Would the famous ships, planes, cars and such be famous, if they had not had tragedies or failures?
Titanic: If it never had sank, would anyone care? Would it have simply been decommissioned & forgotten?
Edsel: If it had not been a lemon
Hindenburg: If it never blew up
The Spruce Goose: If it flew indefinitely
an so on…?
Some definitely would. The Porsche 550 RS would still be a classic car even had James Dean not punched his ticket in one.
Similarly, the bad-ass Ford Falcon (the Australian Falcon) would still be a classic had Mel Gibson not driven it in post-apocalyptic films. Why? It’s gorgeous for one thing, and its powered by the famous Windsor V-8–the last of 'em.
Well, the Titanic is the sister ship of the Olympic which was completed and went into service first. They were almost identical. The only major differences are that the Titanic was advertised as “unsinkable” (mostly because the Olympic was already the “fastest” and “most luxurious” so they had to think of somehting to advertise), and that it sank.
The Hindenburg had a sister ship too, the Graf Zeppelin II. I believe it was completed after the HIndenburg accident and used mostly for propaganda (demonstrations) but not much for service. Again, nowhere as famous as the tragic sister.
Similarly the Apollo 13 flight is more famous than Apollos 12, 14, etc. The Challenger is far more famous than the rest of the fleet. Tacoma Narrows bridge is more famous than most other suspension bridges of its class.
I’m not too sure about the Spruice Goose, but I think it would have been forgotten if it wasn’t a memorable failure. What was the largest airplane before the Spruice Goose was built? What was the first plane to surpass its size? I don’t know either.
This is something of an urban legend, IIRC.
Galloping Gertie! Woo hoo! (Sorry – one of my favorite bits of local lore…)
Re the OP, of course the vehicle with the noteworthy event is more memorable. That’s the way memory works, whether individually or culturally.
“What was the first plane to surpass its size?”
Well, here’s one I can answer. There hasn’t been a plane to surpass its size. No plane has surpassed its wingspan, nor its overall length. There are, however, planes that are larger in terms of inner volume, like the Boeing 747-400.
But to answer the OP… how about the SR-71 Blackbird? It was never involved in a disaster, but yet, it is rather famous for holding the record for the fastest airspeed.
Aircraft:
Spirit of St. Louis
The X-1
The X-15
The Wright Flyer
Spruce Goose
Ships:
Queen Mary
USS Constitution
You don’t have to crash or sink to be famous.
site related to the Tacoma narrows bridge:
http://www.ketchum.org/bridgecollapse.html
If the Edsel hadn’t failed, it would have fulfilled it’s original mission:
GM had 5 lines going at once and Chrysler had 4. Ford only had 3, so it wanted something to compete with Oldsmobile.
A lot of ugly cars stayed popular when left in the line for many years, such as the Volvo and BMW, which also had the vertical grill theme.
I don’t think this really fits the OP. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell you what kind of car Dean was driving, and of those that think they know, they’ll swear it was a Speedster.
What, didn’t all of us work at a Porsche dealership at some point?
I suppose none of you know Doc, the ace mechanic who worked in the next bay, either.
The Hindenburg is interesting to speculate on. It’s burning in front of newsreel cameras pretty much killed the airship industry, at least in non-military terms. Prior to that, commercial airships had a superb safety record; the Graf Zeppelin flew for nearly a decade – half that time devoted to passenger service.
The Hindenburg killed the industry so dead that as late as the early 1970s the only airships in service were 3 Goodyear blimps. Thankfully they’re making a resurgence.
Had the Hindenburg not come to such a dramatic end, airship production would most likely have continued, and one can speculate that the face of aviation today would be different (as well as modern music, what with Led Zeppelin and all). Then again, Hitler mighta just commissioned it to deploy his secret army of flying marmosets, like Nostradamus predicted.
I don’t believe that the other (in)famous vessels mentioned had such historical impact. What lasting effect did the Titanic have? More lifeboats? While it might not be a household word, the Hindenburg would probably have been remembered, at least in the history books. And Jimmy Dean’s and Mel Gibson’s cars together are not half as famous as the Lotus 7 The Prisoner drove. 
There are also vessels which served admirably that we remember because they made important contributions to Western Civilization: Old Ironsides (U.S.S. Constitution), the Queen Mary, the Batmobile. I believe they’re all still around, more or less.
What about the Monitor and the Merrimac (Virginia)? Were they success or failures? And are they remembered as vessels or is it the battle that is remembered? I supposed you could pose the same question for The Bismark and H.M.S. Hood.
Of course the only reason anyone’s ever heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald is because of that silly song. What was the name of that tune again?
That song is called “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and it’s by Gordon Lightfoot.
There is actually a museum in Whitefish Point, Mich., devoted to Great Lakes ships. A significant part of this museum is devoted to the Edmund Fitzgerald. They also have the song on a continuous play loop. I walked in thinking it (the song) was cool, walked out HATING it.
