Zeppelin (aircraft)
Zeppelin became a generic name for LTA dirigibles with rigid frames, which Ferdinand von Zeppelin had made famous.
The first Zeppelin (Luftschiff Zeppelin 1) had 16 sides approximating cylindrical shape; 420' long, 39' diameter with tapered ends; divided inside into 17 compartments with total volume of 390,000 cubic feet. Two boats, each with a benzine-powered Daimler engine and four-blade 1000-rpm propellers, hung 33' below the cylinder. This vessel achieved a 19mph speed in October 1900.[1]
LZ 2 , constructed in 1905, was damaged during testing. LZ 3 was built soon after and performed successfully during tests in October 1906. "A height of half a mile was reached, and eleven persons were carried 67 miles in two hours and seventeen minutes, which considerably surpassed the performance of the French military balloon. The German government now lent financial aid to enable the advantage of the rigid system of construction to be demonstrated." LZ 4 was 446' long and 42.5' around, with 16 interior compartments containing 460,000 cubic feet of gas. This vessel had a third car, for passengers, built underneath the main framework; and multiple rudders.[1]
In the lead-up to World War I, Zeppelins became icons of Germany's military power and capacity for sudden aerial attack. In 1909 and 1913, Britain had Zeppelin scares when these vessels were reported making night overflights near the east coast.[2] When the war did come, however, Zeppelins and other LTA aircraft proved easy to destory, and thus less useful than airplanes.[3]
Flight reported in 1909 that the German War Department was not enthusiastic about Zeppelins and that the Zeppelin planned to move into commercial passenger service.[4]
| Enclosing categories | LTA, Dirigible, Rigid |
|---|---|
| Subcategories | |
| Keywords | Frame, Aluminum, Compartments |
| Start year | |
| End year |
Imagine some seventeen huge bicycle wheels made of aluminum, with their aluminum spokes complete, and these gigantic wheels to be united by longitudinal pieces of aluminum, and in this way seventeen sections to be formed, each of which contains a separate balloon, and it is easy to grasp the construction of the Zeppelin airship. It consists of a number of drum-shaped gas-bags, all in a row, held together by a framework of aluminum. They form of a number of safety compartments. The bursting of one does not materially matter—the great airship should still remain in the air. The dimensions of individual Zeppelins have varied to some extent. The largest that has been built ("Saschen." 1913) had a cubic capacity of 12,000 cubic metres (742,000 cubic feet), and a length of 150 metres (492 feet). The aluminum framework containing the balloons has an outer covering of cloth. On each side of the frame of the airship are placed two pairs of propellers. In the original airship of 1900 these were four-bladed, and made of aluminum. They were small, being only 44 inches in diameters, but they revolved at a very high speed. In the later airships the screws have been considerably modified in detail, size, and shape.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rotch, 1909, Conquest of the Air, pp. 102–107.
- ↑ Hallion, 2003, p. 307. "Coming on the heels of H. G. Wells's War in the Air, lurid speculative fiction turned the Zeppelin into an all-powerful city-destroyer. Accounts abounded in the British press in 1909 of phantom airships overflying England's east coast and mysterious aerial noises heard in the middle of the night, prompting official pronouncements, smirking in the German press, and strenuous denials from Count Zeppelin himself.
In late February 1913, a new Zeppelin panic swept the British media, prompted by alleged nightly excursions of mysterious airships droning over the coast. Further 'sightings' over a week triggered screaming headlines across Britain, none more shrill than Yorkshire's Whitby Gazette: ENGLAND AT GERMANY'S MERCY
Though time eventually tempered the scare, sightings briefly proliferated so that, by the end of the month, 'airships were seen everywhere—in Lancashire, above the West coasts, over the South...while Germany rocked from end to end with mirth.' The Daily Mail's Lord Northcliffe promptly commissioned H. G. Wells to explore the topic of air warfare in three articles; he predicted a future world where Britain's battle fleet would encounter not dreadnoughts but submarines, torpedo boats, Zeppelins, and aircraft, what today would be called an asymmetrical strategy." - ↑ Hallion, 2003, pp. 350–351.
- ↑ "German Government and Zeppelins", Flight, 22 May 1909, p. 301–302.
- ↑ Bruce, 1914, Aircraft in War, 19–20.
