High-def cams used to capture haunting images of a huge sunken 1935 airship

by Matt Burns posted Sep 28th 2006 at 3:05PM

High definition isn't all about pretty girls and flashy images, there can be some practical scientific purposes. Northern California scientists reciently spent 40 hours with a deep-diving robot and a high-def camera exploring the wreckage of the USS Macon airship. The massive rigid frame airship (97 feet shorter then the Titanic) sunk off Big Sur more the 71 years ago during a storm after a high-altitude transcontinental flight damaged her tail section. The high-def cams allowed researches to spot everything from the Sparrowhawk biplanes (pictured) she was carrying to aluminum chairs and now some of the images and video has been released to the public. Hopefully, Discovery HD Theater or National Geographic HD will snatch up this coverage so we can see the images in their full high-def glory.

Filed under: Industry

Tags: science, under water, UnderWater

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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Jade @ Sep 28th 2006 5:28PM

After some quick searching I didn't find an author email so comments it is:

"The massive rigid frame airship (97 feet shorter then the Titanic) sunk off Big Sur more the 71 years ago during a storm after a high-altitude transcontinental flight damaged her tail section."

I think you meant requires swaping "storm" and "high-altitude transcontinental flight"

But let me add I really like this blog :)

Neutral

Matt Burns @ Sep 28th 2006 6:52PM

Jade - Actually, out of the many mistakes I make on a daily basis, this is not one of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Macon_%28ZRS-5%29

Neutral

beanspants @ Sep 29th 2006 12:33AM

i think the person was commenting on your ambivelence toward the English style manual, rather than the facts of the case, and i say that jokingly.. :)

according to the style manual, your sentence part:
high-altitude transcontinental flight damaged her tail section

suggests that the high-altitude flight caused the damage, and the storm is an ancillary fact, like that fact that people on board were wearing shoes.

from the wiki, i'd say it's about 75%/25% that the storm was the cause, and the high altitude was an effect of the storm, so the sentence would need to be rewritten to place blame on the storm.

whatever. i learned something and would like to see that vid on the discovery channel, so i say the sentence is fine as written. this tiny box i'm typing in, and the fact that my password is in some alien language that i will never remember, are both things that need more work than the article.

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