What if the Hindenburg Disaster Never Happened?

Fun fact: The only US airship loss in WW2 occurred when a blimp tried to sink a U-Boat off the coast of Florida. The U-Boat had more guns and easily shot down the blimp, but everyone on board survived and tread the warm waters awaiting rescue. Then right before a ship arrived for them, one of the crew members was eaten by a shark.

Airships have style that modern jetliners can never match.

Aluminium was so rare that when Emperor Napoleon III wanted to really flex on guests he busted out the aluminium cutlery rather than the silver

Airships just look cool. They are a boat in the sky. They set the imagination on fire. That's why they are so popular in Retrofuturism and Alternate History. They are visually cool.

The Japanese DID use unmanned incendiary balloon bombs in WWII. Sent them across the Pacific to try to start forest fires in Oregon and California. Failed, but killed a handful of civilians in one incident.

Then we'd miss out on "Oh the humanity" and honestly I can't imagine a world without hindenburg jokes

I love how hard cody tries to avoid the obvious and inevitable conclusion: "What if the Hindenburg never exploded?" "The disappearance of the airship would be less memorable."

One thing that most people overlook is that the majority of people on board the Hindenburg survived. Since the descent was so slow, most of the passengers were able to escape the burning wreckage as it hit the ground.

"Kirov Reporting!" might actually be something that you can hear historically

The book that the movie "Die Hard" is based on is called "Nothing Lasts Forever". It takes place in the 1970's and at one point the protagonist, Leland, thinks back to a conversation with a fellow airplane passenger who claims that his favorite way to cross the Atlantic in all his life was by airship, floating just a few hundred feet over the surface of the ocean. I've always thought about that ever since, and wondered what that would be like.

I love how you take a common alternate history subject, show that the alternate scenario lesser authors would have think of couldn't work, and manage to propose another scenario, original, more realistic, and fascinating at the same time. I wish alternate history novels and movies were of the same quality.

I had a family member who was a WW1 vet who, when he saw the Hindenburg, tried shooting at it with his rifle. He figured the Germans were spying, which... wasn't entirely far off from what I understand.

Every time I think of the Hindenburg or zeppelins in general, I only think of Sterling Archer slapping a man attempting to smoke aboard a blimp and uttering his immortal words: "Wanna blow us all to shit, Sherlock?"

Oh the humanity, he uploaded twice in like two months! It's a miracle!

"The US trying to shrink its military" is not a sentence I'd ever expect to hear.

Never expected a Santos Drummond mention. Much love from Brazil.

In 1863, a private business man developed a dirigible that could travel into the wind. He did several demonstrations and tried to pass it off to expertsto develop, but the Union was not interested. It was reported on in a period newspaper with multiple witnesses attesting to the capabilities of the airship.

They were sky cruise liners. You didn't take them to go faster you took them for the slow and amazing process of going across the world from the sky.

"Imagine Washington DC surrounded by balloons" Chinese spy balloon controller: Every night. Every night.

I'm sure that Santos-Dumont would have been a much bigger deal in the hypothetical "airships become popular in the 19th century" world - he made a lot of contributions to airship design - but the Wright Brothers probably would still get to fixed wing flight first. Greg's Planes and Automobiles had a pretty good video explaining why: https://youtu.be/EkpQAGQiv4Q?si=jxskGTF1ygSOlJIw TLDW: the Wright Brothers didn't just copy what everyone else did, they invented a wind tunnel to test airfoil shapes, disproved misconceptions that the European aviation community had, and made breakthroughs in wing design (curved airfoil instead of flat), propeller design (twisted airfoil shape), and control (wing warping, which became obsolete pretty soon but at least established some key principles).