before the First World War, people from nations around the world worked to fill the sky with airships. In this episode, we take a look at developments in the United States and the United Kingdom. We will join one of the most epic adventures in the history of early aviation and we will see how one man's obsession with airships ended up costing him his life. The governments and armed forces of both the United States and the United Kingdom were slow on the uptake with airships, leaving civilians to lead the way. This led to some crazy disasters, as with Morrell's gigantic sausage airship of 1908, as well as giving visionary explorers the opportunity to spread their wings, as with Walter Wellman and his polar and Atlantic adventures. In the United Kingdom, Ernest Thompson Willows, a failed dental student, dedicated his life to airships - with tragic consequences. Enjoy a selection of unusual stories from the early age of aviation!

Delighted to share a very special bonus episode - a discussion with the senior management team of Straightline Aviation, one of the leading British airship companies. Straightline Aviation was formed by some of the most knowledgeable people in the industry so it was fascinating to sit down with them to discuss their significant airship experience and their objectives with Straightline as they work with AT2 Aerospace to bring the Z1 hybrid airship to market.  The panel was formed of: Mike Kendrick, Founder and President Mark Dorey, CEO Jim Dexter, Director of Operations We cover a lot of ground in the discussion, including Mike's early days in balloon advertising and his work on Richard Branson's record-setting balloon flights, Jim's hairiest moment as an airship pilot (it's pretty intense!), Mark's ambitions for Straightline Aviation and the team's experience running the Virgin Airship and Balloon Company in the 1990s and early 2000s. We also talk about the features and benefits of the Z1 hybrid airship design and the challenges and opportunities of bringing a new technology to the market.

The road to success was not a smooth one for Count von Zeppelin. This episode tells the story of his repeated attempts to put the Zeppelin enterprise on a firm foundation, to safeguard the future for his rigid airship invention. Even now he would have agonising false starts, with his second airship torn to pieces in a storm.  With the stunning success of his third airship, the LZ-3, and her larger successor, the LZ-4, the stage seemed set for the Count to meet the German government's audacious challenge - to complete a 24-hour endurance flight with the LZ-4, something no aircraft had yet achieved. But triumph was to turn to tragedy; LZ-4 would be destroyed in a devastating, fiery accident.  It all seemed to be over for the Count, but a nationwide upswell of popular support turned crushing defeat into overwhelming victory. This is the story of how the Zeppelin rose from the ashes.

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was a titan of the airship world - of aviation in general, in fact. The inventor of the rigid airship, he founded a company which manufacturers airships to this day and which was responsible for the creation of some of the most iconic aircraft of all time. But this was not supposed to be his legacy. An army officer and diplomat, he faithfully served the Kingdom of Wurttemberg and the German Empire that followed, through a time of political and social upheaval, until his beloved military career was suddenly and brutally taken away from him.  Bereft, humiliated and cast adrift, the Count turned his energy to a subject that had interested him for years; the problem of human flight. Moving mountains to get his first airship built, he ensured that his name would be synonymous with lighter-than-air flight forever. This is the story of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and his dream of the rigid airship.