I have long had an interest in blimps and zeppelins. One of my earliest memories involves
a toy truck that I had that was made out of blimp parts by my Uncle Fred during WWII. My recollection is that
he was stationed at Naval Air Station Tillamook at the observation blimp facility there, but I think
my brothers do not agree with that version of history. I also believe Uncle Fred was shipwrecked off the
SE Alaska coast at some point, and killed an Arctic Fox and made my mom a collar for her winter coat from the pure white fur.
But I don't think they believe that one either. But I digress...
Later in my life I had the opportunity to work on a blimp/helicopter hybrid vehicle
for the US Forest Service (see picture above). It was called the Helistat, and during that time I got to travel
to Los Angeles several times to work with the computer programmers at The Aerospace Corporation
on a simulator of the Helistat (how it might find usefulness as an aerial heavy-lift logging vehicle.
Spoiler alert - it never did...). During that time I got to see (and learn about) other blimp projects,
such as the Cyclo-Crane, which was being built at the same blimp hanger where my Uncle Fred was stationed.
There have been several other prototype modern blimp projects, and during the Helistat years I corresponded with some of
the people working on those. To my understanding, none of them ever made it out of the research phase.
There are some successful uses of modern blimps, however. We are all familiar with the fleet of Goodyear blimps,
and there were a couple of other advertising blimps (Snoopy, and Fuji) that were operational for secveral years. But really,
the Goodyear blimps are carrying the entire modern lighter-than-air industry, and any chance I get to see one of them fly over
I always park my
car along the road and just marvel at it.
I have also always been fascinated that the first aerial around-the-world voyage was by zeppelin, that zeppelins were regularly
carrying paying passengers in luxury across the Atlantic to New York and Rio De Janiero in the 1930's,
that they actually built airships that could launch and land airplanes
while flying (an aircraft carrier in the sky), and that the largest all-wood single span building
in the world is a former blimp hanger in Tillamook, Oregon. It still exists, and I generally visit it
every time I go to the coast...
So at the top of this page are links to some of the things about blimps that are interesting to me...