Hey smarty pants, you are not going to believe where I am right now.
I'm at the Super Bowl!
Even better, I have an awesome seat with a great view of the entire field.
Whoa, amazing catch!
Now, some of you might be wondering, how can I be at the Super Bowl watching the game, and yet it's so quiet, except for the propellers?
Propellers? Did I say propellers?
I sure did, because I'm watching this year's Super Bowl from 1 ,500 feet above the stadium in a giant blimp.
Oh, oh, oh, excuse me, pal.
Would you mind keeping it down a little?
We're trying to get camera shots of the game, and the entire TV audience can hear you.
Oops, sorry. Smarty Pants, if you've ever watched a big sporting event on TV, or even better, been to one, you've probably seen a blimp hovering way up high in the sky, getting incredible aerial shots of the action.
Hey, check it out! It's the Goodyear Blimp!
That's mostly what blimps are used for these days.
But that wasn't always the case.
In fact, blimps have a very interesting history, which I will tell you all about as soon as I learn a little bit more about it myself.
Truth be told, I used my teleportation app to beam myself from my seat in the stadium up to this blimp in order to ask the pilot lots of blimp -related questions.
Like, why are they called blimps?
How were they once used by the military?
What was the golden age of blimp travel like?
And why don't people still travel by blimp today?
Sounds like it's time for another whiff of science and history on...
Who Smarted? Who's Smarted?
Who's Smart? Is it you?
Is it me? Is it science?
Or history? Listen up, everyone!
We make smarting! Lots of fun on Who's Smarted!
Hi, Smarty Pants! It's the trusty narrator, the host of Who's Smarted!
First, a big welcome to all our new listeners!
Welcome to the Smarty family!
Here's a nice five -star review from one of you!
Hi, trusty. This is my new favorite podcast. I listen in the car with my sister and even before bed.
I'm telling all my friends too.
Sean P. Ohio. Thanks, Sean.
And that's a great idea.
So, Smarty Fam, would you mind doing me a favor?
Tell one friend or another parent or an educator today about Who Smarted?
Because the only thing that's better than listening to Who Smarted is listening to Who Smarted with a friend.
hi again i was wondering if i could speak to the blimp pilot you want to talk to the pilot and you are i'm the trusty narrator from the who smarted podcast the smarty pants and i were hoping to learn more about blimps yeah i don't think that's gonna happen how did you even get in here Did you say trustee narrator and who smarted?
And smarty pants? I did?
Wow, what an honor.
I'm Captain Altitude, and this is my co -pilot, Kim.
Welcome aboard, trustee.
Please, join us at the front of the gondola.
That's what we call the part of the blimp where the people are.
The rest of the blimp is just a giant balloon.
Wow, the view is even cooler up front.
You sure do have an unusual job, Captain Tood.
Yep. Did you know there are only about 25 blimps in the entire world these days?
That means there's not a huge demand for people who can fly them.
Did you know there are more astronauts than blimp pilots?
Whoa. So, how do you fly one of these things?
Well, a blimp is basically a giant balloon filled with helium.
A lot of helium. Helium.
Enough to fill more than a million party balloons.
My main job is to keep the right balance of helium and regular old air in the blimp so that it goes higher and lower when I want it to.
Ah, and how do you do that?
When I want the blimp to go down, I use this control to add more outside air to the balloon.
Or what we technically call the envelope.
Smartypants, quick question.
Is air heavier or lighter than helium?
Did you say heavier?
You're right. And because air is heavier than helium, it makes the blimp go lower.
Nice trusty, and when I want the blimp to go up I use this control to let some air out.
Got it! We have a couple of gasoline -powered powered propellers that propel us forward, and a rudder on the back we use to steer.
And steering is very important when you're covering a big event like the Super Bowl, trusty narrator, because the last thing you want is a blimp shark!
Blimp shark! Blimp shark!
Blimp shark! I'm on it.
Ah! Blimp shark? Blimp shark?
Where? How? When did sharks start flying and breathing air and attacking blimps?
Relax, trusty. It's not a real shark.
A blimp shark is what we call it when we accidentally cast a blimp shadow on the playing field.
This makes it harder for the fans and players to see what's going on.
Boo! I knew it wasn't a real shark.
Anywho, where does the word blimp come from anyway?
Any guesses, smarty pants?
Believe it or not, nobody knows for sure.
The story most commonly told is that a Lieutenant A .D.
Cunningham from Britain's Royal Navy Air Force was inspecting an airship, that's what they used to call blimps, back in 1915.
He happened to flick his thumb against the outside of it and imitated that sound as blimp.
From there, the name caught on.
That's crazy. So, if he had said boing instead, blimps would have been called boings?
Hmm, I guess you're right.
I'd rather be a blimp pilot than a boing pilot.
So how long have blimps been around?
A long ways. A Frenchman named Henri Giffard was the first person to design and fly a blimp capable of carrying a passenger.
He flew it on a 15 -mile trial over France way back in 1852, more than 50 years before the Wright brothers' first plane flight.
Wow. Until the airplane came along, the blimp was the most popular form of air travel.
In fact, the world's first passenger airline, which started in 1909, flew a kind of blimp called Zeppelins.
That fleet of Zeppelins was built by a German inventor named Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, which is how they got their name.
By 1914, the Count's airships had carried more than 10 ,000 passengers on over 1 ,500 flights.
lights. But in 1914, blimps suddenly took on a whole new role.
What happened in 1914 that totally changed the way blimps were used, smarty pants?
Was it the first Super Bowl?
The first space travel?
Or the first World War?
If you said the first World War, you're right!
The German army used over a hundred Zeppelins to both spy on the enemy and to bomb them.
