The Story of the Airship 1

The Story of the Airship 1

The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid)

A Study of One of America's Lesser Known Defense Weapons

 

Author: Hugh Allen

 

Dedication

 

 

To _Admiral William A. Moffett, and the men his leadership inspired—to

Landsdowne, McCord and Berry—to Calnan and Dugan and other able juniors,

to Maxfield and Hoyt, Hancock and Lawrence of an earlier decade—to the

Army’s Hawthorne Gray, and as well to England’s Scott, France’s de

Grenadin, Germany’s Lehmann and Goodyear’s Brannigan and Morton—names

taken from lighter-than-air’s brief but distinguished casualty list—of

men who believed in airships and accepted gallantly the penalty which

progress eternally exacts from men—this book is dedicated._

 

_Not forgetting the living men, the Navy’s Rosendahl, Fulton, Mills,

Settle; Goodyear’s Litchfield and Arnstein, and hundreds of others who

have carried on with unshaken faith, in the face of great setbacks._

 

_Much of devotion and courage, of scientific research and engineering

achievement has gone into this enterprise—and much has been proved.

Today, airships of the non-rigid type are taking on a new responsibility

to the nation. If they succeed, they may well bring back the great rigid

airships, to act as long range scouts against enemy raid or surprise

fleet movement, as fast moving bases and refueling points for fighting

airplanes far at sea—and as factors in world commerce in days to come._

 

_It is this impulse which is driving forward the men who believe in

airships—that the sacrifices and efforts of Admiral Moffett and the rest

shall not have gone in vain._

 

[Illustration: E. J. THOMAS

President of the Goodyear Company]

 

[Illustration: CAPTAIN C. E. ROSENDAHL, U.S.N.

He never gave up his ships]

 

[Illustration: COMMANDER T. G. W. SETTLE, U.S.N.

He explored the Stratosphere]

 

[Illustration: CHARLES BRANNIGAN

His courage still inspires airship men]

 

[Illustration: P. W. LITCHFIELD

An industrial leader, chairman of the Goodyear board, who has

believed for 30 years that airships would prove useful to his

country in peace or war]

 

 

 

 

Foreword

 

 

High admirals of the American fleet faced in 1940 the gravest

responsibility in the National Defense the Navy had ever known. Wherever

they turned, north, east, south, west, perils lurked. If they swung

their binoculars toward Iceland, toward the Caribbean, toward Singapore,

Alaska, or the Canal, everywhere waited potential threats against our

American way of life, which they must meet with ships and men, with guns

and stout hearts. This was not merely national defense, perhaps not even

hemisphere defense, it was World War.

 

Surveying their gigantic task, and moving swiftly to meet it, they found

a place in their program for half forgotten craft, long over-shadowed by

other arms of the fleet, the non-rigid airship, sometimes called a

dirigible, but more often a “blimp.”

 

Couldn’t the airship be used as a watchdog along the coast, against

enemy submarines, in discovering enemy mines—relieve for sterner tasks

the destroyers and other craft now wallowing their innards out in those

restless shallow waters? Great Britain and France had used airships

effectively in this service over the English Channel during the last

war.

 

The areas within their patrol range, a hundred or 200 miles out to sea,

within the 100 fathom curve, was a vital one. There steamship lanes

converge, great harbors lie, coastwise merchantmen cruise, there is the

greatest concentration of military and commercial shipping.

 

With depth bombs and machine guns the blimps might strike a stout blow

of their own, even if they weren’t rated as combat craft. At least they

could sound the alarm, call out reinforcements from swift moving

shore-based craft, keep the intruder under surveillance. After all the

main thing was to find the submarines in those endless miles of water.

And in this field the very slowness of the airship, as compared to the

airplane, would be an advantage, permit a more thorough search of the

ocean’s surface, while its speed as compared to any man-of-war, would

enable it to cover more ground within a given 24 hours.

 

So on the Navy’s recommendation Congress in 1940 approved the building

of the airship fleet up to substantial proportions, together with bases

from which they might operate along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

That program is now being put into effect and the Goodyear company which

had built most of the airships used in the first World War, began again

to build ships.

 

The story of the great rigid airships, the Los Angeles, the Akron, Macon

and Graf Zeppelin is fairly well known. That of the smaller non-rigids

is less familiar. The larger airships still hold vital commercial and

military promise for the future. However, this book will confine itself

to the non-rigid airship, with only enough reference to the larger ships

to round out the picture.

 

Every new vehicle of combat or transport has had to fight its way to

acceptance against misunderstanding and lack of understanding.

Steamships had to prove themselves against sailing ships. Submarines had

an uphill battle to establish themselves. The airplane was long on

probation, and now the airship is on trial.

 

This book will tell something about these ships, cite what is claimed

for them and what has been reasonably proved they can do, see what

progress has been made in performance, and point out what may be

expected from them hereafter—not avoiding the moot question of

vulnerability.

 

Lighter-than-air is older by a century than the heavier-than-air branch

of aeronautics. Its history is marked by long research and experiment

and continued progress. Like every pioneering development it has had its

setbacks. But the sincerity of the effort and solid accomplishment made,

entitles the project to thoughtful consideration.

 

 

 

 

Contents

 

 

Dedication v

Foreword vii

I. German Submarines in American Waters 1

A little known story from the first World War.

II. British Airships in the First World War 9

The use of non-rigid airships in Europe in 1914-18—as

convoys, and as scouts against mines and U-boats.

III. American Airships in Two Wars 13

Activities in first war, though building of ships, training

of men and erecting of bases had to be done after war broke

out.

IV. The Beginnings of Flight 21

Difference between airships and airplanes—classes of

airships—progress, from Montgolfiers to Santos Dumont to

1914.

V. Effect on Aeronautics of Post-War Reaction 28

Blimps overshadowed by Zeppelins and airplanes—only rigid

airships had anything like continuing program, and they

because of possible commercial value—effect on public

opinion of Lindbergh flight and first arrival of the Graf

Zeppelin.

VI. Airship Improvements Between Wars 32

Helium gas—structural changes—development of mooring

mast—Navy experiments in picking up water ballast from the

ocean.

VII. Adventures of the Goodyear Fleet 45

Reason for starting—adventures—familiarize country with

airships—safety record—evolution of masting technique.

VIII. Results of Fleet Operations 61

Weather information—effect on flying and ground handling

practice—on ship design—created bases, ships and

construction plants which might prove useful in emergency.

IX. Vulnerability of Airships 67

References 72

Index 73

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER I

German Submarines in American Waters

 

 

[Illustration: Submarine]

 

In the last six months of the first World War Germany sent six

submarines to America at intervals starting in April, to lay mines along

our shipping lanes, attack merchantmen, drive the fishing fleet ashore,

try to force this country to call back part of its European fleet for

home defense—and in any case to give America, geographically aloof from

the war, a taste of what war was like.

 

These activities were overshadowed at the time by graver events, or

hidden by military secrecy. Few people even today know that ships were

sunk and men killed by German U-boats within sight of our coast.[1]

 

It was in no sense an all-out effort. Only a handful of submarines were

used. The attack was launched late in the war, in fact one of the six

didn’t even reach American waters, was called back by news of the

Armistice. Submarines of that day had a cruising range of some three

months, could spend only three weeks in our coastal waters, used the

rest of the time getting over and back.

 

But in those few weeks these six submarines destroyed exactly 100 ships,

of all sizes, types and registry, killed 435 people. Most of the ships

were peaceful unarmed merchantmen, coastwise ships from the West Indies

and South America, tankers from Galveston, fishing ships heading back

from the Grand Banks, supply ships carrying guns and war materials to England, a few stragglers from convoys.