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Airships over Birmingham ?

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
 
JosephHaynes said:
Yes it was 1931 I was 7 years old and living in the Bordesley Green East are
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Hi Joseph, Talking of the Airship, I well remember it, I lived in Brookfields (between Spring hill and Winson Green) at the time and the next door neighbour shouted for me to come out and I saw it as it crossed over the factories, I looked it up when I wrote my story of life in Brookfields and found out that it was a 'Graf Zepplin' touring Great Britain. Next aircraft I saw was German Bombers over Birmingham.
 
paul stacey said:
That must have been amazing Brooki, to think you watched as German bombers bombed Birmingham , unreal.paul
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Amazing Yes but very frightening, having bombs dropping all around you no matter in which shelter you were in, where ever you were and seeing the devastation next morning, I was in St Peters Church early in the blitz when a bomb was dropped right outside, came out to see a great crater full of water. One night my sister and I had had enough of shelters and stayed home, a bomb dropped on the factory next door, so there was no escape from them. I used to ask myself 'were they after me?'
 
Hi Joseph
Good to hear that someone else saw the airship over Bordesley in theearly 1930,s.
I think that they were taking photos to use in the war. I lived in Lawley St in the early part of the war and remember dashing across the street to an air raid shelter and seeing the railway siding near Vauxhall road being bombed. I also remember the sound of incendaries hitting the cobbled road and skittering down the hill' Strangely I did not feel frightened yet we were bombed out that night.
Lesg128
 
Just noticed I'm posted as a Novice Brummie, how long do you have live in Brum before you become a fully fledged one, now nearly 86 years and have lived in Brum all the time except for Service time, I'll try to live until a 100+1day and see if I then qualify (no sarcasm meant, just joking)
 
Brookieboy said:
Just noticed I'm posted as a Novice Brummie, how long do you have live in Brum before you become a fully fledged one, now nearly 86 years and have lived in Brum all the time except for Service time, I'll try to live until a 100+1day and see if I then qualify (no sarcasm meant, just joking)
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The title is applied by the Forum robot based simply upon the number of posts made not how long you have lived in Brum Brookieboy. Just be careful what you wish for :emmersed:
 
Hello Bernard,
We seem to have two threads about Airships & Zeppelins ? and guess what I have just posted on the
other one!!!!
But, there again maybe airships and zeppelins are different?????
Betty
 
Hi Betty,

Zeppelins were a type of rigid airship consisting of a frame covered with fabric and containing gas bags filled with hydrogen
so that the whole thing was lighter than air. There were several manufacturers making them but the Zeppelin company was
the fore runner. There were and indeed are other types of airship which were basically a gas filled baloon, often 'rugby ball' shaped
with a control cabin and engine and propeller slung underneath. Although very sophisticated by comparison with those of 100 years ago,
the modern helium filled Zeppelin falls into the latter non rigid variety.

Kind regards

Dave
 
https://casmuseum.techno-science.ca/doc/research/casm/e_R100.pdf
This is an article from the Canadian aviation museum on the R100 and R101 it's 24 pages long with lots of pictures and details of both and a few other airships including the R34. Unfortunately it concentrates on Canada for the actual tours of the airships so you won't get anything of Birmingham in there.
The richer/more adventurous might be interested in the fact that they are now making Airships (even Zeppelins) again and you can ride in them (companies sell tickets). There are some links here https://spot.colorado.edu/~dziadeck/airship/faq.htm but I expect you can find others through a travel agent.
 
Dave89 said:
the modern helium filled Zeppelin falls into the latter non rigid variety.
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Sorry, that's not true. The current Zeppelin NT is a "semi-rigid" type it does have a frame to hold everything together but the shape comes from the gas bags. Compare that to the more common blimps which don't have a frame at all. There's also a Swiss company that has it's own design Airships but I can't say what sort they are.
 
Hello Dave,
Many thanks for the information. I think I have a better idea of them now though I don't think I would
want to travel in a balloon filled with helium. Did many of them explode?? I tried to read the link on
DZIADECK of Colorado but it all went over my head. However my Grandson lives in Colorado so I will
ask him about Mr. Dziadeck he must have a good brain. { Mr. Dziadeck not Olly ! although he does okay}
Betty
 
The problems with airships exploding was supposedly because of the treated canvas rather than the gas they use. All of the ones that were in the famous disasters had Hydrogen filled gas bags and when Hydrogen burns it becomes water. That could be a problem if you're a long way above the ground because the Hydrogen would keep you up but when it becomes water it will drag you down so the balloon would just fall from the sky but it should go some way to put out the fire. Helium doesn't burn it stays Helium so you don't get that problem either. The modern zeppelin should be safer than an aeroplane.
 
Hi Wam,

Thanks for that, - I didn't realise the NT had a frame.
I bet it's not Duralumin like the vintage Zepps though!
I've still got a couple of little fragments of frame from the L48.

Kind regards

Dave
 
Thanks for that Wam, Most interesting. They must have been clever chaps to have worked
all that out. I now feel much better towards the makers of them. I have always
connected airships and zeppelins with baddies. Typical ignorance through lack of
knowledge I suppose.
Betty.
 
postie said:
Hello Les
4 views means that a total of 4 members have viewed this paticular posting.
Next time you look , you will see the number has gone up.
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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.
 
lesg128 said:
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
Click to expand...
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.
 
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