The first airship with a steam engine by Henri Giffard. "Heavenly Titanics". The history of the rise and fall of the era of airships Who invented the first airship

I recently visited the airship museum in Friedrichshafen, which was opened in 1996 in a former river port on the shores of Lake Constance and has since become the main attraction of the city bombed during the Second World War. The museum has the world's largest collection of historical artifacts related to the theme of airships and its absolute highlight is the reconstructed part of the crashed airship LZ 129 "Hindenburg" with passenger cabins, a restaurant and part of the frame. The museum exposition gives an excellent idea of ​​how the largest airship that ever existed was built.

01. The museum is located in the most beautiful building of Friedrichshafen on the main square of the city in its very center. While on a visit to Friedrichshafen, you won't be able to pass by the museum - all roads lead to it.

02. The central part of the museum is occupied by the reconstructed part of the world's largest airship LZ 129 "Hindenburg", which crashed in 1937. Only part of the Hindenburg gondola has been restored here, but the scale is still impressive.

03. For a better understanding of the dimensions of the "Hindenburg", its model is shown next to the model of the museum building, the modern airship Zeppelin NT, the Boeing 747 aircraft and some kind of large ship.

04. A 1938 Maybach Zeppelin DS 8 car is installed on the site under the reconstructed airship. The company Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH, specializing in the production of aircraft engines, in connection with the obligations under the Treaty of Versailles prohibiting the production of weapons in Germany, switched to the production of its own cars in 1921. Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH made only car chassis, and the bodies were already made by body shops - at that time it was a common practice in the European automotive industry.

05. The Maybach Zeppelin DS 8 was produced in Friedrichshafen for a full decade from 1930 to 1940. The car was equipped with a 12-cylinder engine with a capacity of 200 hp. and could reach a maximum speed of 170 km / h - incredible technical characteristics for that time. It was the top model in the company's production line.

06. In the 1920s and 1930s, the names Maybach and Zeppelin were inseparable and became a symbol the highest quality and impressive reliability. As a result, Maybach gave the name Zeppelin for his largest and most luxurious limousine. It was at that time in the summer of 1929 that the Maybach-powered LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin circled the earth, confirming the reputation of the Maybach motors as powerful and reliable. Naturally, the flights of the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin were actively used for advertising purposes of Maybach Motorenbau GmbH products.

07. But back to the main theme of the museum exhibition - the Hindenburg airship. Construction of the LZ 129 began in 1931 and lasted for five years. The airship made its first flight in 1936. At the time of construction, it was the largest aircraft in the world. Its length was 246 meters, and the maximum diameter was 41.2 meters; the cylinders contained 200,000 cubic meters of gas.

The internal structure of the "Hindenburg"

08. The maximum weight of the aircraft was 242 tons of which 124 tons were payload. The airship carried 11 tons of mail, luggage and equipment, 88,000 liters of fuel for four 16-cylinder Daimler-Benz diesels with an operating power of 900 hp. each, 4,500 liters of lubricants and 40,000 liters of ballast water. The engines were located on outer nacelles located outside the outer shell in streamlined nacelles. Everything else, including the passenger gondola, was housed inside the outer hull. The airship developed a speed of 125 km / h and had a range of 16,000 kilometers at one refueling.

09. Climb aboard and get acquainted with the interior of the gondola. The entrance to the board of the airship was carried out through the reclining bridges.

10. Unlike other airships of the time, the LZ 129 was double-decked. To improve aerodynamics, the passenger gondola was located inside the outer hull. The crew of the aircraft consisted of 50-60 people, for whom 54 separate berths were provided. The crew quarters were not housed in a gondola, but inside the airship's hull.

11. I go up to the lower deck. On the lower deck there were toilets, showers (for the first time on an airship), an electric kitchen with an elevator for serving ready meals to the upper deck, a dining room for the crew, a bar and a smokers' lounge, which housed the only lighter on board, since before landing for safety passengers and crew members were required to hand over matches, lighters and other flammable devices. The smokers' salon was equipped with a special ventilation system, which created an overpressure inside to prevent the penetration of hydrogen in the event of a leak, and the entrance into the cabin was carried out through an airlock. Panoramic windows were installed along the side of the gondola, through which one could observe the ground.

12. This was the appearance of the toilets on board.

13. On the upper deck there were passenger cabins, a large restaurant hall with panoramic windows, a promenade and a library. In the photo there is a corridor in the section of passenger cabins.

14. Initially, 25 double sleeping cabins were provided for passengers, but then the number of beds was increased to 72 and single cabins were added.

This was due to the fact that the airship was originally planned for the use of helium. It is slightly heavier than hydrogen, but fireproof. In 1930, during its first commercial flight, the largest British airship, the R101, crashed, which used hydrogen as a carrier gas. Then the fire that destroyed the airship killed 48 people. The Germans took this experience into account and designed their airborne Titanic to use helium. In the 1930s, only the United States knew how to produce helium, which had an embargo on its export (Helium Control Act of 1927). Nevertheless, the Germans, when planning the airship, proceeded from the fact that helium for the airship would be obtained. After the NSDAP came to power in Germany, the National Munitions Control Board refused to lift the export ban. As a result, the Hindenburg was modified to use hydrogen, which made it possible to take on board even more payload and increase the number of passengers from 50 to 72.

15. This is what a single cabin looked like.

16. The equipment of the cabins was extremely Spartan - in addition to the beds, there was a folding washbasin with warm and cold water, a mirror, a locker for clothes, a small table and a button to call staff. Compared to the comfort level of ocean liners, the Hindenburg cabins provided only the bare essentials without frills, so passengers spent almost all their time in the public areas of the gondola, and the cabins were used only for sleeping.

17. Let's move on to the largest room on board - the restaurant hall, equipped with large panoramic windows. It is noteworthy that the reconstructed part of the Hindenburg airship was restored according to the original drawings and photographs, with the thoroughness and attention to detail inherent in the Germans.

This is how the original restaurant hall of the airship looked like in the past:

18. During this walk I did not leave the feeling that I was on board the airship, and not inside the reconstruction.

19. Next to the restaurant there is a reading room, where desks were also equipped.

20. All furniture, interior details and the gondola itself were made of aluminum as the issue of weight reduction for the airship was one of the main ones.

Another snapshot from the past:

21. The view from the panoramic window to the Maybach below. I can imagine what panoramas the passengers could observe during the flight.

22. The museum also reconstructed part of the Hindenburg frame, all of which were made of lightweight and durable duralumin.

23. Even the recreated small part of the airship is impressive in its scale.

24. Diesel 16-cylinder DB 602 (LOF 6) engine developed by Daimler Benz AG, due to its low weight and high fire safety, was ideal for use on aircraft. Four of these engines were installed in the Hindenburg in nacelles outside the shell. The operational power of one such diesel engine was 900 hp, and the maximum was 1200 hp. The motor was articulated with a transmission that halved its revs and rotated a wooden propeller with a diameter of 6 meters.

