• PugJesusM
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    2111 months ago

    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.