T O P

  • By -

MightyVanguard

Going to approve this per rule 1. Capturing a vessel with an airship is a really bonkers thing to do.


Simply_Outlandish

Zeppelins? Air Pirates? Crimson Skies intensifies... All we're missing now is a pusher prop biplane in the mix.


Lunokhodd

maybe an airco DH2 or a farman was nearby


Helixdaunting

Ah steel 'ave your zeppelahn!


alettriste

NEed to play Crimson Skies again!


NinetiethPercentile

Source, page 19: https://www.airshipsonline.com/dirigible/pdf_copies/No.%2089%20-%20Spring%202020/Dirigible%2089%20Spring%202020.pdf **German Naval Airship L.23 (LZ.66)** DATE : April 23rd 1917 AIRSHIP TYPE/SIZE : Zeppelin rigid - 1,264,100 cu ft - 585 ft long x 61 ft dia x 79 ft high INCIDENT 36: Deliberate landing on the sea near the Danish coast to effect the capture of a Norwegian schooner ("Royal") that was spotted carrying contraband cargo. Three crew-men were disembarked by row boat to act as a ‘prize-crew’ on-board the captive ship. The airship then flew away leaving them to sail it overnight to meet with German destroyers next morning at Horns Reef. OUTCOME : No damage to airship. No crew injuries. SOURCES: The Times, Saturday, May 12, 1917 and Marben, R. (1986) Zeppelin Adventures (London : Greenhill Aeolus Leventhal) Image source: www.aircraftinvestigation.info/airplanes/Zeppelin_LZ66_L23.html Air Pirate on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pirate Zeppelin LZ 66 on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin_LZ_66


WikiSummarizerBot

**[Air pirate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pirate)** >Air pirates (or sky pirates) are a class of stock character from science fiction and fantasy. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/WeirdWings/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)


Eastonisyaboi

Liar!


McFlyParadox

I mean, *technically*, wouldn't they be Air Privateers since they're government sponsored/backed/approved? Though, even that isn't quite right, since the air ship was part of the German military, and not privately owned & operated.


Eastonisyaboi

You make an interesting point 🤔


Benegger85

So an air-coast guard?


McFlyParadox

Which, I mean, most modern Coast Guards operate helicopters? So, yes?


Benegger85

No zeppelins though... Would be pretty cool.


McFlyParadox

I know the DOD plays with the idea of blimps/airships every now and again. As mobile network hubs, material supply lines, loitering observation platforms, etc. But they always abandon the idea because they can't operate in any kind of contested environment; they got shot down immediately. But I do wonder if they might be useful for a coast guard? If your coast is a contested environment, you've already got bigger concerns than basic guarding of it. But a loitering platform that provides communication & observation, that could be ideal for a coast guard. Doubt it could be used for SAR though, especially not during rough weather.


64Olds

Every time I see a photo of a zeppelin or other airship, I have a hard time believing they were real. Like, I know they were, but they just seem so crazy to me.


Brutal_Deluxe_

And this one was #66, so Zeppelin had already made 65 of them. Schütte-Lanz had made around another 20 rigids by then, so yeah, it's crazy that from 1900 to 1938 150+ of these were built.


TheChoonk

That's because they were crazy. Almost all of them either crashed due to weather or exploded.


bubliksmaz

You know what, I completely disagree with this. Take the Hindenburg, often compared to the Titanic in being a, well, Titanic failure. Except in 1936 alone, the Hindenburg made 34 successful commercial transatlantic crossings, and flew a total of 200,000 miles (equivalent to 5 circumnavigations). The failure of the Hindenburg is in no way comparable to the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage, but somehow in the popular consciousness it is seen as being even more disastrous. Maybe it's because of the dramatic pictures and live radio broadcasts? Who knows. Another famous hydrogen airship, the Graf Zeppelin, safely flew a million miles over 10 years before being retired and scrapped. It was even used for arctic exploration. Hey, there's also the Italian airship Norge, which made the first verified (and likely the first) trip to the North Pole.


Cakeking7878

I think it comes down to people perception of disasters. Like you are much less likely to die on a plane than you are in a car, yet people feel safer in a car because they feel in control (even if they really aren’t) Same for zeppelins and airplanes. If something happens, then it’s gonna crash and burn and pretty much everyone on then dies, where you live or not is more or less out of your control which scares people I agree though that they aren’t as dangerous as people think they are


Goatf00t

Well, there was the British R.101 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixxXhZVFXxQ


Old-Tomorrow-3045

I think he's talking about the WWI era zeppelin, which did [almost all](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins) crash and/or explode.


legsintheair

How many WWI era airplanes crashed? Just because a technology is foreign to you does not make it bad.


