The Deltoid Pumpkinseed

Just finished reading this book.  I don't think I'll make a review out of it.  There are a few facts that I can relate here in connection to the Hindenberg airship, which I obtained from the book.

The Hindenberg was required to use hydrogen as its lifting gas.  It was designed for helium, but helium wouldn't be shipped because that was forbidden by the US government.  It seems that a lot bad memories were still too fresh in order to allow the Germans access to helium.  Airships were used in combat in World War I, and they were quite terrifying to the people of that time.  If helium was used instead of hydrogen, the ferocity of the fire may have been less.  By the way, the skin of the airship was also flammable, so that a fire may have been unavoidable at some time.  The hydrogen just made it a lot worse.   

Another fact about the Hindenberg was that it was being used for Nazi propaganda.  Despite its safety record as of that time, the spectacular nature of the disaster made it impossible to be useful for that purpose.  Also, given Hitler's nature, the very fact that it was a source of embarrassment for the regime made it quite vulnerable to the dictator's displeasure.

The airship was a very pleasurable way of traveling according to this book.  A milk bottle was set upside down and made an full trip across the ocean without being knocked over.  That's a very smooth ride that may not be possible on a modern plane.  Not to mention the fact that there was ample room to move around.  Nothing like flying in a glorified sardine can.  It flew at 75 miles an hour.  Not very fast, but compare this to a ship and it is fast even by today's standards.

What a pity to have such a fine flying machine delegated to the scrap heap because of one accident.  In addition, due to the whims of a mad dictator.  I was wondering, why not bring it back?  But this book wasn't about that.  Instead, it was about improving upon the concept of the airship.  It failed due to a lack of interest.  All of the tests of their new design for the airship were successful.  But nobody was interested.  Times change, perhaps now is the time?

A cautionary tale?  Any idea can blow up or be impractical.  But the Hindenberg had a spotless safety record before its mishap.  The concept is sound.  It should get another look.  But keep it out of the hands of people who would ask it to do more than what is necessary.  Remember the KISS principle.

Update:

About the airship in the book, here's a good synopsis of it here.  This post is about the Hindenberg, but the title is not.  Actually, the title was about the book which covered a few other airships besides the Deltoid Pumpkinseed.

Update:

There are a lot of interesting pics showing the accommodations of the Hindenberg.   Remember that this thing flew over 70 years ago.

Update:

Is this an animation or real? With the capabilities that exist today, you may not know for sure until you actually see one yourself in person.




Here's a model rigid airship narrated by a youngster



Finally, I found this pic of the "Pumpkin seed" airship. The book had no pics.