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Airships over Birmingham ?

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:

Airships over Birmingham ?

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...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
Radiorails said:
Five pages about airships in this thread:

Airships over Birmingham ?

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...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
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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.
 
lesg128 said:
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:
Click to expand...

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?
 
lesg128 said:
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:
Click to expand...
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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Tinpot said:
My Dad told me that he had seen a Zeppelin fly over. This was possibly the one he saw.
Click to expand...
I was born in 1939 and lived in Wood Lane, Handsworth. There was a cul-de-sac off Wood Lane that led to the cricket field (my first school was in the cricket pavilion.) At some point there was an airship tethered in the field. We went to see it. It was amazing. Cant remember what year i.e whether it was during or after the end of the war?
 
It passed over the Wolverhampton site about the same time. Do I recall correctly, it met with disaster not long after it went back to the USA ?
 
PoJo said:
It passed over the Wolverhampton site about the same time. Do I recall correctly, it met with disaster not long after it went back to the USA ?
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There are (were?) four of them. The Goodyear Blimp flying in Europe is operated by Zeppelin and based in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The remaining three airships operate out of bases in the U.S., in Pompano Beach, Florida, Carson, California and near Akron, Ohio - the home of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

From before 2017, they were being upgraded to new designs. See https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/0...the tire and,Innovation, was retired March 14.
 
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Lloyd said:
There are (were?) four of them. The Goodyear Blimp flying in Europe is operated by Zeppelin and based in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The remaining three airships operate out of bases in the U.S., in Pompano Beach, Florida, Carson, California and near Akron, Ohio - the home of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

From before 2017, they were being upgraded to new designs. See https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/03/16/the-goodyear-blimp-technically-no-more-the-last-true-blimp-retired#:~:text=That's because the tire and,Innovation, was retired March 14.
Click to expand...
"The recently retired Spirit of Innovation....... In its 11-year tenure, it logged 5,818 flights for a total of 33,938 flight hours."

Hmmm. There's only just over 4000 days in 11 years.....and just over 48,000 hours of daylight. It sure was busy!
 
Lloyd said:
There are (were?) four of them. The Goodyear Blimp flying in Europe is operated by Zeppelin and based in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The remaining three airships operate out of bases in the U.S., in Pompano Beach, Florida, Carson, California and near Akron, Ohio - the home of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
Click to expand...
That's tickled the little grey cells. In 2010, didn't 2 come over here ? I was working in Wolverhampton at the time.
 
There's a dfference between an airship and a blimp. The airship is designed as something carrying passengers. The blimp may be able to carry a few passengers but tends to be anchored rather than travelling.It's a vague distinction but still.
If you want to see airships, you'll have to go to Germany. Zeppelin still run tours of various places in central and eastern europe.
 
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