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Those seeking to relive the experience of World War I zeppelin crews mounting early bombing raids against London will soon be able to do so, according to reports. Tourist airship flights over the capital are scheduled to begin in June, using vessels manufactured by the company which built the original zeppelins. The Times …
> I guess that the zepplin will not fly during wet and windy days.
I don't see why not? zeppelins can fly a lot faster than most people give them credit for and the zeppelin NT tops out at about 80mph, preferring to cuise at about 45-50 I would think. It would have to be fairly windy in london to make the airship completely unsafe, though they'll have a fair margin of error there. still, in winds up to 20-30mph they'd probably be okay. and 30mph winds are fairly strong...
dave
Having had a look at the company's website, they're essentially just blimps. There are plenty of other companies that fly sight-seeing blimps. They don't look anything like the WWII-era scary things.
Obviously these will do well because they have the Zeppelin brand name, but it would be far cooler if they were modelled after the original Zeppelins.
As a matter of interest - did the original Zeppelins really mount bombing raids? I would have thought they'd just be used on spying trips; think about how heavy bombs would be.
@Ian Ferguson - they definitely were used for bombing raids. Not a massive payload but enough to scare the living daylights out of the poor buggers on the ground. Real blow to morale too.
Presumably you would get a good view of the Dome? Easy target to hit...<evil_laugh> and there's 10 downing street....and no.11....wait...there's all of Whitehall....</evil_laugh>
Paris, cos the Zeppelin has a higher IQ.
Yes the original zeppelins mounted bombing raids - quite successfully too.
As far as weight you've got to remember that the original zeppelins were absolutely super huge - far bigger than the wee blimps of today. With a skeleton crew instead of passengers they could carry an impressive payload of munitions.
Yup, Zeppelins were used to bomb the UK, France and Belgium between 1915 and 1918.
They were a huge propaganda success - the thought of Germans attacking the enemy capital was wildly popular in Germany and produced near panic in the UK. But the raids were little more than a nuisance in terms of the damage they did - about 500 people were killed in Britain by Zeppelins throughout the war.
The biggest problem for the Germans was their navigation, they rarely found their intended targets and even when the did, precision bombing was impossible. The Zeppelins were soon outclassed by improved planes with incendiary bullets, forcing them to fly even higher which made them even less useful.
Perhaps surprisingly, by the end of the war bomb loads were in the tonnes - far higher than the aircraft of the time. But the cost of the Zeppelins and their fragility made them obsolete as the Germans, including the Zeppelin company, developed long-range multi-engined bomber planes.
Zeppelins did do a bit of reconnaissance for the German fleet and for the army over the Western front, but incredibly no one seems to have thought of using them in association with U-boats to find Allied convoys and direct attacks.
As they are neutral or lighter than air, would modern Zeppelins be suitable for trans-atlantic cruising with a better passenger/fuel ratio than a jet plane or a cruise ship? Could run them on peanut diesel or hydrogen!?
Mine's the one with the 'oh the humanity' slogan on the back
I was having a Breakfast down a side street in Croydon, when a copper (a Policeman) came in & told us an unexploded Zeppelin bomb had been found next door & told us all to get out NOW. I got no re-fund! This was about 1980.
IT angle? I worked (still do!) for BT (OK ,it was Post Office Telecom's then.)
"did the original Zeppelins really mount bombing raids?"
Yes, my dad recalled seeing one over Portsmouth in WWI, nicely illuminated with searchlights. Being 2 or 3 at the time, he found the unusual nighttime excursion and the sight of the shiny cigar thing in the sky as the family fled in terror great fun.
@Chris Williams
"made some significant raids on maritime centres on the East Coast of England during the First World War."
and also the South Coast.
but these craft will contain helium, not hydrogen, so when they crash they won't burst into flames. Instead, they'll spill helium, meaning the passengers will be be able to call for help from any passing bats.
Or do a Bee Gees "It's a tragedy" tribute on the way down.
I've used the "Joke" icon because I'm not being totally serious here. I hope you realise theat.