"Hindenburg" during a flight over Lake Constance. Each of the four engine nacelles was connected to the main body by a bridge, and a duty mechanic was assigned to each to monitor the engine's operation.

Inside one of the Hindenburg's motor gondolas

Captain's cabin.

25. Part of the recreated duralumin airship frame.

26. Inside the outer shell of the airship there were various Technical equipment, tanks with hydrogen, water, fuel and more. Longitudinal corridors provided access to all elements of the aircraft.

27. The restored part does not show the hydrogen cylinders - the basis of the airship's aeronautics. Before visiting the museum, I thought that the entire space inside the hull was filled with hydrogen, but it turned out that there were special cylinders inside that were filled with light gas.

The first test flight of the LZ 129 was made on March 4, 1936. The photo shows the workers of the Zeppelin plant in Friedrichshafen, seeing off the airship on its maiden flight.

From 26 to 29 March 1936 "Hindenburg" together with the airship LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" made a three-day flight over Germany, which was widely used for campaigning for the National Socialist Party. During this flight, which took place on the eve of the elections, campaign materials were dropped from the airship, urging people to vote for Hitler's party. Subsequently, the "Hindenburg" was repeatedly used by propaganda as a symbol of the rising from the knees of the German Empire, including he attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, held on August 1, 1936 in Berlin.

In the photo "Hindenburg" at the mooring mast.

The Hindenburg was designed primarily for transcontinental flights from Germany to South and North America, in particular to Rio de Janeiro and New York, and on March 31, 1936, the airliner set off on its first transcontinental flight from Friedrichshafen to Rio de Janeiro, which was successful. A month later, the first commercial flight took place from Friedrichshafen to New York, more precisely to the town of Lakehest (New Jersey), where the airport for airships was located. The flight duration was a record 61.5 hours.

Hindenburg over New York.

Before the accident, the Hindenburg made 17 successful transcontinental flights - 10 to the United States and 7 to Brazil, carrying 1,600 passengers across the Atlantic. The average flight time to America was 59 hours, back - 47 thanks to the passing air currents. The airship was 87% full when flying to the American continent and 107% when returning to Europe, with additional passengers being accommodated in the officers' cabins. A one-way ticket to New York cost at that time from 400 to 450 US dollars (both ways 720-810 dollars), which is equivalent to today's 12,000-14,000 US dollars). So only very wealthy people could afford such a pleasure.

The photo shows a ticket for a transatlantic flight on the "Hindenburg" on the route: Frankfurt am Main - Rio de Janeiro.

The Hindenburg set off on its last flight on the evening of May 3, 1937. Having successfully crossed the Atlantic, on May 6, the Hindenburg arrived in New York at the appointed time and, circling a little over the city, set off towards Lakehurst airbase, where the landing was planned. Onboard there were 97 passengers and crew members.

Due to the thunderstorm front approaching the airbase, the airship had to circle along the coast for a couple of hours, waiting for the thunderstorm front to move aside, after which it began its landing approach. At 19:11 the airship dropped to a height of 180 meters, at 19:20 the airship was balanced, after which the mooring ropes were dropped from its nose. At 19:25 in the stern area, in front of the vertical stabilizer above the 4th and 5th gas compartments, a fire occurred.

The photo shows a burning "Hindenburg" near the mooring mast.

Within 15 seconds, the fire spread 20-30 meters towards the bow of the zeppelin, after which the tanks with fuel and hydrogen were detonated. Half a minute after the fire, the Hindenburg fell to the ground next to the mooring mast.

Surprisingly, many survived this terrible catastrophe. Killed 36 people out of 97 - 13 passengers, 22 crew members and one ground service employee. Part of the team, led by the captain of the aircraft, Max Pruss, were pinned to the ground by the flaming debris of a burning hull, with severe burns, but they managed to get out from under the debris of the burning airship.

The Hindenburg crash was filmed, this shocking newsreel spread all over the world and contributed to the formation of public opinion against airships, although in terms of the number of victims it was only the fifth accident in the history of aeronautics.

The causes of the accident remained a mystery. The German investigative commission and American experts who investigated the crash site and the wreckage of the aircraft agreed on the most likely version, according to which the explosion of the airship was caused by a hydrogen leak and the ignition of the air mixture from a spark resulting from a potential difference between parts of the outer shell and the frame. Conspiracy theorists believe that the cause of the disaster was the detonation of an explosive device planted by opponents of the National Socialists.

The crash of the flagship of the airship flotilla, and the subsequent media coverage, put an end to the commercial use of aircraft and caused the end of the era of huge airships. The owner of the airship, Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei, canceled all subsequent flights to the United States and Brazil, and soon the German government banned passenger airships, marking the beginning of the end of an era that lasted more than thirty years. The brother of the Hindenburg is the LZ 130 airship, which at the time of the disaster was under construction, although it was completed to the end, but was used for several years only for military and propaganda purposes, after which in the spring of 1940, by order of the Minister of Aviation Hermann Goering, it was cut into scrap metal.

Only 60 years after that accident in September 1997, the first airship of the new generation Zeppelin NT built in these decades, created right there in Friedrichshafen, took to the skies. Currently, his flights over Friedrichshafen can be observed almost daily.

28. To date, little has survived from the more than 30-year history of world airship construction, and most of the artifacts of that period are kept in the best museum dedicated to aeronautics - the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen.

29. In addition to the reconstructed part of the Hindensburg, there is also the wreckage left after the crash of the world's largest aircraft.

30. Elements of the original frame.

31. There are also various instruments taken from the brother "Hindenburg" sawn for metal - LZ 130. In the photo is a gyrocompass.

32. One of the five engine nacelles sawn in the same 1940 airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin. After being cut, this gondola lay unprotected in the open air and was gradually taken away for souvenirs by collectors, only in 1972 the workers of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH saved what had survived.

33. Inside the nacelle is a 12-cylinder VL 2 engine manufactured by Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH. It was the last engine of the concern, created for airships, it was developed specifically for the airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and could run on both gasoline and gas. The engine power was 570 hp.

34. The next exhibition shows a model of the Hindensburg and its hangar, which is no less impressive in size than the airship itself.

This is how this structure looked in the pictures.

35. Nearby is the top of the mooring mast with a piece of the Hindenburg's bow

In general, if you are in those parts, I recommend visiting the museum, there is something to see, besides, there is nothing like it in the world. Fans of the history of aeronautics should even include Friedrichshafen in their vacation program in Germany.

What else interests readers according to? We will now find out by listening to the topic from luciferushka:

It would be interesting to learn about the origin, formation and decline of the era of airships. And do they have a future? Was there a topic?))))))

I already had quite enough on my blog interesting topic , then we will not dwell here in detail on our country. Read who is interested there. Let's take a look at world development of this aircraft.

