A photo from open sources
Airships appeared at the beginning of the XX century along with airplanes, and for a long time they were in serious competition. See today an airship is like meeting a working steam engine: it seems to be somewhere they are, but … However, every year, people who saw the airship is getting bigger. The airships return, and at the end This phrase is not a question mark, but an affirmative point.
A bit of history
The airship is essentially the same balloon, only equipped modified basket (gondola) and screw electric engines, thanks to which it does not move by the will of the wind, but in given direction.
The military was the first to “try” the airship, even before the First World War war. If the airplane could be in the air for several minutes, then Zeppelin, who was not in need of fuel supplies, hung in the sky for hours. Pilots of airplanes fired at each other from revolvers, and in gondolas machine guns were put on the airship. Bomb load airship, measured in tons.
The first aerial bombardment was carried out from an airship: 6 August 1914, 13 were thrown to strengthen the Belgian Liege bombs that killed 9 people. Zeppelin’s appearance caused a panic in ranks of the infantry. The destruction of airships along with intelligence was the main task of military aviation.
At the same time, the Achilles heel of the airships appeared – their vulnerability. It was hard to miss such a colossus. Filling up a ball of hydrogen flashed almost instantly. But even a damaged device did not fall like a stone, but slowly sank. No sacrifice, but the percentage of survivors among the crew was high. At pilots of airplanes to parachute inventions in case of serious damage to the odds machine there was no escape at all.
Golden Age Airships
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At the end of the war, France, Italy, Germany and the United States continued build airships. The USSR did not lag behind. In the country of Soviets engaged in the design, manufacture and operation of airships “Airship”. In 1926, R. Amundsen on the airship “Norway” made a transantarctic flight of Svalbard-Alaska via North Pole. In 1929, “Count Zeppelin” with three transfers made a round-the-world flight. Passenger flights across the Atlantic.
The comfort level in the airships seemed simply beyond: restaurant with kitchen, single, double and quadruple cabins with sleeping rooms and showers, walking decks and even a grand piano in the salon. Airplane pilots could not even boast of something like that.
Nevertheless, the airships lost to the airplanes.
Sunset
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Airships ruined their low-speed. XX century required speed. Airplanes flew faster and faster, and an hour flight did not require much comfort. The airships continued to fill with flammable hydrogen, leading to accidents. May 6, 1937 in front of numerous spectators just flashed a transatlantic flight German “Hindenburg”. Killed 36 people. Photos of the burning the airship newspapers of the world placed on their first pages. The commercial use of airships gradually descended on not.
A photo from open sources
A photo from open sources
Military: “We need airships.”
The initiators of the resurrection of the leviathans of the fifth ocean were military. As an observer scout, the airship has no equal. Equipped with equipment, it can hang in the sky for days, remaining invisible to the enemy. Radio waves pass through it, so on the radar screen “everything is clean.” Thermal imagers do not record heat-producing airship.
Realizing a height of several tens of kilometers, it is outside the visual detection. Modern equipment allows even from this height to monitor the territory equal in area to France.
It’s difficult to bring down such a spy. A missile launched on contact is not explodes, and pierces the airship through, only incapacitating one of the sections of the carrier cylinder. Helium filler as opposed to hydrogen is not flammable. Damaged but not destroyed device has every chance to calmly return to base.
Policemen also expressed their “for”. Hanging over the stadium or the venue of the mass action, the airship, in their opinion, is simply necessary. The group in it will quickly highlight in the crowd riot organizers and help coordinate actions ground crews. And for the traffic police constantly hanging over the streets airship equipped with video recording and surveillance equipment – just a blue dream.
21st Century Airships
A photo from open sources
They are few, but they are. Au-30 Argus, installed in 2009 official world record for direct flights for soft airships – 375km. Since the 1990s, a German company Zeppelin manufactured 4 airships used for transportation tourists and cargo.
A photo from open sources
A photo from open sources
Promising developments are also underway. In Belarus they design reconnaissance and patrol airship, in the USA – stratospheric strategic destination capable of flying in the upper strata atmosphere. A similar “Golden Eagle” is being developed in Russia.
A photo from open sources
As for the practical implementation, the Sverdlovsk region announced its intention to organize production in its region airships. The 5 largest participating in the project industrial and industrial associations of Russia. Highlighted first $ 30 million tranche. So, we will soon choose: fly by plane or an airship.
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