{"id":2013344,"date":"2023-08-27T05:11:07","date_gmt":"2023-08-27T09:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ballooning-ambitions\/"},"modified":"2023-08-27T05:20:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T09:20:01","slug":"ballooning-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ballooning-ambitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding aspirations"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">4<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fballooning-ambitions%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2013344&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<h2>The\u200b Tragic Tale of the R101 Airship<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>On June 18, a small submarine called the <em>Titan<\/em> imploded \u2063in \u2062the depths of the Atlantic, killing five people on \u200da \u200cvisit to the RMS <em>Titanic<\/em>, \u2063which had sunk \u200cto the ocean floor in 1912. The \u2064question, of course, is\u200d why five men\u200d would\u2062 risk their \u200clives just to see the drowned corpse of an old passenger\u200c liner. \u2063The\u2064 answer is that they knew, as we all know, that the <em>Titanic<\/em> is more than a wrecked ship. It\u2019s a\u2062 symbol of a time when we imagined and built great things\u2014and\u200c saw them sink, too, from time to time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Price of Grand Ideas<\/h3>\n<p>Failure is inevitable in \u2063engineering pursuits. Yes, the lives lost\u200c from such engineering overreach are a tragedy. But early failures can provide instruction for future successes, and the\u2062 unavoidable fact of occasional failure\u200d is \u2064the price of grand\u2063 ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Some grandiose projects fail \u2064from bad engineering, some from bad \u200doperators, and some from just plain bad luck. Others are \u2062simply bad ideas. Not examined enough, however, is\u2062 yet another reason for failure or success: the cultural narrative behind a \u200dtechnology. America\u2019s moon \u2064program,\u200b for example, \u2064succeeded\u2062 in \u2063good\u2062 measure because its race\u2062 for technological advancement was willing to \u2062express \u2064a national\u2063 purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Or, for \u2063an example of failure, consider the sad history of zeppelins, dirigibles,\u200c and blimps. A recent book, <em>His Majesty\u2019s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the \u200bWorld\u2019s Largest Flying Machine<\/em>, reminds us of the power of narrative for an overly hyped technology that \u200bstruggles to stay in \u200dthe air. S.C. Gwynne tells the story of a 1929 British airship program that produced the R101 airship, a\u2064 rigid-frame, hydrogen-filled lighter-than-air craft that, at 777 feet,\u200b was the largest\u2064 airship of its time. Tracing the\u200b engineering\u200b challenges, the in-group dramas, and the political battles,\u200c Gwynne reminds us that \u2062behind every nut, bolt, and sewn cow-intestine\u200d hydrogen gasbag is an \u2064engineer, a banker, and a politician who help \u200bmake the technology\u2064 possible.<\/p>\n<p>Lighter-than-air craft, \u2064beginning with hot-air observation balloons, had their beginnings in war. The ones known as &#8220;airships&#8221; are steerable \u2063vessels with a structural frame, held\u200c aloft \u2063by hydrogen or helium. At\u2062 a time when heavier-than-air planes were dangerous, needed regular refueling, and could not carry heavy \u200cloads, airships seemed a plausible technology.<\/p>\n<p>These early airships had their shortcomings. Lift\u2014the upward force generated by buoyancy from\u2062 the lightweight\u2062 gas\u2014needed to be managed \u2062meticulously. In calm skies, this task can be \u2063done \u200cby a back-of-the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ballooning-ambitions\/\" title=\"Expanding aspirations\">-envelope undergraduate-level force-balance calculation<\/a>.\u2063 But even the slightest breeze generates sufficient force \u2063to push the airship\u2063 hundreds of feet. Meanwhile, the lifting potential of the flammable\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-nuclear-the-answer-to-powering-up-in-space\/\" title=\"Is Nuclear the Answer to Powering Up in Space?\">hydrogen gas<\/a> is altitude\u200d and temperature-dependent. Rearward engines provided\u200c the linear motion of the vessel, but \u2064as the engines operated, fuel would be consumed, decreasing the weight. If more lift was required, excess fuel, cargo, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/satellite-images-of-russian-tanks-outside-kyiv-are-probably-not-what-you-think-they-are\/\" title=\"Satellite Images Of Russian \u2018Tanks\u2019 Outside Kyiv Are Probably Not What You Think They Are\">supplies needed<\/a> to be jettisoned. Everything not bolted down or breathing was at \u200crisk of \u200bbeing thrown \u2063overboard.<\/p>\n<p>Working their way through the book, readers will find themselves on the side of the engineers and their grand idea, willing the airships to work\u2014if not \u2062in 1929, then certainly with the more advanced engineering we have today. \u2062And in <em>His Majesty\u2019s Airship<\/em>, Gwynne eggs that optimism along\u2014until the\u200c end, when \u2064he destroys any\u200d hope of \u2063a possible solution. These gigantic airborne beasts did not work and never will.<\/p>\n<p>On October 5, 1930, on its first flight, the\u200b R101 \u2062failed over the French countryside, angling down and\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/second-suv-carrying-19-suspected-illegal-immigrants-erupts-in-flames-near-border-cbp-gives-details-of-mass-casualty-crash\/\" title=\"Second SUV Carrying 19 Suspected Illegal Immigrants Erupts In Flames Near Border; CBP Gives Details Of Mass Casualty Crash\">catching fire<\/a>. Of the 54 people onboard, 48 died, \u200cincluding\u200d the\u2063 British air \u2064minister, various government officials, and\u2014in a generational loss of talent\u2014almost all the airship\u2019s designers. Gwynne suspects the \u2062breaking of\u2063 the \u200celevator\u2062 cables \u200cas \u200bthe proximate cause, but the \u2064full explanation of\u2062 the wreck of\u200b the R101 remains beyond reach. With dozens\u200c of possible failure\u200d points, a vessel as vulnerable as an\u2062 airship was always heading toward disaster. The fundamental problems have no \u200csolution, especially the mortal enemy of static-electric sparks near \u200bhydrogen gas.