the story of the airship 15

the story of the airship 15

[Illustration: Barrage balloons—spiders who spin out webs of steel

as they ascend—but these spiders are out to catch fliers, not flies,

enemy fliers who threaten our democracy.]

 

[Illustration: Modern armies towing a few of these pocket sized

barrage balloons along, might not be too much concerned over attacks

by strafing airplanes.]

 

[Illustration: This Strata Sentinel will fly at 15,000 feet, twice

the height of other barrage balloons. By that time the lobes will be

completely filled out by expanding pressure of the lifting gas.]

 

[Illustration: This airship, silhouetted against the afternoon sun

might be pacing a peaceful cruiser race through the surf off Long

Beach, on the Southern California coast. Or it might be leading

units of the mosquito fleet to sea off Cape Cod, to hold an enemy

U-boat in check till ships of heavier armament could arrive.]

 

[Illustration: Helium-inflated, fast, long ranged, the modern K-type

Navy patrol ship is a far cry from the primitive airships of World

War I. They are armed with bombs and machine guns.]

 

[Illustration: In brilliant sunshine, or overcast, in fog or rain or

snow, the blimps take off from their bases day after day, on guard

against any enemy who may invade the coastal waters. A faint smoke

screen, miles distant over the endless waters, may turn out to be a

peaceful merchantman—or a vessel with grimmer purpose, seeking the

advantage of surprise attack.]

 

[Illustration: Airship over cargo ship]

 

The detection of a submarine even on the surface is largely a matter of

looking in the right direction at the right time. The open windows on

all sides of the airship, without obstruction by wings give it special

value in this field.

 

A submarine submerged is still harder to find as its tell-tale feather

is not easy to spot from a speeding plane or from the crow’s nest of a

surface craft.

 

A non-rigid airship throttling down to the speed of its prey, and having

the altitude of the airplane, has a much better chance of sighting the

submarine, before it can launch its torpedoes.

 

Taking off in fog, flying in low visibility, compelled to fly close to

the water, these factors do not worry the airship or handicap its

usefulness overmuch, and might under given conditions prove extremely

useful.

 

The airship appears to have some advantage too in the length of time it

may remain on station, ranging from 30 hours at high speed to

undetermined days at low. Indeed its endurance is not so much a matter

of fuel capacity as of the ability of crews to stand long watches

without relief.

 

There might be emergencies where airship scouts were wanted on

continuous duty over a considerable period. Commander Roands’

experiments point out interesting possibilities in this respect, through

the transfer of fuel and supplies from a surface ship, and the taking on

of fresh crews.

 

This generally was the case men saw for the airship up to 1941, as

having potential usefulness, in the event of war, against attack by sea.

 

Then came Pearl Harbor, and America’s entrance into a new war. German

U-boats, larger, faster, more deadly, moved swiftly in to attack, as if

waiting for the signal. The Japs made reconnaissance raids along the

West Coast.

 

“Wolf packs” of submarines in new under-water tactics stalked convoys,

picked off stragglers. More than 600 coast-wise ships, merchantmen from

the Caribbean and South America, and tankers from the Gulf, were sunk in

the first year of war. The loss of tankers brought serious complications

ashore, the rationing of gas along the eastern seaboard to conserve

supply for military purposes. Despite a quickly expanding program of

ship construction merchantmen were being sunk faster than they could be

built.

 

The Navy’s sea-frontier defense moved to meet the attack. Non-rigid

airships were assigned a place in that program, wherever they could be

utilized and with what ships were on hand, and new airship construction

was rushed.

 

Under authorization from Congress, a program of airship and base

construction, together with helium procurement, was accelerated, and by

the end of the year, stations were in commission or being built at key

points along both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Akron expanded its facilities many fold for the building of new

airships, which were flown to the various bases with increasing

frequency during the year. Large classes of officers, aviation cadets

and enlisted men went into intensified training at Lakehurst and Moffett

Field, preparing themselves to man the ships as fast as they were

delivered.

 

The blimps which have been available to the sea-frontier forces have

rendered valuable service in patrol and escort missions. Their exact

record of performance, including number of submarine sinkings, obviously

cannot now be published.

 

On sighting a submarine, or finding indication of its presence, the

tactical doctrine might call either for attack, or to stand by,

summoning airplanes and surface craft in for the kill, keeping the enemy

under unsuspected surveillance the while, and saving the blimp’s own

depth bombs for another action.

 

The airship is capable of carrying on patrol and escort missions day

after day under a wide range of weather conditions, going for months at

some stations, even in the winter, without missing a day.

 

Though no detailed summary of airship activities is possible now, it is

no secret that, just as in the last war, the submarines avoided attack

upon convoys where airships were on guard. The German high command

tacitly admitted that this was one type that the U-boats did not want to

meet, an enemy immune to its torpedoes, whose presence the sub’s

under-water detectors did not reveal, and which might appear overhead

without warning. Admiral Doenitz, commanding the German submarine force,

testified in a press interview to their respect for our blimps.

 

The battle against the submarines will be long and difficult, and ships

will still go down and men will be lost, but the chase will be

relentless as long as the menace exists. Airships, non-rigid, have taken

their place in that phase of America’s war effort.

 

 

 

 

References

 

 

Little is available in the way of bibliography on lighter-than-aircraft,

their history and characteristics. Among the best works dealing with

this subject are Captain C. E. Rosendahl’s, “What About the Airship?”

(Scribner’s), and “Up Ship” (Dodd Mead); Captain Ernst Lehmann’s

“Zeppelin” (Longman’s) and Captain J. A. Sinclair’s “Airships in Peace

and War” (Rich & Cowan, London).

 

Copies of “The Story of the Airship (Non-Rigid),” may be procured

through The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. at Akron, Ohio; or at Los

Angeles, or branch offices.

 

 

 

 

Index

 

 

A

Alcock (and Brown) Atlantic Crossing, 16.

 

 

B

Ballast recovery, 40 et seq.

Bases, airship, world war, 14;

peacetime, 58, 59, 64, 65.

Baldwin, Major Tom, 25, 45.

Bennett, James Gordon, races won by Goodyear pilots, 13;

by Westover, 30;

Van Orman, 46.

Barrage Balloons, 63, illust. opp. 62, 63, 68.

Blimp, origin of name, 25.

Blanchard, Jean Pierre, channel crossing, 22.

Boettner, Jack, pilot, 51, 52, 58, 65.

Boyd, Lt., 19-20.

Brannigan, Charles, photograph opp. vi;

pilot, 45, 46, 50, 51.

 

 

C

C-5, illust. opp. 14, 22;

Atlantic crossing, 15, 16.

Charles, J. A. C., first hydrogen balloon, 22;

drag rope, 23.

Chatham, U-boat attack, 14.

Consolidated, planes, 63.

Curtiss planes, early flights, 27;

Goodyear part in construction, 62.

Crum, H. W., pilot, 56, 57.