A dirigible (from the French dirigeable - controlled) is an aircraft lighter than air, a balloon with a propeller, thanks to which the airship can move regardless of the direction of air flows.

For 250 years BC, the great Archimedes opened the way to hot air ballooning. But only in the second half of the 17th century was it possible to create a balloon suitable for practical use. The device is lighter than air, moving in the air ocean at the behest of the wind and air currents, was called a balloon. It is supported in the air due to the lifting force of the gas contained in its shell.

On June 5, 1783, brothers Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier demonstrated the flight of the balloon they had built in the French city of Videlons-les-Annonne. A casing with a volume of about 600 cubic meters. m. rested on a lattice frame woven from a vine. The frame was installed on a platform, under which a wet straw fire was made. Hot, humid air filled the shell. After releasing the ropes holding her, she rushed up. The flight lasted only 10 minutes. During this time, the balloon flew a little over two kilometers.

Drawings of aerostatic launches in France

The French Academy of Sciences decided to repeat the experience of the Montgolfier brothers in Paris. Physicist Charles was entrusted with preparation for it. He used to fill the ball not hot air, but hydrogen discovered in 1766, which had a low specific gravity. On August 27, 1783, a start took place on the Champ de Mars in Paris, the Ball quickly gained altitude and disappeared from sight. Having flown 24 kilometers, he fell to the ground due to a rupture of the shell.

Later, balloons filled with hot air were called hot air balloons, and hydrogen - charlier.

Flight capability has been proven. It remained to find out how safe it is for the human body. At that time, many believed that any living creature that climbed under the clouds, even to a small height, would certainly suffocate. Therefore, on the first air trip on a hot air balloon, they sent loyal and reliable friends of man. On September 19, 1783, living creatures were lifted into the air from the courtyard of the Palace of Versailles for the first time in history. This honor fell to the lot of a ram, a rooster and a duck. They sank to the ground in perfect health. Then they began to train people on tethered balloons. And only after thorough preparation on November 21, 1783, in the suburbs of Paris, a hot air balloon with a crew, which consisted of two people - Pilatre de Rozier and d "Arland", was launched.

Airship Meunier 1784.

As time went on, balloons were improved, making it possible to make more and more complex flights. In early January 1785, the Frenchman Blanchard and the Englishman Jeffries flew in a charlier from Dover to Calais. Having conquered the Pas-de-Calais in 2.5 hours, they were the first to make an air journey between the island of England and continental Europe.

The Russian ambassador to France, Prince Baryatinsky, regularly informed Empress Catherine II of the successes of aeronautics. To them, he attached his own sketches of what he saw. However, the empress showed no interest in this matter. She did not even allow Blanchard to come to Russia in 1786 for demonstration flights. Catherine II asked to convey to him that "... here they are not engaged in sowing or other similar aeromania, and any experiments of this kind are, as it were, fruitless and unnecessary in our country, completely difficult." This view of the tsarist person on aeronautics led to the fact that the Russians first saw hot air ballooning only in the next century.

On June 20, 1803, in St. Petersburg, in the presence of the imperial family of Alexander I and a large crowd of spectators, a demonstration flight of the Frenchman J. Garnerin took place. In September of the same year, the balloon rose into the Moscow sky.

With the development of science and technology, balloons began to be used to solve a wide range of problems. They were used in military affairs, were used to study the atmosphere, conduct meteorological, physical, astronomical observations.

The inventor of the airship is considered Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meunier. The Meunier airship was to be made in the form of an ellipsoid. The controllability was to be carried out using three propellers, manually rotated by the efforts of 80 people. By changing the volume of gas in the balloon by using a ballonet, it was possible to adjust the flight altitude of the airship, and therefore he proposed two shells - an external main shell and an internal one.

Airship Giffard, 1852

An airship with a steam engine designed by Henri Giffard, which borrowed these ideas from Meunier more than half a century later, made its first flight only on September 24, 1852. Such a difference between the date of the invention of the balloon and the first flight of the airship is due to the absence of engines for aerostatic aircraft at that time. The next technological breakthrough came in 1884, when Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs made the first fully controlled free flight in a French military airship powered by an electric La France electric engine, La France. The length of the airship was 52 m, its volume was 1900 m³, in 23 minutes a distance of 8 km was covered with an 8.5 hp engine.

It had a volume of 2500 cubic meters. m., was equipped with a steam engine with a capacity of 3 liters. with. and developed a speed of about 10 km / h. The steam engines of those years had low power with a large mass and were unsuitable for practical use on aircraft. In the first flight, Giffard was unable to return to the starting point. The wind force exceeded the modest capabilities of its engine! The heyday of airship construction began with the advent of reliable, light and sufficiently powerful internal combustion engines and fell on the beginning of our century.

On October 19, 1901, the French aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont, after several attempts, flew around the Eiffel Tower at a speed of just over 20 km / h on his Santos-Dumont device number 6. Then it was considered an eccentricity, but later the airship became one of the most advanced transport funds. At the same time that soft airships began to gain recognition, the development of rigid airships also did not stand still: they were subsequently able to carry more cargo than aircraft, and this position remained for many decades. The design of such airships and its development are associated with the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

The development of airships proceeded in three constructive directions: soft, semi-rigid, rigid.

In soft-type airships, the body is a shell made of fabric with low gas permeability. The constancy of the shape of the shell is achieved by the excess pressure of the gas filling it and creating a lifting force, as well as by ballonets, which are soft air containers located inside the body. With the help of a system of valves, which allows either to inject air into the ballonets or to release it into the atmosphere, a constant overpressure is maintained inside the body. If this were not the case, then the gas inside the envelope under the influence of external factors - changes in atmospheric pressure during the ascent or descent of the airship, the temperature of the surrounding air - would change its volume. A decrease in gas volume causes the body to lose its shape. This usually ends in disaster.

Rigid structural elements - stabilizer, keel, gondola - are attached to the shell with the help of "paws" sewn on or glued to it and connecting slings.

Like every engineering design, soft-type airships have their own advantages and disadvantages. The latter are quite serious: damage to the shell or failure of the fan that blows air into the ballonets lead to catastrophes, while the main advantage is the large weight return.

The soft design limits the dimensions of the airship, which, however, makes the assembly-disassembly and transport operations relatively easy.

Soft airships were built by many aeronautics. The most successful was the design of the German major August von Parseval. His airship took off on May 26, 1906. Since then, soft-type airships are sometimes called "parsevals".

The dependence of the hull shape on atmospheric factors in soft airships was reduced by the introduction of a rigid keel truss into the structure, which, passing from bow to stern along the bottom of the hull, significantly increases its rigidity in the longitudinal direction. This is how the semi-rigid airships appeared.

In airships of this scheme, the shell also serves as a shell with low gas permeability. They also need ballonets. The presence of the truss allows you to attach the elements of the airship to it and place part of the equipment inside it. Semi-rigid airships are larger.

