Functional Model Airship



The USS Macon was a military airship operated by the United States from 1933-1935. Retired computer engineer Jack Clemens spent two and a half years building a 20-foot replica that flies for 45 minutes at a time:

The Macon was an airship, not a blimp, meaning it had a rigid hull. A backbone made from 12 circular frames connected with strips of wood called longerons gave the 785-foot-long craft its form. Clemens wanted to mimic the structure in his model, so he built a jig to ensure that the frames--made from thousands of balsa-wood sticks--were precisely the right size. Although the Macon’s skin was a mix of cotton muslin and metal-colored sealant, Clemens’s model used Mylar because it was lightweight, tough and the right color.

Clemens calculated that to get his craft to fly, he would need a total of eight small model-airplane propellers anchored to the sides of the frame. “It takes very little propulsive force to move an airship,” he explains. The propellers are powered by a single 2.5-ounce lithium-polymer battery that sits in the nose of the craft and helps balance the weight of pulleys and servomotors in the tail.


The airship takes up a lot of room in Clemens' home, so he hopes to donate it to a museum. http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2011-04/you-built-what-retired-engineer-crafts-colossal-gliding-model-1935-airship | Photo: Cody Pickens

Comments (4)

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back in the 70's a fella named Lew Grey built a Zeppelin replica which flew quite nicely, very similar construction but if I recall correctly it was covered with tissue. he donated it to COSI and it was in the lobby for several years.
Lew Grey was a Renaissance man and he was an actor, a science nerd, builder of RC aircraft.

TimW
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The human thirst for knowledge only extends to a length inversely proportionate to his/her will to ignorance, which generally extends a lot further. The Will to Ignorance is more palatable than the Will to Knowledge because of it's social value.
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I somewhat agree Ryan, but I think it depends on whether or not a person places value on knowledge above other equally as valuable things, like love or money. I think his point was that if you're curious for knowledge, the best way to live and learn is to admit lack of knowledge. You approach changing truths and discover new knowledge more fervently than if you thought you "knew," particularly if you come from the viewpoint that science in its entirety is not proven and everything is completely theoretical, which might be where his commitments to "lack of purpose" and truth came from. Vaclav Havel said something relevant: "Keep the company of those who seek the truth--run from those who have found it." Therefore, to admit ignorance is knowledge. I think Feynman probably could care less about whether or not he was socially palatable, especially considering his public disdain for the social workings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sorry if I'm being a little abstract here. You brought up a good point to think about.
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I liked his line about one little aspect of God coming to Earth and look what it’s created…. Like our views of God are the surface views of the flower and to expand beyond that (the flower to all its aspects vs. the Earth compared to the complexity of the universe)

In one stroke he doubts God, but then expands the beauty of God to the universe… and states that our beliefs are as limiting to Gods true beauty as limiting our understanding of the flower to only its surface “one centimeter”

There’s a helluva lot in that one little video…
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