How to Moor a British Rigid Airship
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- čas přidán 26. 05. 2022
- Have you ever wondered how to land something which is as large as an ocean liner, but lighter than air? In this video we explore the 1920's technology which allowed giant rigid airships to land with the minimum amount of manpower.@airshipheritagetrust1419
It must have taken a great deal of time, passion, and persevering effort to put this video together, from the detailed models and animations to everything else that must have gone on behind the scenes in order to transform these assets into the clear, concise, and fascinating video it came to be. It is so interesting to learn how old technology functions; the designs of our forebears often displayed a simple ingenuity and thoughtfulness as is clear in the design of this landing system. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this! All the best!
It did indeed, and thanks to the exceptional skills of our member Stephan Niemeyer, he has really brought it to life.
Very ingenious, I am 81 and an airship fan but I never knew anything about this clever mooring technique. Cheers from Australia.
So glad you liked it! Indeed it's part of the history which is often overlooked, but amazing technology
I am so grateful for this video. It feels like witnessing the whole process as a person in the 1930s. Beautifully done !
Wow, thank you!
AFTER HAVING SEEN SO MUCH ABOUT THE HINDENBURG....IT'S REALLY NICE TO SEE ONE OF THE ENGLISH AIRSHIPS USING TODAY'S VISUAL EFFECTS TO MAKE IT SEEM REAL. THEY REALLY WERE BEAUTIFUL THINGS. IT'S A PITY MORE PEOPLE DON'T SEE YOUR VIDEO. WHAT A GIFT. THANKS. CHALON.
Thanks for your feedback and we really appreciate it.
Someone's spent a lot of time on this one - and it's very good !
Thank you and certainly did. This is why we've been a bit quiet on the other content. Glad you like it and we'll aim to do more.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 Are the winch buildings listed ?
I always think thry would make the ideal 'British Airship Museum' site albeit a little off the beaten track - and of course, it would need a fair bit of £££ ....
@@mrb.5610
I've never been out of the USA myself, but I dare say such a museum might be the very thing to lure ME across the pond at last! 😉 🇺🇸🤝🇬🇧
One of the best videos about Airships/Dirigibles I've seen. Thank you for making it.❤
Our pleasure and hope to do more in the future.
Since i am a St-Hubert historian where the R-100 came in 1930, i couldnt appreciate more this spectacular video rendering of the whole mooring process. In St-hubert those 24 ''Snatch blocks'' where 8X8X8 feets, and they are still there as they where left in the ground (some visible on Google Earth). Cheer, Great work and a big thumb up.
Thank you very much indeed!
Fascinating. As a kid in the 1960s I had a copy of an ‘Every Boy’s Hobby Annual’ from the 1930s which contained a special supplement on airships, and cutaway diagrams of the mooring mast. My mum also recalled the R100 passing over Liverpool when she was a little girl. It’s great to see a modern animation of how all this would have worked. Hugo Eckner was also a rather unlikely hero of mine.
As an old romantic I’ve long had a soft spot for the pre-WWII rigid airships and sometimes lament what might have been. They do seem rather improbable vehicles and terrifyingly dangerous, but nevertheless many of the accidents appear to have been caused by complacency and political pressure rather than any inherent faults with the aircraft themselves.
Were anything like them around today I’d still chance my neck for a flight in one.
Thank you and glad you enjoyed it. We hope to do more like this and see inside how things worked. Checkout some of our new videos on Skyships.
Helium made rigid airships a great deal safer, as it negated the risk of fire, but even then, one of the 4 American naval rigids broke up in midair, and 2 others came down in the sea. I don't know how the crews of the Akron and Macon would have fared if they'd come down on land
A remarkable and imaginative realisation of a successful technology that is all but forgotten. I was particularly impressed by the wealth of detail and the use of today's actual landscape to add reality to the scene
Thank you!
This is one of the best things I have seen in a very long time. I never knew how this was actually done and this video shows it all beautifully. Thanks so much.