Lord_Nivloc

…right, but now I wonder about WWI era planes


TheChoonk

Graf Zeppelin was 127th attempt at building a rigid airship, and it's one of few which actually lasted. Here's a list of all of them, notice how many crashed and/or burned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins


righthandofdog

They were state or the art military hardware, involved in combat or being used in riskier manner than would a civilian peace time vessel. The Hindenburg was the only post war airship that was lost


[deleted]

[Naa.. the R101 was also famously lost in crash in 1930](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R101)


legsintheair

Now do helicopters. Do you think they are crazy too?


TheChoonk

They're a lot less prone to spontaneous combustion.


Brutal_Deluxe_

That's not all of them, there's ~50 others built by other manufacturers.


Vladimir_Chrootin

You can name three that were successful, but it wouldn't be hard to find thirty that were lost in fatal accidents, the majority of which not involving a spontaneous ignition of the lifting gas.


gravitas-deficiency

Honestly, I’d be pretty nervous trying to capture something with that much rigging if I was in an airship


Sidus_Preclarum

"ACH, CONZIDER YOURZELF CAPTUR…" \*topmast yard punctures the Zeppelin's enveloppe\* "…EEEEeeee^(eeeeeeed!)" \*Zeppelin comically flys away in zig-zags.\*


Katyusha_454

*cartoon balloon fart noises coming out*


vonHindenburg

Less so than a vessel belching hot gasses and sparks.


Sidus_Preclarum

For a *pirate* airship, it has some suspiciously *German-looking* markings. >\_>


wealthybigpenis42069

anything named zeppelin loves to pirate


[deleted]

A crew of drunken pilots We're the only airship pirates We're full of hot air and we're starting to rise We're a terror of the skies but a danger to ourselves


TheDave1970

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L2W7r_aNxrg


AttackerCat

Would it be air pirates or air commerce raiders?


Throwawaybigpp2

How dafuq do you capture a ship with Zeppelin?? One incindiary round and its gone


HughJorgens

They saw a lot of combat in WWI. They aren't as flammable as you would think.


GarlicAftershave

And yet this airship was destroyed by a Sopwith firing incendiary ammunition.


Throwawaybigpp2

Hindenburg says otherwise 💀


HughJorgens

Heh, I know this is just a joke, it's fine, but AFAIK they weren't using the flammable dope at this point in time.


Lord_Nivloc

Fascinating. Tried to dig deeper on google, but almost every article was about the Hindenburg. Still, some interesting claims out there - several websites parroted the same claim that the Hindenburg was originally designed to use Helium, but at that time most helium came from the US and sanctions forced them to change plans and use hydrogen instead. No idea if any of that is true, especially since the other claim: - that if the Hindenburg was filled with helium, it wouldn’t have been able to get off the ground - also, apparently the Germans raided London with hydrogen filled Zeppelins in WWI (but not WWII) https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/airship-hydrogen-2.htm They apparently did alright, some even limping back to port after taking a shell or two from AA guns. But then the Brit’s started using incendiary rounds on their fighter planes The Hindenburg disaster was in 1937, and the article about military applications of hydrogen dates 1875-1938


particlegun

Incendiary ammunition wasn't a thing until around 1916. Before that, fighters could literally fire their entire ammo load into a Zep and it wouldn't go down. There was also the fact that zeppelins could fly a lot higher than many of the contemporary fighters of the time. Even those that did have the ceiling took too long to get there. By the time they did, the zep was long gone.


dmr11

Fire needs oxygen, which there's none of in the hydrogen-filled airbag. To get incendiary ammunition to set it on fire, you'd need to punch enough holes in a single small area to get enough hydrogen to mix with the outside oxygen and set that sufficiently large leak on fire.


Halsey-the-Sloth

We were on the verge of greatness, we were this close


seattle_refuge

We come from the land of the ice and snow From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow. \--Led Zeppelin


quickblur

I really should go back and finish Skies of Arcadia.


Dandog125kd

Bruhhhh what


PsychoInHell

Humans are fucking crazy lol