airships for aussie forumites

[stan]

ABC TV 9.30pm Wednesday Dec 29th there is a program on airships - looks quite good from the ads.

[Peter Beckett]

Just finished watching part 1.

I had not realised the British airships were so effective against the U boats.

Peter

[Dolphin]

A good presentation, with some very interesting archive footage. I thought that it was well done and I'm looking forward to parts 2 and 3.

Gareth

[Guest Pete Wood]

I thought you might be interested to hear from Rick Zitarossa, the Navy Lakehurst and airship expert who contributed much to the programme, and wrote this about the Aussie show on the Airship List tonight.

Rick is a 'tough guy' and very critical when it comes to airships and documentaries. So, contrary to what you might think when reading the following, I think, overall, he liked it. I love the extra info about the making of this programme:

'Well, it's quite a show and it was quite an eye-opener for me to participate in it. There was a bit of a stink because I refused to give permission for them to use my statements "out of context" and refused to acknowledge that the AKRON was still down there (which even they conclude it is NOT.) We had a nice AKRON girder sample which their own Marine archaelogist held in his hands (on camera) and said " this thing's probably all dissolved by now " and of course that didn't fit with their script of a great "find" so a perfectly good opportunity to demonstrate the structure detail/lightness of a girder on camera went onto the cutting room floor. My attempts to emphatically state that the tail structure was apparently intact going into the water were chopped somewhat more than I would have cared and so they have me giving serious credence to the theory that the AKRON's fin failure MAY have failed and caused a "domino effect" similar to the loss of the MACON but they did leave in the part where I said that it was only one theory and faulty altimeter reading was a more likely cause.

I did call them to politely protest a few months ago and reminded them that John Lust will be 94 in March and it would be real nice if they might consider airing it while he's still alive! John comes off very well on camera; ironically, John stated his belief that fin failure caused the loss of the AKRON (a belief shared by many LTA old timers) but they didn't use it!

You may recall that one of the producers tried to float the theory that Moffett was "trying to pull a Rickover" and push McCord into taking the AKRON into a bad storm to see what she could really stand (and to impress Army Reserve Colonel Masury, a possible big time civilian LTA investor, who was aboard in his capacity as President of Mack Truck Co.)

I stated emphatically that Moffett was not of the nature to interfere in the operation of the ship. However, I don't think McCord would have taken the AKRON out that night if Moffett wasn't planning to be aboard and furthermore the personal relationship between McCord and Wiley was such that if Wiley had instead suggested going EAST McCord probably would have gone WEST just to prove that he didn't need one of Rosendahl's snoops looking over his shoulder and second-guessing him.( Remember the point of the tension was that Wiley had a few years and a few thousand hours' flight time on McCord and had commanded the LOS ANGELES two years before McCord had even been Exec, yet McCord was four years senior by date of commission and a full Commander and so Moffett picked him to be the CO of the AKRON in keeping with his own belief that higher-ranking officers were needed so they might "draw more water" in the Navy.)

Much has been made of McCord taking the AKRON east that last one final time after zig zagging to and from the Coast. Rosendahl flat out blamed McCord for "losing the ship" but near the end of his own life changed his story to embrace the fin-failure scenario. Wiley was rather vague at the Court of Inquiry but when reading his testimony one gets the sense he was doing his damndest to make sure everyone present knew that the decision to go East was solely that of the Commanding Officer. Heinen at one point argued that they should have taken the ship down to within clear sight of the water and found the true wind direction and turned tail to get out of there. Dr. Robinson once observed to me that if they had taken the ship up to 2500 or 3000 feet and run West they probably would have been allright.

The late Dick Smith, who wrote the definitive scholarly work on the AKRON in 1965, felt that McCord was a skillful officer and excellent pilot and that there was no "safe semicircle" or safe anywhere-else for the ship that night. Then again, Smith also believes the AKRON's speed was probably minimal when she crashed, while I tend to believe Rosendahl's initial analysis that they cranked-up the engines after the first dive and she was probably travelling at 60-70mph. when the tail went in. This would bear out the tremendous shuddering and damage to the main structure witnessed by both enlisted survivors Deal and Erwin and rationalize the fact that the AKRON crumpled and sank very quickly with many men not even roused out of their bunks and unable to climb to safety of height in sinking structure and possibly a good number fatalities caused by the violent impact itself (Turnbull's biography of Moffett states that when his remains were found floating in the sea about five days after the crash there was indication of some pretty massive blunt force trauma to one side of the head and one gets the impressiont hat he was identified more by his cufflinks and uniform dress than his facial features.)

Cussler's computer-generated graphics of the crash depict the latter scenario somewhat effectively (if a bit disjointed in spots) and I personally reviewed about three different re-makes of it and sent them considerable comment when I just realized that it was as good as it was going to get.

Overall, have to say that having now been iterviewed for some five or six documentaries, my personal experience is that if you're vain and dumb enough to go into one just try to be as absolute and firm about the details you feel are important, do your best, sign the release and hope that the finished product isn't so skewed as to make you look like a complete ass. In the end, you may be pleasantly surprised or just shrug and say " Maybe next time! "

Happy New Year to All,

Rick'

[Guest Pete Wood]

FYI http://www.theage.com.au/news/TV--Radio/A-...3391776276.html

[frev]

The third & final episode aired last night - and from someone who knew nothing more than that Airships had existed - I'd just like to say that I found the series totally fascinating. I'd never actually realised how big some of these ships were - and the complex frames that formed their skeletons were true works of art. It's amazing how much original footage exists - and I'm still trying to come to grips with how anyone could have walked away from the 'Hindenburg'!

If you missed it - I thoroughly recommend that you don't - the next time the ABC brings it to life.

Cheers, Frev.