Rigid airship
Encyclopedia
A rigid airship is a type of airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...

 in which the envelope
Aerostat
An aerostat is a craft that remains aloft primarily through the use of buoyant lighter than air gases, which impart lift to a vehicle with nearly the same overall density as air. Aerostats include free balloons, airships, and moored balloons...

 retained its shape by the use of an internal structural framework rather than by being forced into shape by the pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...

 of the lifting gas
Lifting gas
Because of the Archimedes' principle, a lifting gas is required for aerostats to create buoyancy. Its density is lower than that of air . Only certain lighter than air gases are suitable as lifting gases.- Hot Air :...

 within the envelope as used in blimp
Blimp
A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is a floating airship without an internal supporting framework or keel. A non-rigid airship differs from a semi-rigid airship and a rigid airship in that it does not have any rigid structure, neither a complete framework nor a partial keel, to help the airbag...

s (also termed pressurized airships) and semi-rigid airship
Semi-rigid airship
Semi-rigid airships are airships with a partial framework. These often consist of a rigid, or occasionally, flexible, keel frame along the long axis under the aerodynamic hull envelope. The partial framework can also be located inside the hull...

s.

Rigid airships were produced and relatively successfully employed from the beginning of the 1900s to the end of the 1930s; their heyday ended when the Hindenburg
LZ 129 Hindenburg
LZ 129 Hindenburg was a large German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume...

 ignited
Hindenburg disaster
The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey...

 on May 6, 1937.

Terminology

Although "rigid airship" is the proper formal term, these aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 are often casually referred to by several other names such as dirigibles, zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...

s
(after the most successful ships of this type built by the Zeppelin Company
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German company which, during the early 20th century, was a leader in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, specifically of the Zeppelin type. The company was founded by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin...

) or the big rigids.

Early days

By 1874 several people had conceived of a rigid dirigible (in contrast to non-rigid powered airships which had been flying since 1852). Frenchman Joseph Spiess had published a rigid airship proposal in 1873 but failed to get funding.
Count Zeppelin
Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin was a German general and later aircraft manufacturer. He founded the Zeppelin Airship company...

 had outlined his thoughts of a rigid airship in diary entries from 25 March 1874 through to 1890 when he resigned from the military. David Schwarz
David Schwarz (aviation inventor)
David Schwarz was a Hungarian aviation pioneer of Jewish descent.Schwarz created the first flyable rigid airship. It was also the first airship with an external hull made entirely of metal. He died before he could see it finally fly...

 had thought about building an airship in the 1880s and had likely started design work in 1891, definitely by 1892 he was starting construction. It was not until after Schwarz's death in 1897 that his all-aluminium airship, built with help from with Carl Berg
Carl Berg (airship builder)
Carl Berg was a German entrepreneur and airship builder.Berg came from a commercial iron-works family. His great grandfather founded a button-making factory on 1786 in Lüdenscheid. In the following generations the factory developed into an important metal-working company...

 and the Prussian Airship Battalion, was test flown. Schwarz and Berg had an exclusive contract and Count Zeppelin was obliged to come to a legal agreement with Schwarz's heirs to obtain aluminium from Carl Berg, although the two men's designs were different and independent from each other. With Berg's aluminum, Zeppelin was able in 1899 to start building and, in 1900 July, to fly the Zeppelin LZ1.

Great Britain

Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and the USA lagged behind Germany in rigid airship technology. According to a 2001 PBS documentary, much of Britain's knowledge was based on reverse engineered technology from World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 German zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...

 crashes. After several crashes of experimental airships, the British ceded this field to the Germans.

France

France's only rigid airship was built by Alsatian
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

 Joseph Spiess using a wooden framework and it flew on April 13, 1913. It was 146 metres (479 ft) long, with a diameter of 13.5 metres (44.3 ft) and a gas volume of 16,400 cubic metres (579,161 cubic feet). Joseph Spiess is buried in the famous Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. His gravestone celebrates his achievements with a bronze frieze of his rigid airship.

Germany

In 1900, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin began trials with a rigid airship based on the theories of engineer David Schwarz
David Schwarz (aviation inventor)
David Schwarz was a Hungarian aviation pioneer of Jewish descent.Schwarz created the first flyable rigid airship. It was also the first airship with an external hull made entirely of metal. He died before he could see it finally fly...

, a Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 aviation pioneer of Hungarian-Jewish descent. Germany had over twenty very large lighter-than-air rigid airships by the beginning of World War I, seven owned by the company Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German company which, during the early 20th century, was a leader in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, specifically of the Zeppelin type. The company was founded by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin...