People became terrified by the sight of giant war blimps approaching.
However, there was just one problem.
The Germans quickly learned it's pretty hard to hit a target from a blimp.
Miss! Ja, that was also a miss.
A hit! Wunderbar! Oh, no, sorry, that was also a miss.
And when it was cloudy, forget it.
But wait, Smarty Pants, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Wouldn't it be very easy to shoot down a blimp?
It's a giant floating balloon.
Wouldn't one bullet just pop it?
Surprisingly, no. When you pop a balloon, it deflates instantly.
Because the air pressure inside is much higher than the pressure outside.
With a blimp, the air pressure inside is only slightly higher than the pressure outside.
So if the balloon or envelope got punctured, you'd just get a slow leak.
Kind of like a car tire when you run over a nail.
Of course. When the Allied forces came up with explosive ammunition later in the war, the war blimp was finished.
Why was that, Captain Tood?
Because blimps have bad gas.
No, not that kind of gas.
The gas used to inflate Zeppelins was one of the most flammable gases on Earth.
Flammable means it catches fire easily.
So, what kind of gas do you think that was, Smarty Pants?
Was it A, hydrogen, B, helium, or C, neon?
Did you say hydrogen?
Nice work! The Germans really wanted to use helium because it isn't flammable at all.
But at the time, America had control over nearly all the world's helium, and we weren't giving Germany any of it.
Wow. So if blimps were potentially flying fireballs, I'm guessing that was the last time anyone flew them in wartime or otherwise, right?
You'd think. But no. The years after the war were the golden age of blimp air travel.
Until one very famous disaster brought blimps crashing down.
Smarty Pants, can you guess what that famous disaster was?
We'll tell you all about it right after this quick break.
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Kids, you have a lot of questions.
Is a crocodile a dinosaur?
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But Why? A podcast for curious kids has answers.
I'm Jane Lindholm. Join me as we dig deep into everything from science to history, nature, emotions, and sometimes even the weird. Why are jellyfishes made of jelly?
Or are they made out of jelly?
Find But Why wherever you get your podcasts.
Now back to Who Smarted?
My new blimp friends, Captain Al -Titood and co -pilot Kim, have been giving us a big whiff of history about blimps.
Do I smell gas? Oh, that was me.
Yep, sorry about that.
Anyway, we're just getting to the glory days.
In 1928, Germany unveiled the Graf Zeppelin, the largest airship ever built.
At 776 feet, it was as long as two and a half football fields And I thought the Goodyear blimp was huge It is, but this thing was three times as long and twice as tall And it set all kinds of records For example, it offered the first passenger flights across the Atlantic Ocean Ten years before they did it with airplanes And it once flew all the way around the world in just 21 days which was the fastest anyone had ever circled the globe.
That's surprising because you don't exactly think of blimps as being fast. Well, the Graf Zeppelin could go up to 80 miles per hour.
In all, it made 144 trips across the Atlantic and was the first aircraft in history to travel over 1 million miles.
But it still couldn't compete with the most famous blimp of all time.
Smarty Pants, what was the name of that most famous blimp?
Was it the Hildeberger, the Schopenhauer, or the Hindenburg?
If you said the Hindenburg, you're right.
And unfortunately, the Hindenburg is the most famous blimp because its last flight ended in tragedy.
But thanks to my teleporter, we can visit the Hindenburg before that fateful night.
Ah, there she is, trusty narrator, the Hindenburg, even longer than the Graf Zeppelin and nearly as long as the Titanic, whose story also ended badly.
Iceberg! I can't believe how nice the Hindenburg looks inside.
Oh, yeah, Hindenburg passengers traveled in style.
at today's prices a one -way ticket across the atlantic would cost over eight thousand dollars the hindenburg had all the luxuries of a fancy ocean liner including private cabins observation decks an elegant restaurant and even a baby grand piano Whoa.
No wonder people wanted to fly in it.
Yep, until the accident.
On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg was docking in Lakehurst, New Jersey, when suddenly, it caught fire and crashed.
Even today, no one's sure exactly why, but most experts think a small hydrogen leak may have been ignited by static electricity.
electricity, 35 of the 97 people on board died in the crash, and no one wanted to travel by blimp after that.
I sure wouldn't. Well, at least until they stopped filling blimps with hydrogen and started using good old helium.
Like our blimp. Speaking of, let's get back to your blimp.
So now that blimps aren't as dangerous, will they make a comeback?
back? Will people start floating to Europe again?
Instead of flying. I doubt it.
Blimps are way more expensive to build, operate, and fly.
It costs about $100 ,000 just to fill our blimp with helium.
Wow. Talk about inflation.
At the same time, blimps aren't totally going away.
They're still great for sightseeing, advertising, transporting freight, and of course filming the Super Bowl.
Uh, yeah, the game's over.
Uh, where were you guys?
Whoops. Nice meeting you all.
Bye. A high -flying shout out to Tristan in Lake Tahoe.
We hear you've been fascinated with Who Smarted since the very beginning, and you still can't get enough.
You listen at night and during the day, And we just love knowing how much fun you're having while learning.
Way to go, Tristan.
This episode blimps was written by Steve Helium Melcher and voiced by Chris Airship Okawa, Kim Dirigible Davis, Adam Led Zeppelin Davis, Max Colonel Blimp Kamaski, and Jerry Colbert.
Technical direction and sound design by Josh Hadaer Han.
Who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios.
Our associate producer is Max Kamaski.
The theme song is by Brian Gondola -Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex -Davis.
Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex -Davis and Jerry Kolber.
This has been an Atomic Entertainment production.