The semi-rigid scheme was developed by the French engineer Juillot, who runs the Lebody brothers' sugar factories. The construction of the airship was financed by the owners of the factories. Therefore, it is not entirely fair that such a scheme of airships is called "swans". The first flight of the airship took place on November 13, 1902.

In rigid airships, the hull is made up of transverse (frames) and longitudinal (stringers) load-bearing elements, covered from the outside with a cloth that is intended only to give the airship a proper aerodynamic shape. Therefore, no requirements for gas permeability are imposed on it. Ballonets are not needed in this scheme, since the invariability of the shape is ensured by the power frame. The carrier gas is placed in separate containers inside the housing. Practically all of the ship's units are installed there, for the maintenance of which "service aisles are provided.

The only drawback of this arrangement is that the metal frame structure reduces the weight of the payload. It was the rigid scheme that made the airship a real ship, capable of sailing in the airy ocean like sea liners. The creator of such airships was an outstanding German engineer and organizer of their production, General Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. His first airship took off on July 2, 1900. Since then, the name "zeppelin" has been assigned to rigid airships.

A German aristocrat and a career military man took up the massive construction and diverse use of airships. Ferdinand background Zeppelin... While in the United States during the Civil War, he became interested in reconnaissance balloons used by both sides, and, returning to his homeland, began to promote the idea of ​​an aeronautic fleet in the German army. His developments, however, were not understood by the command, and in 1890 the count, whose rationalizing enthusiasm had bored the higher ranks for many years, was dismissed from the army with the rank of lieutenant general upon reaching retirement age.

But Zeppelin did not even think to give up. Returning to the places of his childhood - on the shores of Lake Constance - he eagerly began to spend the family's money on creating the production of airships. Eight years of work culminated in the launch of a floating assembly shop right on the water surface of the lake, the creation of a team of young talented engineers and the nickname of Count the Fool from the neighbors.

First flight prototype airship LZ1 (LZ - Luftschiff Zeppelin) took place on June 2, 1900.The device had a length of 128 m, a rigid structure (a metal frame covered with fabric, inside which was placed gas in gas-tight cylinders) and was driven by two Daimler engines with a power of 14.5 hp. The count personally piloted the airship. After long modifications and improvements, by 1906 he managed to create a fully functional model of the airship LZ2, and in 1908 and LZ4, on which the seventy-year-old aristocrat held out in the air for 8 hours, having flown to neighboring Switzerland.

Unfortunately, the device was completely destroyed during a thunderstorm, and here an end could be put in the history of the zeppelin, since their creator by that time had run out of money. But a miracle happened: fellow citizens suddenly began to help the inventor financially, and Wilhelm II of Württemberg ordered to allocate 500,000 marks for airships. So after the creation of the company Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH Count-Fool, according to the same Kaiser Wilhelm II, became "the greatest German of the XX century."

In 1909, Ferdinand von Zeppelin founded the world's first transport airline, Deutsche Luftschiffahrt AG, and within a year four airships made regular flights within Germany, for which the corresponding infrastructure with hangars and mooring masts was created.

Since the beginning of the First World War, the airship fleet has been actively used by the Germans for reconnaissance, propaganda and even for bombing cities, including London and Calais. On August 14, 1914, as a result of the raid of one German airship on Antwerp, 60 houses were completely destroyed, another 900 were damaged. Yes, the ability to slowly, at a speed of 80-90 km / h, overcome a couple of thousand kilometers at an altitude unattainable for aviation and artillery and bombard the enemy with tons of bombs is a powerful deterrent.

But, in addition to the advantages, the glaring disadvantages of the air giants also appeared. The hydrogen filling the Zeppelins was fire hazardous, maneuverability left much to be desired, and the dependence on weather conditions also did not add to survivability.

It is interesting to note that Zeppelin himself, perfectly understanding the advantages of a rigid scheme, paid tribute to airships and other designs. He said that "one type of vessel does not exclude the other. It is only important that they are designed as best as possible, and defects are corrected in the interests of all mankind and culture." Further development airship building confirmed the truth of his words.

As often happens, the new achievement of engineering thought, first of all, did not serve the flourishing of culture, but directly opposite goals. For the first time in combat, airships were used by the Italians in 1911 - 1912. during the war with Turkey. With their help, reconnaissance operations and bombing strikes were carried out. During the First World War, Germany was the undisputed leader in the field of airship construction. During the war years, it was built: in Great Britain - 10 airships, in Italy - 7, in France - 1, in the USA - 6. Kaiser's Germany built about 76 airships, of which 63 zeppelin and 9 designs by Professor Schütte-Lanz with a wooden frame. Russia used three British-made Chernomor aircraft. Germany entered the war with three airships: L3, L4, L5.

In total, 1210 sorties were made on the German zeppelins. Of the 75 warships, 52 were lost during the war as a result of hostilities: 19 were destroyed with a crew, 33 were destroyed by shelling or accidents, captured by the British after landing. By the end of the war, Germany had only 7 airships. The Germans used zeppelins extensively to bomb England. The first raid took place on January 15, 1915. According to the directive of the command, the airships should start bombing from Buckingham Palace and government residences, then there was a line of military factories and residential areas. In one of the night raids, the L-22 airship (with a volume of 36,000 m³) took on board 24 bombs of 50 kg, 2 bombs of 100 kg and 2 bombs of 300 kg. On approaching York, a huge cigar fell into the beams of searchlights and was shot down by anti-aircraft guns. Fighter aircraft began to pose a great danger to airships. So on January 31, 1916, 9 zeppelins were shot down by British aircraft over the sea at once. To escape from fighters and anti-aircraft guns, airships climbed to heights of up to 5 km, where the crew suffered from low temperatures and lack of oxygen.

The airship accompanies a squadron of German warships

Due to the constantly increasing protective measures of the enemy, zeppelins for the front were built in two sizes, type "L 50" and "L 70".

The main distinguishing features of the "L 50" were: five engines, each 260 hp, which could develop sufficient speed even in rarefied high atmospheric layers; four propellers (two rear motors attached to one propeller); central aisle, vessel length 196.5 m; width 23.9 m; gas volume 55,000 cubic meters m; speed 30 m / s (approximately 110 km / h); takeoff weight 38 tons. Type "L 70": seven engines, each with 260 hp; six propellers; central aisle, vessel length 211.5 m; the largest diameter is 23.9 m; gas volume 62,000 cubic meters m; speed, 35 m / s (130 km / h); takeoff weight 43 tons.

"L 50" had a crew of 21, and "L 70" of 25. The crew consisted of: 1 commander, 1 observer officer, 1 quartermaster, 1 chief engineer, 2 riggers (foreman-signalman), 2 people on balancing mechanisms (boatswains), 2 minders (junior officers) per engine, 1 helmsman, 1 telegraph operator, and 1 wireless telegraph operator. The job titles are not accidental, the airships were part of the Kaiser's navy.

