Saturday, January 31, 2015

Zeppelin



We visited the Zeppelin Museum in the suburb of Frankfurt Neu-isenburg, where I used to live as a child and where the founder/operation of Zeppelin had been.

If you think about it, this balloon riding concept is such a romantischer idea, crossing the big ocean in a balloon when there was no airplanes around, but also because it will never ever see the light of day again. At least, a 200m+ balloon filled with explosively flammable hydrogen will never pass today's OHS Occupational Health and Safety standards.

Germany had created and led the operation of Zeppelin. But all countries ended their operation due to the bursting of the balloons while flying. The last German Zeppelin called Hindenburg was 245m long and had already been regularly crossing the Atlantic to the US, until in its last trip burst into flames right above the landing place, in a matter of 34 seconds (the speed of hydrogen traveling!).



But in anycase, the design of the Zeppelin is beautiful, and it is quite a romantic thing to think about a grand operation that will never be seen again in this form, in spite of any technological advancement in the future.

 Last photo credit: Silodrome

"I cannot get over it. The Zeppelin is in the zenith of the night, golden like the moon, having taken control of the sky. Our cosmos has burst; the stars and the moon blown away, the envelope of the sky burst out, and a new cosmos has appeared." by DH Lawrence, Zeppelin during WWI.

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