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[Stewart Fist]

Rachel wrote
> 
> I thought the Hindenburg covering was made from rubberised canvas and sprayed
> with aluminium powder.   A very highly flammable combination!

Acually the airship always has many large gas-bags (hydrogen holders) inside
which were usually rubberised silk.  The outside envelope may also have been
silk, but it was aluminiumised just for effect, and possibly to keep it from
getting too wet in clouds. They had problems with the change in weight when
they went through clouds while flying.

I'm all for airships.  They are perfect for Australia's weather conditions,
and a great tourist attraction if you can keep the costs down.  I'd love to
see a Sydney to Alice Springs journey with a night stop-over in the middle
of the Simpson Desert.

The problem has always been with landing and taking off, where they do need
large ground crews.  They also change weight constantly (fuel load loss) and
leakage.

There was a design at one time which held helium in a tube structure below a
hydrogen layer, which was above, with a man-space between.  The theory was
that if the hydrogen did catch on fire (lightning might be a problem) the
heat would all go up, and the remaining helium would have enough bouyancy to
let them set down lightly.  This let them exhaust hydrogen or generate it
when needed, and so gave them more flexibility in ballast, etc.

An amazing number of people survived some of the big airship catestrophies
-- except for the last British disaster. (from memory - it was R47 or
something)  The Brits lost their Minister for Air and a number of top
bureaucrats on the way to India, and gave up airships completely.


-- 
Stewart Fist, writer, journalist, film-maker
70 Middle Harbour Road, LINDFIELD, 2070, NSW, Australia
Ph +61 (2) 9416 7458