The airships carried two heavy machine guns, and later a 20 mm cannon. Ammunition consisted of incendiary bombs weighing 11.4 kg, and high-explosive fragmentation bombs weighing 50, 100, and 300 kg.

The airships were used by the German army for naval reconnaissance. At the beginning of the war, seaplanes did not yet exist. Later, airships were able to rise to a height of 6,000 meters, which was inaccessible to airplanes.

Aircraft bases were located as close to the coast as possible, and had sufficient area for takeoff and landing; but they had to be deep enough on land to eliminate the danger of a surprise attack from the sea. The fleet had the following airship bases on the North Sea coast: Nordholz near Cuxhaven, Ahlhorn near Oldenburg, Wittmundshaven (East Friesland), Tondern (Schleswig-Holstein). Hage base, south of Norderney, was abandoned.

In January 1918, when, due to the spontaneous combustion of one of the airships in Ahlhorn, the explosion spread to the neighboring hangars, and four Zeppelin and one Schütte-Lanz were lost. All but one hangars were rendered unusable. After that, the German fleet had only 9 air ships at its disposal. From the fall of 1917, the construction of airships was limited because the material needed to build airships was needed for more advanced airplanes. Since that date, only one airship has been ordered per month.

In peacetime, the achievements of airship construction continued to amaze the world. In 1928, the LZ-127 zeppelin flew to the United States through the Antlantica, and the following year, with three landings, it circled the globe. These successes also attracted the attention of the Soviet public to the issues of airship construction. The "airship building boom" reached Moscow with the arrival of the LZ-127 in the capital. In September 1930, he landed at the Central Airfield. About this event N. Alliluyeva wrote to I. Stalin, who was on vacation in the south: "All of us in Moscow were entertained by the arrival of the Zeppelin, it was a spectacle really worthy of attention. All of Moscow was looking at this wonderful machine." The arrival of LZ-127 left such a deep mark on our society that in 1991, on the 50th anniversary of this event, the USSR Ministry of Communications issued a series of postage stamps dedicated to airships. One of them depicts "Count Zeppelin" against the background of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin died in 1917 and his firm was taken over by former press attaché Hugo Eckener. Although, by post-war agreements, Germany was forbidden to have dual-use aircraft, Eckener managed to persuade the authorities to build a giant transatlantic airship of rigid construction on helium. By 1924, the LZ126 appeared. It is curious that it was transferred to the United States on account of reparations and under the name "Los Angeles" was in service with the American Navy.

By that time, the English airship R-34 had already flown over the Atlantic (in 1919), and in the industrialized powers, the rapid growth of airship construction began. used as a mooring mast. The 102nd floor of this building was originally a mooring platform with a gangway for climbing the airship. The popularity of airships is reflected even in one of Steven Spielberg's films about the adventures of Indiana Jones, in one of which the hero of Harrison Ford and his father, played by Sean O "Connery, fly on a zeppelin. But the giants from the giants were the creations of the same Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH The first of them - the airship "Graf Zeppelin" (LZ127), built for the 90th anniversary of his "father", began transatlantic flights in September 1929. In the same year, the LZ127, with three intermediate landings, made the legendary round-the-world flight, overcoming in 20 days more than 34,000 km with an average flight speed of about 115 km / h. He made regular flights until 1936, was awarded an image on a postage stamp during a Pan American tour and ended his "life" in 1940, being destroyed by order of the Minister of Aviation of Hitler Germany by Hermann Goering.

The largest creation of the Zeppelin company was the LZ129 "Hindenburg": 245 m in length, maximum diameter - 41.2 m, 200,000 cubic meters of gas in cylinders, 4 Daimler-Benz engines with 1200 hp. each, up to 100 tons of payload and speed up to 35 km / h. Flights with passengers, including to North and South America, "Hindenburg" began in May 1936. In the same 1936, he made the fastest, only 43-hour flight across the North Atlantic. By May 1937, the Zeppelin had 37 flights across the Atlantic Ocean, carrying about 3,000 people.

For about $ 400, Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg offered their passengers very comfortable conditions. The travelers were supposed to have a separate cabin with a shower. It was possible to while away the time in flight, walking around the spacious glazed cabin, at the services of passengers - a restaurant with real tables, chairs, obligatory silverware and a grand piano (albeit slightly reduced in size). For smokers, a special room decorated with asbestos was equipped, where up to 24 people could be lifted at the same time using the only lighter on board. The rest of the flammable items were seized upon boarding, and this was the only serious restriction for travelers.

This flying airship was created and named after the Reich President of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg. Its construction was completed in 1936, and a year later, the largest airship in the world at that time, crashed.

The construction of the Zeppelin LZ 129 "Hindenburg" took about five years.

The first ascent and test flight took place on March 4, 1936.

The giant waterfowl was astonishing in its scale: 245 meters in length and 41.2 meters in diameter.

At the same time, the volume of gas in the cylinders was 200 thousand cubic meters!

The speed of the airship at zero wind could reach 135 km / h.

For passengers on board were equipped: a restaurant with a kitchen, an observation deck, 25 bedrooms, showers, a recreation room, a reading room and a smoking room.

Most of the metal elements were made of aluminum. Even a piano.

At that time, the "Hindenburg" became the record holder, covering the path from Europe to America in 43 hours.

The last flight for the Zeppelin was the 38th in a row.

Having safely overcome the Atlantic Ocean in 77 hours, the airship crashed.

This happened during the landing at the American military base Lakehurst on May 6, 1937.

He set off on his last voyage on May 3, 1937. By the morning of May 6, he had already arrived in New York. After several laps over the city and flying over the crowd of journalists on the upper landing of the Empire State Building, the Hindenburg headed towards Lakehurst base, where it was supposed to land. Since a thunderstorm was raging in the city, permission to land was received only in the evening. Already when the landing ropes were dropped, an explosion occurred in the area of ​​the 4th gas compartment and the airship instantly caught fire. Thanks to the efforts of Captain Max Pruss, the burning Hindenburg was still planted, thanks to which 62 of the 97 passengers on board were saved.

The causes of the disaster were never fully determined. There are several versions.

This catastrophe did not become the largest in the history of airships, and the zeppelin itself did not remain the largest in history. However, the history of its existence and death is one of the most famous waterfowl in the history.

It was also a disaster for the entire airship. In 1938, the LZ130, the second Graf Zeppelin, was built, but almost immediately a law was passed in Germany prohibiting passenger flights of airships powered by hydrogen, and he never managed to fly. However, during World War II, the US Navy used small K-class airships, which could stay aloft for up to 50 hours, to detect German submarines. One of them attacked the U-134 submarine on the surface on the night of July 18-19, 1943 and was shot down as a result of the ensuing battle. This is the only clash in World War II involving an airship.

