by Bob Walsh
An advertising blimp crashed and burned yesterday at the final round of the U. S. Open near Erin, Wisconsin.
The pilot, who was the only person on board when the thing caught fire, deflated and crashed. The pilot is said to have bailed out. He was somewhat injured and was airlifted to a nearby hospital. His primary injuries are burns. The blimp crashed in an open field near the golf course. (I thought they were filled with helium and that there was damn little on them to burn but I suppose there is both fuel and electricals)
As a side note, would you like to know how they came to be called "blimps?" Way back when there were two sorts of air ships. There were rigid air ships (dirigibles) and those without much in the way of physical structure, which were "limps." The U. S. Navy ordered a few of the limps at some point. There were two types, which they designated and type "A" limps and type "B" limps. They liked and ordered more of the type B limps, therefore they became Blimps. Now you know. But do you care?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Unmanned blimps were used extensively in England as an anti-aircraft weapon during WW2 in an effort to keep German bombers from reaching their targets by having them crash into them and their mooring lines.
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