Wow, thank you! We enjoy making it! It takes a lot of time but worth it sharing the knowledge
It's so friggin' cool to see such serious attention to detail given to airships. As somebody (with what would have historically been called aspbergers) and an aerospace engineering degree, I've developed a new recent obsession with "Huh. This century old airship thing seems worth a revisit, just out of curiosity, if nothing else." It's amazing, delving into airships and some old books that were the gold standards, how much of the public documentation simply froze with Hindenberg and never continued. Simple animations like this are incredible given how relatively sparse the field is nowadays!
With the new airship companies planning passenger ships, I think that it might be a change in travel attitudes in the not so distant future.
Excellent presentation, brilliant graphics and perfectly explained. This is a fine example of how to use modern graphics to bring history to life. Thank you.
Much appreciated!
When I am returning from secret missions, I instruct my bio-mechanical lobster-clawed man-servant to lash my private airship to the weather-vanes of light houses!
Saying that, I think this might have been a dream? 🤔
Hang on a minute, the nurse is coming.
Been interested in airships since I was about 5years old I am now nearly 66 years old my late mum watch the R101 fly over her parents house in South London the size the majestic site of the ship was fantastic I remember my mum say all her neighbours were out watching on thing she was so facanted about was see passengers waving out of the windows of the ship plus she heard the on board piano being played, I was lucky to fly on a small non ridged ABC 60 plus airship down near were I live at Shoreham airport in Sussex in 2001 it was a pleasure to fly in a modern small airship let's hope the airlander10/50 and modern day Zeppelin build bigger and better craft ,loved watching this video very interesting, peter
How wonderful! Glad you got to experience some Lighter than air travel!
Thanks for sharing your stories. I really enjoyed reading your comment.
Wow fantasic graphics to show in detail how it was done.
It really was an engineering marvel.
This is a brilliant video - well done! How about a follow up video about how they were planning on doing this sort of thing for mooring to the Empire State Building?
Thank you! We appreciate the feedback. We've a list of things we want to work on so we'll add it to the list.
I know I am late to the party, but I wanted to mention that the idea of airships mooring to the Empire State Building was more of a promotional "stunt" than anything seriously considered. Watching this excellent video shows why it was never practical - the building was (and, of course still is) surrounded by other buildings. There was no place for the yaw guide lines, let along the garden rollers. That said, a privately-owned dirigible did dock in September of 1931, but only for three minutes. The photo of the dirigible Los Angeles docked to the building was a pre-Photoshop fake in 1930. The idea of securely docking an airship was never going to be workable, but it gave Alfred E. Smith, the leader of a group of investors behind the construction, an excuse for the additional 200 feet of iconic tower!
@@njcurmudgeonexcellent observations, thanks for taking the time to comment. :)
@@njcurmudgeonit was also extremely windy up there, so high off the ground.
Can't add anything more to the comments praising this great video, just wanted to say that this landing system is indeed more efficient and less labor intensive that German one of the same era. Probably that's why landing via mooring mast was chosen for the ongoing Pathfinder airship project.
Thanks so much. Glad you found it relates to some of the modern ideas and concepts as well.
I love all the little details I couldn't have predicted, like the winch room in the nose, or how the weights roll with the ship.
Keep it up! Cheers from PA!
Thank you very much! The winch room in the nose is a reconstruction how it could have looked like. Unfortunately, we haven't found any pictures yet which would give us more details
Thanks for the tutorial. I’ve been floating around for a couple years, now I can see my family again
Great to hear!
It was a great dream that Lord Thomson had; such a shame it came to grief. If I were allowed a single trip back through time, I should probably use it to be a passenger in the R-100's round-trip flight. Bravo to Master Niemeyer and all who assisted. ☁️ ⛅ 😉 ☁️
Thank you very much!
Ah the brave new world of the era with it's air ships, ocean liners, sky scrapers and other tech made possible with steel. What an amazing time.
Certainly was !
I have always been fascinated by airships. Some years ago, driving from southern Bavaria I chose the road to the north of Lake Constance and stopped off at Friedrichshaven to visit the Zeppelin museum there. It contains many interesting items, but the highlight is the mock up of the passengers quarters of the Hindenburg. It was well worth the visit and detour it entailed.
This is a super video. Thanks!
Thank you! I've been there a number of times now and, indeed, it's fantastic and worth the visit. We hope this video also brings airships alive for people.
This is crazy history. Bet the tech could be vastly improved if they kept making air ships.
