The US Navy actively used blimps for recon and patrol up into WW2, and at least produced (I don’t know if they were used) models into the 1950s. During the early days of nuclear testing, since we knew jack about shit about how everything would react to a nuclear shockwave, we had all sorts of crazy tests, mock-up villages, scrapped tanks, soldiers standing in the open away from the kill zone (Big Cancer Moment), everything. One of these tests included what you see here - an old US Navy blimp left flying free (and unmanned) to see the effects of a nuclear blast on a non-rigid aircraft.
https://www.pickenspast.com/post/the-georgia-nuclear-aircraft-laboratory-of-dawson-county is a fascinating read. They irradiated all sorts of stuff with an unshielded reactor. Sounds crazy, but honestly, if you read about all the difficulties they had with machines and electronics breaking and malfunctioning while trying to deal with the aftermath of Chernobyl, it starts to sound a lot less crazy to find it all out beforehand. It’s quite a shame that information like that doesn’t get shared like it should.
The US Navy actively used blimps for recon and patrol up into WW2, and at least produced (I don’t know if they were used) models into the 1950s. During the early days of nuclear testing, since we knew jack about shit about how everything would react to a nuclear shockwave, we had all sorts of crazy tests, mock-up villages, scrapped tanks, soldiers standing in the open away from the kill zone (Big Cancer Moment), everything. One of these tests included what you see here - an old US Navy blimp left flying free (and unmanned) to see the effects of a nuclear blast on a non-rigid aircraft.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it did not stay afloat.
https://www.pickenspast.com/post/the-georgia-nuclear-aircraft-laboratory-of-dawson-county is a fascinating read. They irradiated all sorts of stuff with an unshielded reactor. Sounds crazy, but honestly, if you read about all the difficulties they had with machines and electronics breaking and malfunctioning while trying to deal with the aftermath of Chernobyl, it starts to sound a lot less crazy to find it all out beforehand. It’s quite a shame that information like that doesn’t get shared like it should.
thanks.
Happy to help!