Episode 8 - The Flying Dentist and Other Stories

Up Ship! The Airship History Podcast

In the years before the First World War, people from nations around the world worked to fill the sky with airships. In this episode, we take a look at developments in the United States and the United Kingdom. We will join one of the most epic adventures in the history of early aviation and we will see how one man's obsession with airships ended up costing him his life. The governments and armed forces of both the United States and the United Kingdom were slow on the uptake with airships, leaving civilians to lead the way. This led to some crazy disasters, as with Morrell's gigantic sausage airship of 1908, as well as giving visionary explorers the opportunity to spread their wings, as with Walter Wellman and his polar and Atlantic adventures. In the United Kingdom, Ernest Thompson Willows, a failed dental student, dedicated his life to airships - with tragic consequences. Enjoy a selection of unusual stories from the early age of aviation!