In the USSR, during the Great Patriotic War, according to some sources, four airships were used to support combat operations - "USSR V-1", "USSR V-12", "Malysh" and "Pobeda". One of their most important tasks was the transportation of hydrogen for refueling barrage balloons. One departure of the airship with a passing cargo was enough for refueling 3-4 balloons. The airships carried 194,580 cubic meters of hydrogen and 319,190 kg of various cargo. In total, during the Second World War, Soviet airships performed more than 1,500 flights. And also in the Soviet Union in 1945 on the Black Sea a special aeronautical detachment was organized to search for mines and sunken ships. For this purpose, in September 1945, the same Pobeda made a flight from Moscow to Sevastopol, with which observers happened to find mines after repeated sweeping of the bay.

Projects using airships periodically appear in different countries to this day. For example, NASA's Aerocraft is a floating airship. It is assumed that Aerocraft will fly mainly over the ocean, transporting cargo and passengers faster than sea vessels and cheaper than airplanes. British engineer and inventor Roger Munk has been offering several interesting ideas for the last twenty years. Among them, for example, is presented in three modifications of SkyCat with a carrying capacity of 15, 200 and even 1000 tons. There are also developments of the Swiss Prospective Concepts AG. Count von Zeppelin's case lives on. Although not winning yet.

Clickable 1600 px

Aircraft company Eros, based in Montebello, California, USA, has unveiled the first footage of a fully finished Aeroscraft aircraft. This is not an airplane, not a helicopter or an airship, but something in between - a real revolution in the industry for a hundred years ahead, as the CEO of the company Igor Pasternak assures. The Aeroscraft will be tested in flight mode over the next two months. ...

End of the article about modern airships ... Well, he doesn't want to fit into the LJ post,

Let me remind you now of some kind of aviation topic, for example, it was already a long time ago, or

Once airships were the main form of air transport. In the first half of the twentieth century, they were often used for passenger transportation. However, over time, planes began to displace them. However, airships are now actively used by people and no one is going to abandon them.

There is a version that the first airships were designed back in Ancient Greece... Allegedly, even Archimedes himself thought about their creation. Be that as it may, but we have no evidence that aeronautics existed in Ancient Greece. So the homeland of the airship is considered to be France, which in the 18th century was captured by a real aeronautical fever. It all began with the famous brothers Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, who made their first hot air balloon flight in 1783. Soon, the inventor Jacques Cesar Charles proposed his project of a balloon filled with hydrogen and helium.

Several more projects followed, and then Jean-Baptiste Meunier, a mathematician and military man, who is considered the "father" of the airship, came to the fore. He created a project for a balloon that would be lifted into the air using three propellers. According to Meunier's ideas, such a device could reach an altitude of two to three kilometers. The scientist suggested using it for military purposes, primarily for intelligence. However, in 1793, Meunier died without bringing his grandiose project to mind. But his ideas did not disappear, although they sank into oblivion for about six months. New breakthrough occurred in 1852, when another Frenchman, Henri Giffard, made the first ever flight in an airship.

Henri Giffard. (wikipedia.org)

Information about how long he held out in the air and how much distance he managed to overcome has not been preserved. However, it is known that his project was based on the ideas of Meunier, and the flight itself almost ended in the death of the balloonist. Yet steam-powered airships did not take root. Over the next two decades, such flights were rare. In 1901, inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont flew around the Eiffel Tower in an airship.

Around the Eiffel Tower. (wikipedia.org)

This event was widely covered by French newspapers, and journalists presented it as a sensation. The age of airships began a little later, when the technology of the internal combustion engine was introduced into aeronautics.

The impetus for the rapid development of the construction of airships was given by the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose name is perhaps the most famous airships of the first half of the twentieth century. He designed three models of such devices, but each time they had to be modified.

Airship model. (wikipedia.org)

The construction cost a lot of money, starting work on the last of their LZ-3 airships. Zeppelin pledged the house, land and a number of family jewels. In case of failure, ruin awaited him. But here, just, he was waiting for success. The LZ-3 device, which made its first flight in 1906, was noticed by the military, who made a large order to Zepellin. So, more than a century later, Meunier's idea came true, who wanted to use airships for the needs of the military.

And so it happened. The First World War turned airships into a truly terrible weapon. Such balloons were already in service with all countries participating in the conflict, but the German Empire achieved the greatest success in this direction.

German airship. (wikipedia.org)

German airships developed speeds of up to 90 kilometers per hour, easily covered 4-5 thousand kilometers and could drop several tons of bombs on the enemy. This distinguished them favorably from light aircraft, which rarely carried more than five bombs. It is known that on August 14, 1914, a German airship nearly razed the Belgian city of Antwerp to the ground. As a result of the bombing, more than a thousand buildings were destroyed.

But airships were also used for peaceful purposes. For example, for the transportation of goods. Such a device could easily deliver 8 - 12 tons of baggage by air. Following the cargo transportation, the idea of ​​passenger transportation arose. The first passenger line was launched in 1910. Airships began operating flights from Friedrichshafen to Dusseldorf. Passenger traffic soon began operating in France and the UK. The rapid development of the industry continued after the war. So at the end of the 20s of the twentieth century, airships began to perform transatlantic passenger flights. In 1928, the legendary German airship "Graf Zepellin" made the first ever round-the-world trip in a balloon. The end of the golden age came in 1937, after the infamous disaster of the Hindenburg airship, which was flying from Germany to the United States.

The Hindenburg disaster. (wikipedia.org)

During the landing of the device, a fire occurred, as a result of which the airship crashed to the ground (this happened in the vicinity of New York). Forty people were killed, and newspapers and aviation and aeronautics experts began to seriously talk about the fact that flying in airships could be unsafe.

The Russian Empire did not lag behind Europe in terms of aeronautics. Already at the end of the 19th century, amateur societies began to spontaneously emerge in the country, whose members tried to design their own airships. The designs of such balloons were proposed by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the future famous combat aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky.

The first flight of the airship in Russia dates back to around the mid-1890s. Although this information is inaccurate. Public interest in airships did not escape the attention of the state. The construction of airships for the needs of the army and other ministries began already in the 1900s. By the time the First World War began, the Russian Empire had 18 combat airships. In the Soviet Union, airships were less popular than in Europe. There was no regular passenger service, although the arrival of the "Graf Zeppelin" in Moscow was widely reported in the Soviet media.

Russian airship. (wikipedia.org)

In modern Russia, airships are by no means forgotten. Moreover, there are more and more projects for introducing airships into the public transport system. So, in the fall of 2014, the issue of creating alternative modes of transport for the Russian North was discussed in Yakutia. Airships could solve this problem. Components for them are now produced by the Russian holding "KRET", which is part of the structure of "Rostec".

