Dirigibles

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

What I love is how those bi-planes were launched from and recovered to those dirigibles. They'd sit on hanger deck, and then when it was time to deploy, they'd hang them by hooks from basically a big trapeze out the bottom, fire up the prop, and release. Then, to get back in, the pilot would have to get under the blimp, match speed, and hook back onto the trapeze! What a thing to have witnessed.

The Macon had to ditch into the ocean after a storm caused some rushed repair work to break and poke a hole in the ship. Of the 76 crew, only 2 died. One jumped too early. The other I've heard conflicting stories on. One said that in the confusion, he ended up in an area of the ship that was being flooded by helium and asphyxiated, the other version has him swimming back toward the wreck to retrieve personal items. Either way, the captain did a heck of a job.

Wow! I did not know this (about launching the planes) those guys really were daredevils!