Spooky Skies
Just in time for Halloween, a collection of aviation mysteries.
- By Rebecca Maksel
- Air & Space magazine, October 2012
NASM
Fear of Floating
In the spring of 1909, Britons began spotting zeppelins everywhere they looked. As Dan Vergano wrote in our 2009 article “Fear of Floating,” “Zeppelins had been flying for nine years, but this was the first time one had been spotted over England. Designed by Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, the rigid airships were marvels of engineering…. But they had also proven fragile, skittish, and prone to catastrophe: Of the first 10 built, six crashed or burned. By 1909, only two, LZ 3 and LZ 4, had enjoyed some success. LZ 3 made 45 short hops totaling 2,733 miles, while in 1908, LZ 4 made a 12-hour trip of more than 600 miles. But had one really flown from the zeppelin hangar at Friedrichschafen, Germany, to Peterborough, England, and back—a trip of 1,036 miles?”
The short answer is “no.” While the sightings–more 49 in May 1909 alone—went on for four months, reported by several hundred people throughout the United Kingdom, they finally began to subside.
Vergano offers several explanations: Some historians believe zeppelin mania was started by newspapers eager for more readers. Others felt any airship “sightings” were a simple misidentification of Venus, shining brightly in the night sky. And there were copycats: “Pranksters released six-foot-wide fire balloons to spark airship reports,” writes Vergano. “And the Northampton Mercury reported a hoax involving an airship model used for advertising motorcars.”
Pictured: The Graf Zeppelin over London, ca. 1930.
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Comments (6)
Great story! I knew that some spiders use a strand of their silk to travel on the wind but I had no idea that they could travel to such heights.
Posted by Jim Johnson on October 26,2012 | 07:17 PM
I would bet that there are more true stories out there about aviation unit mascots. Would this be an idea for a future article?
Posted by Jim Johnson on October 26,2012 | 07:49 PM
Interesting stories! I hope that veryone has a great and safe weekend!
Posted by Mike on October 26,2012 | 08:55 PM
Catching the “spirit” of your Halloween article, as newly certified Private Pilots, eager to go...anywhere, my friend Tony and I signed out a 172 at Texas A&M Flying Club for a day trip all the way non-stop from College Station to Waco. Met up with friends from Baylor U and had enjoyable time socializing, dinner, etc. Departing an airport you are unfamiliar with after 10PM was less expectant of any challenges in that pre 9-11 world of 1987, so we flashlighted ourselves along a pitch dark ramp to our little bird for pre flight. Night flight for low timers, single engined and cross country could be thrill-inspiring enough, but when you are accustomed to crickets, distant truck-on-the-highway noise and sometimes a killdeer’s lonely cry that nocturnal airfield symphony can turn from tranquil to terror when suddenly you hear: ROAR! No, not like jet exhaust or big round engine roar. Big cat from Africa eats pilots on late night ramp, ROAR! It caught me off guard, still holding my plastic fuel sample cup. “Tony, did you just hear a…” As I turned, Tony was not to be found. I spied him in the airplane, taking cover behind the tall instrument panel. “Let’s get in the air, now!” was all he said. A succession of more ROAR followed, and each with crescendos of enthusiasm. Within moments, we were start…taxi…intentions declared…take off. We climbed into night sky, giving thanks for altitude, distance, Lycoming, not being appetizers. Later we learned that prior to the Cameron Park Zoo downtown, the Central Texas Zoological Park had exotic beasts housed off out in the middle of nowhere, near Waco Regional. It brought new meaning to Fight or Flight, for us!
Posted by Maj Hyral B (Buddy) Walker Jr, USAF on October 27,2012 | 10:05 AM
I am surprised they omitted the Ghost of Flight 401! A famous aviation ghost story of the haunting of aircraft with part salvaged from the crash of flight 401 in the Florida Everglades. Maybe next year!
Posted by Bill Greenleaf on October 31,2012 | 05:17 PM
Flight 19; there was a theory that a large quantity of gas escaped up from the ocean floor and when it mixed with the air displaced the oxygen, causing the aircrews to lose conscious and the recips to shut down. What with the shallow shale gas discoveries nowadays, that sounds plausible.
Posted by Bob Olson USAF Ret. on November 15,2012 | 05:50 PM