BONUS - Interview with Toby Page of Skyship Services
It was great to interview Toby Page, Managing Director of Skyship Services Inc, operator of the largest lighter-than-air fleet in the world. Toby and I met 25 years ago when I boarded one of his airships as a wide-eyed teenager and it's testament to the power of these wonderful aircraft that we are both still airship-obsessed. Toby talks about some of the key moments that have shaped the industry over the last quarter century, from 9/11 to the covid pandemic. We explore how an effective blimp advertising campaign comes together and what it's like out on the road with a travelling airship circus. We also talk about the future of the industry and Skyship Services' role in training the pilots of the future. Find out more about Skyship Services at www.airships.com. This is the last episode of Season One. Thanks for listening and I'll see you soon for Season Two! As ever, please remember to like, share and review...
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Episode 10 - Airships on the Eve of War
As political tensions escalated across Europe in the years leading up to the First World War, the major powers engaged in an aerial arms race to develop their airships into war-winning weapons. Britain, Italy, France and Germany watched each other's progress with fear and alarm. Britain struggled to keep up with its continental rivals. Italy was the only country to deploy airships in combat pre-WW1. France built a large fleet but didn't know what to do with it. Germany, of course, dominated the skies but experienced several devastating crashes that claimed the lives of many of their valuable experienced airshipmen. By the time war erupted in the summer of 1914, airshipmen around the world faced an uncertain future. What role would these lighter-than-air giants play in the conflicts to come? Join us as we explore the story of how airships prepared for war - an era marked by ambition, innovation and no small measure of calamity. Sources The Zeppelin in Combat by Douglas RobinsonMilitary, Naval and Civil Airships Since 1783 by Daniel George Ridley-Kitts MBEThe Achievement of the Airship by Guy HartcupThe British Rigid Airship 1908 – 1931 by Robin HighamJane’s Pocket Book of Airship Development by Lord Ventry and Eugene M. KolesnikThe Parseval Airships by Alastair Reid12,000 Kilometres in Parseval Airships by August Stelling, translated by Alastair ReidAirshipmen, Businessmen and Politics by Henry Cord MeyerDance of the Furies by Michael NeibergWeb site of the Airship Heritage TrustWeb site of the Royal Air Force Museum
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Episode 9 - The World's First Airline
In 1909, the Zeppelin Company made history by founding the world’s first airline, DELAG. But it was not smooth sailing; DELAG lost their first airships in a series of high-profile, humiliating disasters before they found their feet. Expanding amid a wave of German nationalism, in which the Zeppelin became a patriotic symbol of Teutonic technological might, DELAG airships soon flew over all the major cities of Germany. Years ahead of aeroplanes, airline passengers on DELAG’s ships flew in plush cabins and served the finest food and wine by the world’s first flight attendant. But the storm clouds of war were gathering over Europe… Sources: The Achievement of the Airship by Guy HartcupGiants in the Sky by Douglas RobinsonCount Zeppelin by Hugo EckenerEckener Unabridged by Hugo Eckener, translated by Alastair ReidThe Men of Manzell by Georg Hacker, translated by Alastair ReidZeppelin! by Guillaume de SyonAirships.net
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BONUS - Movie Recap & Review: The Hindenburg (1975)
"Remember - there are 7,000,000 cubic feet of hydrogen at the end of a fishing pole!" A slightly different bonus episode today - my film nerd husband and I recap the plot of the 1975 disaster movie The Hindenburg, starring Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott! My husband knows a lot about films but not much about airships (although he helps me produce these podcasts, so you'd imagine that by osmosis some knowledge has crept through). After a few drinks, we go back over the story scene-by-scene, discussing the characters, the story, the effects and the recreation of the airship itself. At the end, we discuss the film as a whole and our thoughts on it. Let me know if you agree or disagree with our opinions... This episode contains spoilers from the very beginning!! PS - this was originally uploaded on my Patreon account, since shut down, so ignore references to that.
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Episode 8 - The Flying Dentist and Other Stories
In the years before the First World War, people from nations around the world worked to fill the sky with airships. In this episode, we take a look at developments in the United States and the United Kingdom. We will join one of the most epic adventures in the history of early aviation and we will see how one man's obsession with airships ended up costing him his life. The governments and armed forces of both the United States and the United Kingdom were slow on the uptake with airships, leaving civilians to lead the way. This led to some crazy disasters, as with Morrell's gigantic sausage airship of 1908, as well as giving visionary explorers the opportunity to spread their wings, as with Walter Wellman and his polar and Atlantic adventures. In the United Kingdom, Ernest Thompson Willows, a failed dental student, dedicated his life to airships - with tragic consequences. Enjoy a selection of unusual stories from the early age of aviation!
Welcome to Up Ship! The Airship History Podcast. I’m Nick Rogers and I will be your captain on this long-haul flight through the fascinating history of the most awe-inspiring and ethereal aircraft ever conceived – the airship.
We will navigate from the earliest days of airships, through the violent days of the First World War into the Golden Age of the great airships of the 1920s and 30s, and beyond.
We’ll fly around the world on the Graf Zeppelin, travel to the North Pole with Roald Amundsen, escort World War 2 convoys in US Navy airships and much, much more. And of course, we will examine in the depth the tragic crashes that bedevilled airship history, such as the Hindenburg Disaster.
On our journey we will encounter courageous pilots, crazy inventors, ambitious politicians, visionary engineers; a whole cast of colourful characters. We’ll look at how airships influenced the way we travel now, and at the companies trying to bring them back into regular use.
Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts to join the adventure as we voyage back to a time when giant airships ruled the skies!
Hören Sie Up Ship! The Airship History Podcast, Tatort Geschichte - True Crime meets History und viele andere Podcasts aus aller Welt mit der radio.at-App
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