Indeed, with the plans for more masts, and a second at Cardington, who knows what the world would have been like.
I love this video! I have always been fascinated by airships! What a pity, with today's technology these wonderful floating beasts haven't made a comeback!
Glad you enjoyed it! You may find that with the demands for environmental flying, that airships could make a comeback. There are a couple of projects at the moment based on bringing back larger airships. Watch this space, in the next couple of years you'll see them take to the skies.
The color re-creations of the R-100 here are fabulous! The R-100 best known for flying from England to Canada and back again, quite a feat in 1930, and it never crashed. BTW you kids: despite the 5 people depicted in this video, hundreds of folks would be on hand to watch these ships coming in for a mooring.
Thank you!
I am reading Nevil Shute's autobiography 'Slide Rule' and have so many questions about how airships operated, many of which you have answered in this splendid film. Thank you. Now to get on board!
Glad it was helpful! and glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the great videos. I always enjoy your work
Superbly produced and informative, well done.
Thank you kindly! Glad you liked it
I wish zeppelin travel had been possible during my lifetime!
You never know.. with the new airships planned for the next few years, you might find that you may be travelling on one.
It is almost like docking a floating ship in the harbor. Hopefully the airship travel returns in the future
That's right - airships could be seen more like ships than aircraft with their tecniques being more nautical in behaviour. There are a few airship projects on the go at the moment and we'll see how they manage mooring and docking
More vids like this please. I love blimps and more they're hidden history. Thanx sooo much
Thank you and yes we'll be doing more for the channel.
This is absolutely amazing! I love your content! Cant wait for more!
Thank you so much! we're working on it!
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 have you ever considered of also doing the german or US airships?
This answered so many questions I had, thank you! Absolutely beautiful renderings!
Thank you, and yes often how they moored the airships confuses many. It's an amazing technology for it's time.
Excellent series of videos, thank you.
Thank you very muchi and more to come!
As others have commented - this was wonderful to watch!
Thank you! Glad you liked it We'll try to do more as time permits.
Very interesting & excitant graphics too👍🏻
Thank you 👍
This is another amazing video from The Airship Heritage Trust. I cannot thank you enough. Wow, the animation shows so clearly what I’ve read about for so long, and tried to visualise. And thanks too, for using R100 as the model. She’s almost as special to me personally as the R101 but it would be too harrowing to see the beautiful R101 docking, as she should have done at Ismailia in 1930. Just a glimpse of her was perfect.
Brilliant.
👏👏👏
I'm looking into the history of this, what was the reason they docked at Ismailia rather than say, Cairo? Was the British Empire's reason because they had more infrastructure there or perhaps it was more geo-politically ideal?
Thank you so much! We enjoy making and researching them, and trying to fill in the gaps in things which you can't see or find out on the internet about airships. Check out some of our new ones in the next few weeks
HI Peter, from what we believe, it was half way down the Suez canal at an existing known town with the right logistics. I think that Cairo was already quite built up at the time, and also being on the Suez canal will link up quickly with communications of the day by boat or water to Port Said or Suez, and a steamer to other countries.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 hi, thanks for the info. That makes logical sense. Coincidentally I drove past the sheds for the first time today and marvelled at their size!! I yearned for a peak inside shed 1 but as far as I could see there’s no ability to visit the inside of a shed and there’s no official physical museum to view things at yet. I’m glad at least you folks are doing these videos. I’m actually researching British airships a lot as I’m thinking of writing some historical fiction on the subject. If ever there’s the ability to get a view of the inside of a shed I’d love to do that! I live up in Durham though so not exactly local. Regards, Peter
@@PeterMatthess I saw the inside of one of those sheds in 1987. The other one was off limits.
Can't help but think of the mark that one of these bad boys would have left on those witnessing it for the first time. They must have thought that " this is the pinnacle of civilization ". Super envious on those being part of the ground crew.
Agreed (only they'd probably be more likely to spell it 'civilisation')! 🤭
@@goldenager59 agreed, bwahahaha
@@rusu989 😉
Hauntingly beautiful images even like this.
Thank you!
Agreed. *Hauntingly beautiful* is a great description. The video left me with my eyes tearing up.
This is simply wonderful. Many many thanks.
