I met a Blimp vet!

[Jim Bow]

I was walking around Fred Meyers in Tacoma and spied a guy wearing a USN ballcap with a Chief’s anchor pinned to it. I said, “Go Navy” like I usually do, and we struck up a conversation. He told me his career was Aviation Machinist Mate for 25 years followed by 15 more at Boeing. Fresh out of training, he was assigned to Lakehurst NJ and was a crewman on a blimp! It had a 40 foot radar dome inside. His was the second to last airship in the Navy.

BTW: the guy was 80+ but looked 10 years younger than me.

[Hugh MacD]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

My father-in-law spent a lot of time in blimps. He was helping develop airborne radar during WWII. Flew out of Lakehurst a lot. Had a great story about a training mission where a novice pilot managed to get stuck on the water on the river...planing around on the bottom of the gondola with spray from the props going everywhere. The pilot trainee panicked, dropped the dummy bomb to try to lighten the blimp. The doors, of course, wouldn't open due to the hydrostatic pressure so the bomb was rolling around in the bottom of the blimp. It finally dawned on him that he could caster up the seaplane ramp on the single wheel which he did. With the pressure now gone, the doors opened and a 500 lb dummy bomb went skidding through the seaplane area and the blimp shot up several hundred feet before the poor guy got a handle on it.

[David G]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

What sort of maladies is a 'blimp vet' called upon to treat? And WHAT do their offices look like?

[Hugh MacD]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

Ummmm....I dunno, but they frequently referred to themselves as "Poopeybaggers"....does that bring out any images?

[Paul Pless]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

What sort of maladies is a 'blimp vet' called upon to treat?

if you have an erection lasting more than four hours. . .

[Hugh MacD]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

Dirigible: A blimp with splints.

[Paul Pless]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

^ inflatable dysfunction

[Todd Bradshaw]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

True story: Being a balloon pilot and interested is all lighter than air craft I once ordered a book called "Blimp" from a mail order bookstore, which is about the Goodyear blimps. A few days later I received a book titled "Blimp" which was about a fat girl.

blimp.jpg

[Art Haberland]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

My father's last posting was Lakehurst in the mid-70s. They may have crossed paths.

[GregH]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

Just finished reading His Majesty's Airship. About Britain's attempts in the early 1900's to create "the world's largest flying machine" R101. It was a dirigible over 700 feet long!!!

[AndyG]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

One of the inspirations for my (last years) bathroom refit was "what would a private blimp bathroom look like, if you were off to Budapest in an alternative history?"

...But while I like Thomas Dolby, I don't like him quite enough. I'd much prefer (and finally got!) a diesel-dirigible to Dusseldorf. Via, it has to be said, Marrekech.

Andy, umm, lighter than air.

[Todd Bradshaw]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

Unfortunately, this is what eventually happened to the R101.

R101.jpg

[GregH]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

Unfortunately, this is what eventually happened to the R101.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]138436[/ATTACH]

Yep!

[Jim Bow]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

The blimp guy was told to return to Lakehurst in 1961, which was only 6 months after his last flight. They were going to try a get two blimps ready to head for the Florida Keys. Cuban Missile Crisis. It was cancelled on further thiught.

[robm]

Re: I met a Blimp vet!

Nevi Shute's autobiography "Slide Rule" has a great deal to say about dirigibles. He was with the private firm in competition with the government team that built the R101. Despite working on a shoestring for financing, their vessel was much more successful and efficient. Design by fiat from a great height, despite physics, is never a good way to come up with a successful product.