. In the five years prior to the outbreak of war, his airline carried 32,722 passengers on over 1,588 flights totalling 172530 kilometres (107,205.4 mi). The German war ministry took over two of them in 1909 and one crashed. Commercial airlines ended in Germany at the outbreak of the War, during which Zeppelin’s company built 95 giant military airships. German military airship stations had been established before the War and on September 2–3, 1914, the Zeppelin LZ 17 dropped three 200 lb bombs on Antwerp in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. On January 19, 1915, two further airships dropped bombs on Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, killing numerous people; the third ship in the air raid returned to Germany with engine trouble before reaching England. On May 31, 1915, the first bombs fell on London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. The night of September 2–3, 1916 was when the first German airship was shot down over English soil; it was done using a small heavier-than-air aircraft. Further bombs were dropped on London during the night of November 27–28, 1916, this time by a winged aircraft. However, the build-up of England’s defences against such aircraft led to the discontinuation of airship raids by Germany. The last casualties occurred on April 12, 1918.

Italy

Italy was the only country other than Germany to use lighter-than-air craft for bombing purposes, against targets in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italian airships were "semi-rigid dirigibles," they were different from the "rigid" Zeppelins in that they had a keel only, as opposed to the entire frame favoured by the Germans. Their first bombing raid was on 26 May 1915, three days after entering the war, when they crossed the Adriatic to attack Sebenico
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...

, which was attacked by a dirigible again the following day. On 8 June 1915, the Città di Ferrara took off from an airfield in Pordenone
Pordenone
Pordenone is a comune of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.The name comes from the Latin "Portus Naonis" meaning the port on the river Noncello - History :...

 to bomb the Whitehead
Robert Whitehead
Robert Whitehead was an English engineer. He developed the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo. His company, located in the Austrian naval centre in Fiume, was the world leader in torpedo development and production up to the First World War.- Early life:He was born the son of a...

 torpedo factory and the oil refinery at Fiume
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...

 (later Rijeka, Croatia), killing one civilian, injuring several other people, but only causing slight damage. After Città di Ferrara turned for home, it was intercepted and shot down by a Lohner L flying boat (pennant number
Pennant number
In the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers...

 L-48) of the Austro-Hungarian Navy
Austro-Hungarian Navy
The Austro-Hungarian Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Its official name in German was Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine , abbreviated as k.u.k. Kriegsmarine....

, over Kvarner Gulf
Kvarner Gulf
The Kvarner Gulf ); sometimes also Kvarner Bay, in Italian Quarnaro or Carnaro) is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian seacoast....

, near the island of Lussino. This was the first time that an airship had been destroyed in air combat.

United States

The United States rigid airship program was mostly stationed in Lakehurst Naval Air station, New Jersey. The USS Shenandoah (ZR-1)
USS Shenandoah (ZR-1)
USS Shenandoah was the first of four United States Navy rigid airships. It was built in 1922-1923 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, and first flew in September 1923. It developed the Navy's experience with rigid airships, even making the first crossing of North America by airship...

 was one of the first, serving from 1923 to 1925 when it was torn about in severe weather killing 14 of the crew. The ZR-2 was a British airship intended to join the naval fleet, but it crashed on a trial flight 1921 before delivered to the States. Forty-four of those onboard died. The USS Los Angeles (ZR-3)
USS Los Angeles (ZR-3)
The second USS Los Angeles was a rigid airship, designated ZR-3, that was built in 1923-1924 by the Zeppelin factory in Friedrichshafen, Germany, where it was originally designated LZ-126...

 was a German airship, sold to the United States in 1924. The ship was grounded in 1931, due to the Depression, but was not dismantled for over 5 years. The sister ships Akron
USS Akron (ZRS-4)
USS Akron was a helium-filled rigid airship of the United States Navy that was lost in a weather-related accident off the New Jersey coast early on April 4, 1933, killing 73 of the 76 crew and passengers on board...

 and Macon
USS Macon (ZRS-5)
USS Macon was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting. She served as a "flying aircraft carrier", launching Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplane fighters. In service for less than two years, in 1935 Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California's Big Sur coast,...

 both crashed after technical failure. The Akron, in bad weather was flown into the sea and broke up. Over seventy were killed including one of the US Navy's proponents of airships - Rear Admiral Moffett. Macon when it flew into heavy weather with unrepaired damage from an earlier incident also ended up in the sea but the introduction of life-jackets following the loss of the Akron meant only two lives were lost.

These crashes ended the rigid airship program.

Production

As well as the Zeppelin Company
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German company which, during the early 20th century, was a leader in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, specifically of the Zeppelin type. The company was founded by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin...

, Schütte-Lanz
Schütte-Lanz
Schütte-Lanz is the name of a series of rigid airships designed and built by the Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz company from 1909 until the last LS22 was delivered in 1917. One research and four passenger airships were planned for post-war use, but were never built...

 also manufactured them. Both America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Britain have manufactured rigid airships at some point.