Thank you too!
i realy like rigid airships and this video had me learn alot
Thanks! Glad you did and we hope to add more!
Absolutely brilliant to gather all this information and present it in such detail. Excellent job to the people that put this together. Your passion and dedication really show.
Our pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it
That tower that King Kong climbed atop the Empire State Building was -- an airship mooring mast.
Wonderful video, although airships aren’t my main interest I must say this video has sparked a real interest in them.
Thank you for that, and we're producing more videos and so hopefully will give you more of an insight in to these amaznig and different machines.
It would be interesting to see how the airship sites look today, with before and after sort of telling.
A wonderfully presented piece of work. Congratulations to everyone who worked on producing this.
Thank you very much! and glad you enjoy it! Took AGES but well worth it in the end.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 very worth it.... I thought it's just another "narrator reads transcript" video, but instead, I'm amazed with how much detailed the animation, and even I find it hard to distinguish between the animated screen and colorized images... (or actually, no colorized images at all?)
Very thorough! Great video
Glad you enjoyed it!
facinating! really interesting visual guide. It would be very hard to find all this information independantly. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is a great video. Could you please do a video on the German and American mooring methods? I’d love to see and understand how those methods worked.
Great suggestion! We've got a list but we'll add it to it!
The mooring procedure for US „Zeppelins“ and as far as I know for the Hindenburg LZ129 is well explained in this video: czcams.com/video/rzKJqxn1AXg/video.html
Quite a detailed explanation of how they did this.
Thank you
What a fantastic video. A couple of days before this appeared in my CZcams feed I was listening to the 'Hidden Hindenburg' podcast and asked my husband how did we moor the likes of the R100 and the R101 on the high masts? How serendipitous.
Glad you enjoyed it
Visually stunning and a very clear explanation - thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! and we're working on more airship stories.
So detailed and the animations are amazing. This channel will definitely grow well. I know it’s cliche but can you consider a video on the zeppelins? Graf and Hindenburg. The interiors are interesting but maybe also a mention on schedules and the theoretical mast docking thing at the Empire State Building?
Great suggestion!
FANTASTIC VIDEO 😍
Thanks 🤗
Amazing video. The video produced very strong positive emotions in me. *It was beautiful!*
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much!
Thank you for these visualizations! I've just listened to an account of the fatal flight of the R-101. It's great to be able tosee what the author is describing in such vivid detail. I really enjoyed this video and I imagine I'll probably watch it a few more times.
So glad we were able to put in to pictures what you read in the books.
Lovely piece of work! I can appreciate the skill that went into this.
Thank you! Cheers!
Great bit of information, something many of we curious about airship ingenuity would like to know. Good incentive to get busy with my R100 model. It will look good under my framed original black and white stock newspaper photo, of the R100 moored on the Montreal mast, signed by Mr. Booth yet!
Fantastic! keep it safe! Enjoy doing the model and also you can now get the mast to be the "right size" for the ship.
Very interesting. A topic I have always wondered about. Great narrative and graphics.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you
Quite an entertaining and rather informative video about early airship mooring practices and procedures! Thank you for producing and posting!! :) :) :) :)
Our pleasure!
Fascinating. A brilliant and ingenious method, sadly under-utilised because of the change of attitude to airships following the R101 crash. If only it had been the R100 heading for India, it might have changed history. .
Indeed - who knows what would have happened? Glad you liked the video, we hope to add more, soon.
Fantastic video! Great graphics, really helps you understand how they ships were landed/docked. And how they looked when they were in the air. Again, great video, looks very realistic. Found your channel after reading His Majesty's Airship and looking to learn more about R100 & R101.
Glad you enjoyed it! and to get more details of the ships. We'll be doing more videos shortly
I'm surprised this doesn't have many more views... Fantastic and interesting video! Thanks for posting!!
Glad you enjoyed it! and we're working on more. If you enjyed it, checkout the Skyship series
I'm trying to figure out why the yaw ropes are required at all - seems like they would prevent the airship from swiveling in the wind, which defeats some of the main functionality of the mooring tower.
They're maybe removed after mooring. Only required to prevent the ship hunting to either side and messing with the pulling down. The classic airship shape is aerodynamically unstable, it would jaw wildly without constant attentive, even aggressive, helming.
