Posted on 05/06/2017 12:02:17 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Maybe it’s heresy, but I’ve always thought the iconic radio report was pretty unprofessional.
I think he got fired for just that reason.
In what way? Especially considering it was actually as it happened, and the technology of the time.
Happy Birthday, Ma Rebel!!
“It is hard to say whether dirigible travel would have been commercially viable, due to the slow speeds involved.”
It was a different world back then.
Slower paced. The average person didn’t even think about owning a car.
Here in the countryside the average person rarely traveled more than thirty miles from home.
Folks who relied on the horse and buggy didn’t travel far.
Still, the dirigible would have been used only by the wealthy or upper middle class.
Awesome! I was hoping for a Zep reference
“It’s a pity in a way that these things became discredited and failed largely due to this incident.”
I remember reading that the German air ships used the more flammable hydrogen because the only known source of helium was.....Texas, and the US refused to allow sales to the NAZI government.
“Old newsreel footage and a few movies show what had to be an amazing and pleasurable travel experience, floating along in the equivalent of an airborne ocean liner. I’d love to have experienced it, well, other than the final flight of the Hindenberg.”
Another age. Long gone never to return.
Now if we want to fly we have to endure the TSA and hope we aren’t dragged off the plane before takeoff just so we can endure the comfort and grace that are modern “flight attendants”.
People keep taking about bringing airship travel back (with helium!) but very few (too few to make it profitable!) want to travel that slow!
It would’ve been my mother’s 87th birthday if she was still here with us...
mark
Ocean cruises aren’t all that dependent upon transit speeds. It would be for tourism not business travel.
I had a cousin who witnessed this happen. He was five years old.
Wow! Horrible.
Top of the Empire State Building was originally supposed to be used to moor dirigibles. They just couldn’t work out how to board and disembark passengers.....on to Plan B
It might be true but the profession itself was less than 20 years old so who’s to say then what was unprofessional. Perhaps all the crying was considered unmanly. Radio, in those days, was all about location and many who made their careers were simply right place/right time. Many local reporters made their bones with the JFK Assassination and were just stringers who happened to be at the opportune moment to be pressed into reporting.
I’m a laid back kind of guy. I wouldn’t mind the slow travel, you see more that way.
I doubt anyone would fund an airship line that had a clientele of one!
I wouldn’t mind it either. I think it would be cool to float in the sky from coast to coast. I’ve taken the California Zephyr a couple times. Chicago to Los Angeles. You meet interesting people on the way. Kind of fun.
Too true.
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