Q 01/05

What is a non-rigid airship that keeps its shape purely through internal gas pressure called?

A) Ballonet

B) Blimp

C) Aerostat

D) Zeppelin

Answer · why

B) Blimp

Blimp: with no frame inside, its envelope would sag as the gas expands and shrinks, so air bags called ballonets are pumped up or emptied to keep it t...

Q 02/05

Which lifting gas, used in most early airships, made them so prone to catastrophic fires?

A) Methane

B) Helium

C) Neon

D) Hydrogen

Answer · why

D) Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the lightest element and was cheap and easy to make, so builders accepted the fire risk; the non-flammable alternative was rare and expens...

Q 03/05

The Hindenburg burst into flames in 1937 while trying to land at a naval air station in which US state?

A) New York

B) New Jersey

C) Delaware

D) Maryland

Answer · why

B) New Jersey

New Jersey: running about twelve hours late, the airship flew over Manhattan's skyscrapers and then cruised the Jersey shore, waiting for thunderstorm...

Q 04/05

A storm wrecked Count Zeppelin's fourth airship in 1908; what then rescued his project from ruin?

A) An American investor

B) A buyout by Daimler

C) Donations from the public

D) A prize from France

Answer · why

C) Donations from the public

Donations from the public: people who had cheered the flight sent in some six million marks unasked, the 'miracle of Echterdingen', and the windfall l...

Q 05/05

Which tyre company operates a famous fleet of advertising airships?

A) Goodyear

B) Michelin

C) Bridgestone

D) Firestone

Answer · why

A) Goodyear

Goodyear launched its first one in 1925; company boss Paul Litchfield thought of them as aerial yachts, so for decades they were named after American ...