For jaw read yaw. A most illuminating video, I thank you for it.
Perfect explanation! Would you show us more info about the ww1 airships? How did they landed before this mooring tower? Did they thought about the danger of electric sparks during mooring?
We'll add it to the list... we have a lot of other lighter than air subjects to cover but we'll try our best!
I would like to see how an airship coped with en route storms
Often airships would try to avoid storms and navigate around them as much as they could with the meterological information they had gained.
Great video. Thank you.
Glad you liked it!
That was extremely interesting
Thank you very much! We're aiming to add more content in 2024 and covering the history of airships not covered elsewere.
Very nice work covering “Lighter Than Air” Thank you…a NEW subscriber 👍🏻
Awesome, thank you! We hope to be adding more soon!
Fascinating. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it , thank you
SO FASCINATING! THANK YOU!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for posting this informative video!
Glad it was helpful! Our pleasure
had to subscribe to your channel as i hope airships of all types take off and you have content to keep making
Thank you! and we'll be adding more!
Thanks for keeping alive this fleeting flash of history.
Our pleasure.
Beautifully done !
Thank you very much!
Thanks for a fascinating presentation!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
-- Nicely done!
Thanks very much indeed!
Excellent video really well done and explained.
Thank you kindly!
I love these videos!
Thank you - we hope to bring you more soon
This is a great video!
Glad you think so! More to come soon.
Superb animation - what happens to the yaw lines if the airship rotates due to wind direction. Presumably, if necessary they could be disconnected and teh rollers relied on.
Thank you, the yaw wires main aim is to secure the nose, but the ship could rotate around the mast, The rollers had two jobs, one to try and keep the hull and tail from lifting too much, and also providing some moving achor points to slow any sudden change in wind direction. Airships were always "flown" when on the mast and not on the ground, unlike heavier than air planes which can be left.
This is fascinating! Thank you! 😁😲
Our pleasure! We love producing these videos, and as you can imagine, they take some time, but hope they can explain some of the details often overlooked.
amazing job !
Thank you!
Beautiful ships. Such a pity they're not with us anymore.
I know! Maybe oneday.
Bravo… excellent!
thank you
Very interesting
Glad you think so!
Great documentary
Thank you! We loved making it and hope you found it interesting. More to come when we have the time
So cool!
Thank you!
Very interesting, and extremely well put together
Glad you think so! Thanks for letting us know.
My best friend Nick Mullen sent me here.
Fantastic
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it
This is a brilliant explanation of the process. I wonder how long it took in real time.
According to Capt. Meager‘s book „My airship flight“, page 155, it took around 30 minutes from dropping the rope to securing the cone at the mast. I would guess it took about 45 minutes for the whole procedure.
@@stephann8452 thank-you - quite the process!
Awesome engineering..!
Thank you! Cheers!
I wonder how the Hindenburg's landing line process was different from this! Maybe you could do a second animation on that?
The British mastered the High Mast process, and the Germans went for a low stub mast. The only disadvantage of that was the amount of ground crew needed. As you can see, with a high mast, you can secure the ship with as little as 20 people
Very interesting and complex. Seems like the cone should be stronger braced.
Thanks. Despite it's seeminly fragility the nose cone was strong enough to hold the ship's weight in the wind. The R101 withstood an 80mph wind whislt moored by it's nosecone on the mast.
Cool animation
Thank you!
Hola puede hacer todos tu videos con la opción de subtitulo en español por favor para disfrutar mejor tu contenido
there must have been significant risk of electric shock to the ground crew who was first to touch the lowered main wire due to triboelectric charging in wind and simple ever present electric field gradient in disturbed atmospheric conditions.
Thank you for your comment. You have a valid point here. Indeed, the ship wires should have touched the ground first before the ground crew touch the wires. We didn't look at this, however, important detail.
Terrific .. do you have a video about weather and docking? How does Weather affect the ship at dock? How does a “sail” of this size behave in a thunderstorm?
I imagine they would have to bring the airship into a hanger if there were a thunderstorm in the area. Thunderstorms will rip apart most aircraft even when the aircraft are much sturdier than a dirigible.
Kirov reporting!