<\/p>\n<p>Gwynne is not the first\u200d to write\u200b about\u200c the R101. Engineering professor and \u2064science writer Bill Hammack\u200d also recounted the tragedy in his 2016 book <em>Fatal Flight: The True Story of\u2063 Britain\u2019s Last Great Airship<\/em>. Leaning on his engineering expertise, Hammack gives exact details \u2064and provides\u200b a linear\u2062 timeline, while Gwynne\u2019s narrative is more investigative\u2014his previous books \u200dinclude <em>The Outlaw Bank: A Wild\u200d Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI<\/em> (1993) and <em>The Perfect Pass: American Genius \u200dand the Reinvention of Football<\/em> (2016). This difference\u2063 in style is evident\u200d in\u200c their supplementary materials: Hammack includes five appendices of engineering details; Gwynne provides pictures of the crew \u200cand the wreckage.<\/p>\n<p>Gwynne\u2019s narrative style does help us understand\u2063 the British nationalistic desire to one-up the Germans. \u2063Called <em>Wunderwaffen<\/em>\u2014&#8221;wonder weapons&#8221;\u2014by German\u2064 author Rudolf Martin, these \u2064airborne World War\u2062 I leviathans instilled fear in\u2064 the British\u2064 people, even\u200c as, by \u20631917, the fixed-wing airplane outpaced the airship.<\/p>\n<p>More important than the few casualties from German airship campaigns was the ruined sense of\u2062 security and isolation the British\u2063 island had long enjoyed: \u200bsurrounded by water and \u200dpossessing the world\u2019s largest navy. &#8220;Nationalism had\u2064 always been the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/elon-musk-adds-bitcoin-to-his-twitter-bio-bitcoin-surges-by-20\/\" title=\"Elon Musk Adds \u2018#bitcoin\u2019 To His Twitter Bio, Bitcoin Surges By 20%\">driving force<\/a>\u2064 behind the big \u2063rigids. They were equal parts engineering and ideology,&#8221; Gwynne writes. The R101 was \u2064a national glory, born\u2063 of \u2064a romantic nationalism.<\/p>\n<p>Gwynne cannot come close to the bravado of Tom Wolfe\u2019s electric \u200cpacing and style \u2062in his 1979 book, <em>The Right Stuff<\/em>, about \u200dthe space race: daring, dexterous\u200d young men thousands of feet in the\u2063 sky. But in his telling of \u200cthe R101 and all those pilots\u200d and airmen before it, Gwynne \u2063does catch something of a world of \u2063technological challenges and disasters, with the turbulent lives of the pilots and engineers. In the case of the airship,\u2064 a \u2062successful voyage depended in part \u200con the instinctive, ad-hoc solutions of George Scott, a national hero and expert pilot,\u2063 who once \u2062flew into a wet cloud bank to cool the superheated hydrogen. (He died piloting the R101 on its maiden voyage.) Success for an airship also needed onboard mechanics constantly patching holes in the gasbags while bouncing several thousand feet in\u200b elevation.<\/p>\n<p>The air \u200dminister, Lord Christopher Thompson, pushed,\u2062 cajoled, and forced \u2063the construction of \u2064the \u200bmassive airship.\u2063 But\u200b the nationalistic investment in\u200c lighter-than-air\u2063 craft emptied out after his death onboard \u2063the R101, never to \u2063be reinflated.<\/p>\n<p><em>His Majesty\u2019s Airship<\/em> is an expertly told, fast-paced account \u2063of the inevitable\u2064 doom of \u200bairships. We want, sometimes desperately, for some technologies to work because\u2064 we feel as though they should. Yet\u200d Gwynne helps us understand why,\u2062 in the case of airships at least, projects \u2062destined to fail persist beyond their\u2063 merit. It \u200cis difficult to understand how, after the failures of the R101, anyone would approve the\u2063 construction\u200c or operation of future airships. And yet, seven years later,\u200b the\u2063 German \u2064LZ 129\u2063 <em>Hindenburg<\/em> caught fire over Lakehurst, New Jersey.<\/p>\n<p>It may seem silly that the British invested so much time and money in the R101. But the\u200c mourning public understood they\u200c had lost something\u2014something big. It had\u2062 brought the \u200dBritish people onboard something larger than themselves. Much \u200clike \u2064the Apollo program and even the <em>Titanic<\/em>, the \u2064development of the \u2062R101 grasped at something\u200c grand: a \u200bdream of speed, safety, and luxury. A grand dream \u200cof national romance.<\/p>\n<p><em>His \u2064Majesty\u2019s\u200d Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World\u2019s Largest Flying Machine<\/em><br \/>  by\u2062 S.C. Gwynne<br \/> Scribner, \u200d320 pp., $32<\/p>\n<p><em>Matthew Phillips is a doctoral student in aerospace\u200c engineering at North Carolina State University.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 18, the Titan submarine collapsed in the Atlantic, claiming five lives during a visit to the sunken RMS Titanic. The motive behind risking their lives to witness the submerged remains of a century-old tragedy remains a perplexing question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2132,"featured_media":2013345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2013344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2013344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2013345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2013344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2013344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2013344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}