It would be wrong to think that there is no place for airships in the modern world and that they can only be seen in museums. This is not true. Of course, airships lost the fight for air supremacy by plane. Yes, passenger transportation by airships is rarely carried out and mainly for excursion purposes. But in fact, the scope of application of these balloons is still very wide: it can be aerial photography, aerial monitoring, security at events. Balloons, for example, guarded the airspace at the Sochi Olympics. They can also be used for the operational detection of forest fires. For these uses, the balloon must be securely docked in one place. For this, support devices are used - special vehicles on which a system of cables is installed, which allows the airship to be held both on the ground and during its ascent into the sky. Currently, the only domestic manufacturer of such devices is the Tekhnodinamika holding, which is part of the Rostec State Corporation. The design is called "Aragvia-Wau". As for airships, they are still produced in many countries of the world, including Russia. So far, people do not want to completely abandon these balloons.

Having once abandoned airships, today mankind finds more and more advantages and benefits in these aircraft. But the sight of a mighty ship sailing through the sky attracts to itself so much that for the sake of this majestic spectacle one wants them to return ...

As a rule, articles on modern airships begin with recollections of how the giant German Zeppelin Hindenburg died in a fire almost 70 years ago at the American Lakehurst airbase, and three years later Hermann Goering ordered the remaining airships to be dismantled for scrap and blown up the hangars. The era of airships then ended, journalists usually write, but now interest in controlled balloons is actively reviving again. However, the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens, if and where they see "revived" airships, it is only at various kinds of airshows - there they are usually used as original advertising media. Is this really all that these amazing airships are capable of? To find out who needs airships today and why, we had to turn to specialists who build airships in Russia.

Advantages and disadvantages

An airship is a controlled self-propelled balloon. Unlike a conventional "balloon that flies" exclusively in the direction of the wind and can only maneuver in height in an attempt to catch the wind of the desired direction, the airship is able to move relative to the surrounding air masses in the direction chosen by the pilot. For this purpose, the aircraft is equipped with one or more engines, stabilizers and rudders, and also has an aerodynamic ("cigar") shape. At one time, airships were "killed" not so much by a series of disasters that horrified the world, but by aviation, which developed at a super-fast pace in the first half of the twentieth century. The airship is slow-moving - even an aircraft with piston engines flies faster. What can we say about turboprop and jet machines. The large windage of the hull prevents the airship from accelerating to aircraft speeds - the air resistance is too high. True, from time to time they talk about projects of super-high airships that will rise to where the air is very rarefied, which means that its resistance is much less. This will supposedly allow a speed of several hundred kilometers per hour. However, so far such projects have been worked out only at the conceptual level.

On August 17, 2006, pilot Stanislav Fedorov reached Russian production"Augur" AU-35 ("Polar goose") height 8180 meters. So the world record was broken, which lasted 90 years and belonged to the German airship Zeppelin L-55. The Polar Goose record was the first step in the High Start program, a project of the Russian Aeronautical Society and the Metropol Group of Companies to launch light spacecraft from high-altitude airships. If this project is successful, an advanced balloon-space complex will be created in Russia, capable of economically launching private satellites weighing up to 10-15 kilograms into orbit. One of the proposed areas of use of the Vysokiy Start complex is the launch of geophysical rockets to explore the circumpolar regions of the Arctic Ocean.

While losing speed to aviation, controlled balloons have a number of important advantages, thanks to which, in fact, airship building is being revived. Firstly, the force that lifts the balloon into the air (known to everyone from schoolchildren's force of Archimedes) is completely free and does not require energy costs, unlike the lift of the wing, which directly depends on the speed of the craft, and therefore on the power of the engine. The airship, on the other hand, needs engines mainly for horizontal movement and maneuvering. Therefore, aircraft of this type can get by with engines of much lower power than would be required for an aircraft with an equal payload. From this, and this is secondly, follows the greater ecological cleanliness of airships in comparison with winged aircraft, which is extremely important in our time.

The third plus of airships is their practically unlimited carrying capacity. The creation of overload aircraft and helicopters has limitations in the strength characteristics of structural materials. For airships, however, there are no such restrictions, and an airship with a payload of, for example, 1000 tons is not at all a fantasy. Add to this the ability to stay in the air for a long time, the absence of the need for airfields with long runways and greater flight safety - and we have an impressive list of advantages that completely balance the slow speed. However, the low speed, as it turned out, can rather be attributed to the advantages of air ships. But more on that later.

In airship construction, there are three main types of construction: soft, rigid and semi-rigid. Almost all modern airships are of the soft type. In the English language literature, they are referred to as "blimp". During World War II, the US Army actively used blimps to monitor coastal waters and escort ships. Rigid airships are often called "zeppelin" in honor of the inventor of this design, Count Friedrich von Zeppelin (1838 - 1917).

Helicopter competitor

Our country is one of the world centers of the reviving airship building. The industry leader is the Rosaerosystems group of companies. After talking with its vice-president Mikhail Talesnikov, we found out how modern Russian airships are arranged, where and how they are used, and what lies ahead.

Today, there are two types of airships in operation, created by the designers of Rosaerosystems. The first type is a two-seater airship AU-12 (shell length 34 m). Devices of this model exist in three copies, and two of them are used from time to time by the Moscow police to patrol the Moscow Ring Road. The third airship was sold to Thailand and is used there as an advertising medium.

Semi-rigid airships are distinguished by the presence of, as a rule, a metal truss in the lower part of the shell, which prevents deformation of the shell, however, as in a soft structure, the shape of the shell is maintained by the pressure of the lifting gas. The modern German airships "Zeppelin NT" belong to the semi-rigid type, which have a supporting frame made of carbon fiber inside the shell.

Much more interesting job at airships of the AU-30 system. The devices of this model are distinguished by larger dimensions (shell length 54 m) and, accordingly, higher carrying capacity. The AU-30 gondola can accommodate ten people (two pilots and eight passengers). As Mikhail Talesnikov told us, negotiations are currently underway with interested parties about the possibility of organizing elite air tours. Flying at low altitude and at low speed (here it is - the advantage of low speed!) Over beautiful natural landscapes or architectural monuments can indeed become an unforgettable adventure. Similar tours take place in Germany: airships of the revived Zeppelin NT brand ride tourists over the picturesque Lake Bodensee, in the very regions where the first German airship once flew. However, Russian airship builders are confident that the main purpose of their devices is not advertising and entertainment, but the fulfillment of serious industrial tasks.

Here's an example. Utilities with transmission lines at their disposal must regularly monitor and diagnose the condition of their networks. The most convenient way to do this is from the air. In most countries of the world, helicopters are used for such monitoring, but the rotorcraft has serious drawbacks. In addition to the fact that the helicopter is uneconomical, it also has a very modest range - only 150-200 km. It is clear that this is too little for our country with its many thousand kilometers distance and vast energy economy. There is another problem: the helicopter experiences strong vibration in flight, as a result of which the sensitive scanning equipment malfunctions. A slow and fluid airship capable of covering thousands of kilometers with a single refueling, on the other hand, is ideal for monitoring tasks. V currently one of the Russian firms that have developed laser-based scanning equipment, and software to it, uses two AU-30 airships to provide services to power engineers. An airship of this type can also be used for various types of monitoring of the earth's surface (including for military purposes), as well as for mapping.

