The Atavist is full of articles like this one - in-depth stories about obscure-but-interesting (at least, to me) moments in history. Sort of a cross between Ira Glass and Ken Burns.
No idea what funds this - looks like they were bought by Automattic? But glad it exists. If they were on substack or patreon I would pay.
One of the worst air disasters I've never heard of is one of the most famous and impactful in the history of aviation that I've heard about from dozens of sources in almost every medium? But not in interpretive dance yet, so maybe that's what they mean.
> Generally, in a thunderstorm, airships remained over land, where it was easier to keep one’s bearings: There were landmarks and, at night, illuminated areas for guidance. In the event that the worst happened, being over land helped facilitate rescue efforts. It was also common maritime knowledge that winds tended to be less severe on the western side of a storm. Knowing this, Wiley suggested at least twice that the ship move west and further inland for the time being. McCord disagreed. How much he took into account what Moffett wanted is impossible to know, but he surely didn’t wish to arrive in Newport far behind schedule with such an esteemed passenger on board.
So they had egos as big as the oversized airship they built. What a tragedy and waste of human life, I hate it.
I wonder why they didn’t just build smaller airships, why risk an unproven type of craft with some megalomaniacal project?
Because that was not the attitude of the early aviation pioneers. With that attitude NACA and NASA would not have been founded, and man would never had walked on the moon.
That attitude also gave us the Titanic and Hindenburg. I feel like your assumptions are horrible - because surely there’s a middle ground where you make progress, but without being so irresponsible that man’s ego and desire for grandeur results in countless lives being thrown away. It might be slower and take longer, sure.
https://magazine.atavist.com/2025/american-hindenberg-zeppel...