Here are my votes on the most famous:
Plane- The Boeing 747
Car- the Ford Model T.
Boat- Christopher Columbus’ ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
All of these were ahead of their time in some way. The 747 and Model T were technologically advanced and commercially successful, hence their fame. The boats are just my best guess. No one can say they’re NOT famous.
Whoever said the Hindenburg disaster killed airships is dead wrong. WWII gave such a kickstart to aviation technology that by the time it was over airships were impracticle as a means of travel compared to airplanes.
My 2 cents
…but if I were, I’d be e.
I think the thing overlooked is that oftentimes, a vehicle is famous before tragedy intervenes. Consider:
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
http://www.brooklands.org.uk/stories/STORY5.HTM
Okay, well, tragedy might enter into this story some. I’m still not sure if Zborowski’s death at Monza was in the Mercedes designed by F. Porsche, but I’m working on that one.
And not to scratch an old wound, but…
http://207.69.209.32/articles/spyder_history/spyder_history.htm
For comparison, my father’s Sprite had a camshaft lifetime of under six minutes, cumulative, above 6000 RPM, according to Dad. That has made the LeMans Dynamometer famous, in my admittedly myopic opinion.
Well it certainly killed THAT airship.
(btw, when I say “airship”, I include blimps too.)
I don’t necessarily believe that the airship was on its way out when the Hindenberg disaster happened in 1937, after all, the DC-3 was less than a year old and practical helicopters didn’t even exist. They had drawbacks, but airships could do things nothing else could. Certainly the airliners would overtake the airships eventually for passenger service, but they would still have their place – or would have. My point was that the Hindenberg killed it instantly. Airlines would kill the great cruise ships too, eventually, but the Titanic didn’t do it overnight.
But airships have rebounded, I’ve heard that there are now more in service than ever (would the Discovery Channel lie?). We just lost a few decades in airship design.
And if you STILL don’t buy all of this, you have to at least agree that had the Hindenberg disaster not happened, Led Zeppelin’s first album cover may have been different.
And next time you get that Edmund Fitzgerald song stuck in your head, just sing to yourself:
“It’s a small world after all,
It’s a small world after all,
It’s a small world after all,
It’s a small, small world.”
That song can actually kill neurons.
What about playing a role in what is called a tragedy by some definitions.
I’ll argue the other side of the coin but I am talking about the Enola Gay.
check this out…
THis company is trying to recucitate the airship as a means of cargo transport. THe things can carry as much as a small cargo ship, but have the advantages of being quicker, and being able to deliver the goods on your site in land (especially beneficial for contruction, moving very large pieces of equipment from overseas, etc…) THere is no need for separate land shipping. These things are monstrous, two or three times the size of the Goodyear blimp.
THeir building the hangar in Europe, and soon will begin building a hangar, more than likely in North Carolina.
You and me, man. You walk into the “It’s A Small World After All” exhibit at Disney World, filled with love for all children throughout the world, and leave it wanting to very badly kick the shit out of kids from the 4 corners of the earth <<shudder>>.
Cartooniverse
Hey, sorry there, Gammu, that’ll teach me to post and quote without reading to the bottom first 
Cartooniverse
You miss my point. The RS550 would be famous even if Dean had not been killed in one. To reiterate, nobody remembers what Dean was driving, hence, it doesn’t fit the OP. James Dean’s death did not make the RS550 famous.
Thanks for the interesting link. Let’s just hope that they can run for a few years before they crash one in front of cameras.
The RS550’s famous? Well I’VE never heard of it, and I do know my share of obscure/classic cars. A classic maybe, but is it really ‘famous’?
But this poses another question: If James Dean hadn’t been killed so dramitically would he be anything more that the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question today, right next to Nick Adams and Sal Mineo? Sure, Nick Adams died fairly young and Sal Mineo was strangled by a gorrilla in the early 1970s, but by then they were has-beens. This is another thread perhaps, but there are lots of people arguably more famous because they died dramatically: Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Marylin Monroe, Jane Mansfield, Andy Kaufman. I swear, if David Caruso had the wisdom to die flamboyantly instead of leaving his TV show he would almost certainly have a better career than he does now, but I guess we all sometimes make bad career choices.
My vote for the most famous vessel you’ve never heard of: ** The De Havalland Comet **. The first jet airliner, also happened to be British so maybe that’s why it isn’t famous outside of aviation circles. It was a handsome ( Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos ) airplane but unfortunately several broke up in flight. They were grounded and airlines eventually went with the uglier Boeing 707, possibly leading to America’s aerospace dominance. The Comet certainly made De Havalland what it is today.
Lotsa Comets here, check the picture gallery:
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** Cartooniverse: ** You’ve been to DisneyWorld too?! Wow, it really IS a small, small world!