Demise

Following the Hindenburg disaster
Hindenburg disaster
The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey...

 in 1937, Germany grounded its airship fleet with the intention of replacing their hydrogen gas with non-flammable helium
Helium
Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...

. By this time, however, Europe was well on the path to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and the United States, the only country with substantial helium reserves, refused to sell the necessary gas. International travel was crippled during the war, and commercial aircraft - able to fly much faster than rigid airships - soon became the favored method of international air travel.

Famous rigid airships

  • R34, British airship and the first aircraft to traverse the Atlantic Ocean
    Atlantic Ocean
    The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

     from east to west, in 1919.
  • USS Shenandoah
    USS Shenandoah (ZR-1)
    USS Shenandoah was the first of four United States Navy rigid airships. It was built in 1922-1923 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, and first flew in September 1923. It developed the Navy's experience with rigid airships, even making the first crossing of North America by airship...

    , American naval airship which served the U.S. Navy from 1923 until its crash in Ohio
    Ohio
    Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

     in 1925.
  • R38 (ZR-2), British airship intended to join the American naval fleet, but crashed during testing in 1921.
  • USS Los Angeles
    USS Los Angeles (ZR-3)
    The second USS Los Angeles was a rigid airship, designated ZR-3, that was built in 1923-1924 by the Zeppelin factory in Friedrichshafen, Germany, where it was originally designated LZ-126...

    , German airship sold to the United States in 1924 as part of German reparations from World War I
    World War I
    World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

    . The ship served with distinction from 1924 to 1931.
  • LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
    LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
    LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a German built and operated passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a Graf or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life,...

    , German passenger airship designed and piloted by Hugo Eckener
    Hugo Eckener
    Dr. Hugo Eckener was the manager of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin during the inter-war years, and was commander of the famous Graf Zeppelin for most of its record-setting flights, including the first airship flight around the world, making him the most successful airship commander in history...

    . It circumnavigated the globe in 1929 and had a spotless safety record. It was ultimately dismantled by the Nazis at the outset of World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

    .
  • R-100, British airship built by the Airship Guarantee Company, a private company created solely for the construction of this airship, as a subsidiary of the armaments firm, Vickers.
  • R-101, British airship designed and built by the British government in a kind of competition with the R-100. The R-101 crashed on its maiden flight in 1930 in France, with considerable loss of life. Its crash effectively ended British participation in rigid airship construction.
  • USS Akron
    USS Akron (ZRS-4)
    USS Akron was a helium-filled rigid airship of the United States Navy that was lost in a weather-related accident off the New Jersey coast early on April 4, 1933, killing 73 of the 76 crew and passengers on board...

    , American naval airship designed and built by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
    Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
    The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, SUVs, race cars, airplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery....

     in Ohio in 1931. Deployed as an airborne aircraft carrier, it was lost at sea in a storm off New Jersey
    New Jersey
    New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

     in 1933 with considerable loss of life.
  • USS Macon
    USS Macon (ZRS-5)
    USS Macon was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting. She served as a "flying aircraft carrier", launching Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplane fighters. In service for less than two years, in 1935 Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California's Big Sur coast,...

    , sister ship to the Akron, it was a near carbon-copy of her. Though it suffered only 2 deaths, its crash in 1935 off the coast of California
    California
    California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

     ended American participation in rigid airship development.
  • LZ 129 Hindenburg
    LZ 129 Hindenburg
    LZ 129 Hindenburg was a large German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume...

    , German passenger airship also designed and built by Hugo Eckener. The airship was lost in a famous fire in New Jersey
    New Jersey
    New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

     in 1937. With its end came the end of the age of the Great Rigid Airships.

Modern rigids

There are no rigid airships flying today. The Zeppelin company refers to their NT
Zeppelin NT
The Zeppelin NT is a class of airships being manufactured since the 1990s by the German company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH in Friedrichshafen. The initial model is the NT07...

 ship as a rigid but this is a misnomer. The envelope shape is retained in part by super-pressure of the lifting gas, and so the NT is more correctly classified as a semi-rigid.

See also

  • List of Zeppelins
  • List of Schütte-Lanz rigid airships
    Schütte-Lanz
    Schütte-Lanz is the name of a series of rigid airships designed and built by the Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz company from 1909 until the last LS22 was delivered in 1917. One research and four passenger airships were planned for post-war use, but were never built...

  • List of Parseval semi-rigid and non-rigid airships
    Parseval airships
    The Parsevals were 22 airships built between 1909 and 1919 by the Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft following the design of August von Parseval. In 1920s and 1930s, three more airships were built following the Parseval-Naatz design....

  • Airship hangar
    Airship hangar
    Airships are sheltered in airship hangars during construction and sometimes also for regular operation, particularly at bad weather conditions. Rigid airships always needed to be based in airship hangars because weathering was a serious risk.- History :...


External links

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