The wind turned hard northeast — bad for hang gliding in the Bay Area — so it seemed like a good time to produce that FAQ list I’ve been promising for so long. And I must say, it was quite an interesting task. Oh, it would have been easy enough to throw together a dull bunch of factoids — i.e.
Q: What holds an airship up?
A: Hydrogen
Q: Doesn’t that… like.. burn?
A: Yes, if you mix it with oxygen and set it on fire. This is generally considered a Bad Move in the airship community.
But who’d want to read something like that? I wanted to something more substantial, with useful background information, tidbits of material that wouldn’t fit into the 1930s cliffhanger format of the story itself, and detailed answers to some of questions you’ve asked about the history, people, and technology of Captain Everett’s world. I also wanted to add some graphics because they’re fun.
‘Tis done! And it’s living here. This will be an ongoing project, so if you have any questions, comments, ideas, or requests, let me know. And keep an eye out for points of departure between the world of the Flying Cloud and ours! So far, the prize goes to Chris, who was the first to notice that in out world, animated cartoon ducks did not appear until the mid to late 30s.
I hope the rest of you had an interesting Thanksgiving too.
This will be a welcome diversion, Paul. I hadn’t given lighter-than-air craft much thought until I started reading your story. The episode that included the extraction of hydrogen from air and the problems of oxygen inclusion in the gas were very interesting. I look forward to studying this subject further as time allows.
Mythbusters has an episode all about whether the Hindenberg burned just because of the hydrogen or because the skin was coated with thermite. They set a lot of things on fire, very entertaining.
Hi Kona, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the discussion of lighter-than-air-tech! I’ve been a fan of airships since I stumbled upon Tolland’s book in high school, and I’ve assembled reams of design material, which I’ve been careful to keep out of the story itself lest readers flee screaming in boredom. The FAQ list seemed like a good place for some of this… but even there, I think I’ll hold off on that 5000-word essay about turn rates and structural loads
Eek, that dread ‘the Hindenberg blew up because the envelope material was made of rocket fuel’ controversy! One of my colleagues in the space physics community wrote a paper about the subject. And we had a huge argument about it at one of our local hang gliding sites the other day. My own feeling is that it was almost certainly a hydrogen fire, since quite a few wartime and non-German civilian ships had suffered similar fates by then… but I’m steering clear of this one. The Flying Cloud, R505 is hereby declared a ‘No Hindenberg Flammable Hull Envelope Controversy Zone’. Thanks for bringing up the subject! Whew!
I never heard about any controversy, my knowledge of the incident being limited to the photo on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s album and the phrase “The humanity!” It also gets confused with the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby and the CIA, although I’m pretty sure they aren’t related.
I kid. I know a LITTLE more than that. Not going to speculate on a nearly century-old disaster though. Much more interesting to consider the possibility that, absent that horrible accident, we might be seeing a lot more hydrogen-filled lighter-than-air craft today.