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Airships over Birmingham ?

Hello Les
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Hello postie and les,I Remember seeing the airship over sparkhill in about 1936,I would be about 5 years old, I lived in Long street ,can't remember seening any markings on it so don't know if it was British or German,it was flying along a line which would take it over Stoney lane,over Stratford Rd,and along Walford Rd it would have flown close to the southern boundary of the B.S.A,factory,if it was German,was it taking photographs?,I hope this may be of interest to you both, and more information will come in.
 
Hi Roy Blakey
Many thanks for the info on Airships over Birmingham. This confirms my sighting in 1935-1937.
My memory was not playing tricks.
I did see Louis Blakey's grandfathers photo which seems to confirm this
There must be official records somewhere.
lesg128
hi lesg128,please view my reply to led, and postie,on my sighting of the airship over sparkbrook C1936,hope it adds something to the discusion , and more I formation flows in, Ray Evasion.
 
Hi Ray,
It was the Hindenberg LZ129 which you would have seen in May/June 1936 during one of its propaganda tours around
England. There had been no British airships since the R100/101 a few years previously

Kind regards
Dave
 
Found this photograph entitled 'A Zeppelin over Birmingham 1932'.

31440072_10213987746679708_1232667614090625024_n.jpg


After further investigation, I discovered the flight log (isn't the internet amazing) of the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin flights around the United Kingdom from 1928 to 1932. If you scroll down the first column where the fight number is shown (no.9), the log shows that the Graf Zeppelin flew over Birmingham on 2nd July, 1932 at 1;00pm:

https://www.airshipsonline.com/airships/LZ127_Graf_Zeppelin/LZ127_England Flight Log.htm

"A second trip was organised for promotional purposes, and the Graf left Hanworth at 7:55pm. A flight down to Portsmouth (20:52 pm) then back up to London (22:30 pm) then up to east of Flamborough Head (2:06am 3rd July) then over to Edinburgh (05:10am) Glasgow (6:14am) up to the Mull of Galloway (8:41am) the North of Isle of Man (10:01 am) returning south via Liverpool (11:24am) Birmingham (1:00pm) down to Bristol, Newport and Cardiff (3:57pm), then down to Southampton (5:35pm) returning to Hanworth, landing (7:43pm)."

I wonder what part of Birmingham the photograph was taken from?
 
nice one BB yes i wonder what the location is....nothing really to go on expect for the way the houses are situated it could be a cul de sac

lyn
 
It must have been an amazing sight. I still remember the excitement I felt when I saw the Goodyear Blimp fly over Birmingham city center in 1975.
 
My mother told me about an airship flying over. She said they all came out of school to watch it. I guess this would date it to early1930s.

Interesting FarmerDave that you were in Friedrichshafen. I was there two weeks ago. I did not go to the Zeppelin Museum but I did see the Zeppelin from across the airport. These two photos show it coming in to land.

DSCN4143 Small.JPG DSCN4144 Small.JPG
 
A question from my pop does any one recall a German Air Ship flying over in or about 1936 ?, my pop said it was so low he could read the letters on the side, at the time the talk was they were taking pictures.

I told him next time I called not only will I have info on the air ship I will know the captins name but where he lived and what he ate for breakfast Ha Ha

If this needs to get moved else where please do,
 
Five pages about airships in this thread:
 
Five pages about airships in this thread:
What a great read this thread is, a little of track but in the late 80"s I lived in southern CA , Tustin marine base had 2 hangers left over from air ship operations these building where so big they had clouds inside, these air ships were huge I read a book many years ago on the Hindenburg it had a grand piano on it.
 
Hello everyone.
For many years I have had vague recollections of an Airship such as the ill fated (RS 101 ? ) flying over Birmingham in the 1930's. This seems so real I wonder if it was true.
As I'm an 'old codger' I would guess it was around 1935-36. At that time I would be living in the Bordesley Green area.
Can anyone confirm or tell me I was dreaming?:rolleyes:

I was about 5yrs old in 1936 and saw the airship following the line of ladypool road,Sparkbrook and Walford rd towards the BSA factory ! I have since wondered if it was taking photographs of the factory?
 
Hello everyone.
For many years I have had vague recollections of an Airship such as the ill fated (RS 101 ? ) flying over Birmingham in the 1930's. This seems so real I wonder if it was true.
As I'm an 'old codger' I would guess it was around 1935-36. At that time I would be living in the Bordesley Green area.
Can anyone confirm or tell me I was dreaming?:rolleyes:
My mother used to talk about seeing an airship fly over Birmingham when she was very young and thought it might have been the R101 but that craft apparently flew over the city in 1929 (and crashed a year later) which would have made her three so it's more likely she saw the Graf Zeppelin in 1932 or likelier still the Hindenburg in 1936.

Mum did also talk of seeing strange, possibly experimental, aircraft going over Pype Hayes before World War II, probably flying in or out of Castle Bromwich - anyone else heard of anything like that?
 
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