The multipurpose airship Au-30 (multipurpose patrol airship with a volume of more than 3000 cubic meters) is designed to perform flights for a long time, including at low altitude and low speed. Cruising speed 0-90 km / h // Main engine power 2x170 hp // Maximum flight range 3000 km // Maximum flight altitude 2500 m.

How do they fly?

Almost all modern airships, in contrast to the zeppelin of the pre-war era, are of the soft type, that is, the shape of their shell is supported from the inside by the pressure of the lifting gas (helium). The explanation is simple - for apparatus of relatively small dimensions, a rigid structure is ineffective and reduces the payload due to the weight of the frame.

Despite the fact that airships and balloons are classified as lighter than air vehicles, many of them, especially when fully loaded, have a so-called constriction, that is, they turn into vehicles heavier than air. This also applies to the AU-12 and AU-30. We have already said above that an airship, unlike an airplane, needs engines mainly for horizontal flight and maneuvering. And that's why "mostly." "Hauling", that is, the difference between the force of gravity and the Archimedean force, is compensated by a small lift that appears when the oncoming air flow runs onto the airship's specially aerodynamic shell - in this case, it works like a wing. As soon as the airship stops, it will begin to sink to the ground, because the Archimedean force does not fully compensate for the force of gravity.

The two-seater AU-12 airship is designed for training aeronaut pilots, patrolling and visual control of roads and urban areas in the interests of environmental monitoring and traffic police, emergency control and rescue operations, security and surveillance, advertising flights, high-quality photography, film, television and video filming. in the interests of advertising, television, cartography. On November 28, 2006, for the first time in the history of Russian aeronautics, the AU-12 was issued a type certificate for a two-seater airship. Cruising speed 50 - 90 km / h // Main engine power 100 hp // Maximum flight range 350 km // Maximum flight altitude 1500 m.

The AU-12 and AU-30 airships have two takeoff modes: vertical and low-range. In the first case, two propeller engines with a variable thrust vector move to a vertical position and thus push the vehicle off the ground. After gaining a low altitude, they move to a horizontal position and push the airship forward, resulting in a lifting force. When landing, the engines again move to a vertical position and are switched to reverse mode. The airship, on the other hand, is now gravitating towards the ground. Such a scheme makes it possible to overcome one of the main problems of the operation of airships in the past - the difficulty with timely stopping and accurate docking of the vehicle. In the days of the mighty zeppelins, they had to literally be caught by the cables lowered down and fastened to the ground. In those days, docking crews numbered dozens and even hundreds of people.

During takeoff with mileage, the engines initially operate in a horizontal position. They accelerate the craft until sufficient lift occurs, after which the airship rises into the air.

Sky Yacht ML866 Aeroscraft Interesting projects of new generation airships are being developed on the North American continent. Wordwide Eros corporation intends to create a “heavenly super-yacht” ML 866. This airship is designed according to a hybrid scheme: in flight, about 2/3 of the vehicle's weight will be compensated for by the Archimedean force, and the vehicle will rise up due to the lifting force that occurs when the incoming air stream flows around the ship's shell. For this, the shell will be given a special aerodynamic shape. Officially, ML 866 is intended for VIP tourism, however, given that Wordwide Eros receives funding in particular from the state defense technology agency DARPA, the use of airships for military purposes, for example, for surveillance or communications, is possible. And the Canadian company Skyhook, together with Boeing, announced the JHL-40 project - a cargo airship with a payload of 40 tons. This is also a "hybrid", but here the Archimedean force will be supplemented by the thrust of four rotors creating thrust along the vertical axis.

Height maneuvering and steering lifting force the pilot carries out, in particular, changing the pitch (angle of inclination of the horizontal axis) of the airship. This can be achieved both with the help of aerodynamic control surfaces fixed to the stabilizers, and by changing the centering of the apparatus. Inside the shell, which is inflated with low-pressure helium, are two ballonets. Ballonets are bags made of airtight material into which outboard air is forced. By controlling the volume of the ballonet, the pilot changes the lift gas pressure. If the balloon inflates, the helium contracts and increases in density. In this case, the Archimedean force decreases, which leads to a decrease in the airship. And vice versa. If necessary, you can pump air, for example, from the bow ballonet to the stern. Then, when the centering is changed, the pitch angle will take a positive value, and the airship will move to the pitching position.

It is easy to see that a modern airship has a rather complex control system, providing for rudders, varying the mode and thrust vector of the engines, as well as changing the centering of the apparatus and the value of the lifting gas pressure using ballonets.

Harder and higher

Another direction in which domestic airships are working is the creation of heavy cargo-and-passenger airships. As already mentioned, there are practically no restrictions on carrying capacity for airships, and therefore, in the future, real "air barges" can be created that will be able to transport almost anything by air, including super-heavy oversized cargo. The task is simplified by the fact that when the linear dimensions of the shell change, the carrying capacity of the airship increases in a cubic proportion. For example, the AU-30, which has a 54 m long shell, can carry up to 1.5 tons of payload. The new generation airship, which is now being developed by Rosaerosystem engineers, with a shell length of only 30 m will take a payload of 16 tons! The long-term plans of the group of companies include the construction of airships with payloads of 60 and 200 tons. Moreover, it is in this segment of airship construction that a small revolution should take place. For the first time in many decades, an airship made according to a rigid scheme will rise into the air. The lifting gas will be placed in soft cylinders rigidly attached to the frame, covered from above by an aerodynamic shell. The rigid frame will add safety to the airship, since even in the event of a serious helium leak, the device will not lose its aerodynamic shape.

Death of the giants

The history of air crashes with a large number of victims dates back to the era of airships. The British airship R101 made its maiden flight on October 5, 1930. On board, he carried a government delegation led by Air Minister Christopher Birdwell Lord Thompson. A few hours after the start, R101 dropped to a dangerous height, crashed into a hill and burned down. Design miscalculations were the cause of the disaster. Of the 54 passengers and crew members, 48 ​​were killed, including the minister. 73 American sailors were killed when the Akron airship fell into the sea off the coast of New Jersey. It happened on April 3, 1933. The people were killed not by the impact of the fall, but by the icy water: there was not a single lifeboat on the airship and only a few cork vests. Both dead airship were pumped with explosive hydrogen. Helium airships are much safer.

Another interesting project for which Rosaerosystems has already carried out R&D work is the geostationary stratospheric airship Berkut. The idea is based on the properties of the atmosphere. The fact is that at an altitude of 20-22 km, the wind pressure is relatively small, and the wind has a constant direction - against the rotation of the Earth. In such conditions, it is quite easy to fix the apparatus at one point relative to the planet's surface using the thrust of the engines. The stratospheric geostationary can be used in almost all areas in which geostationary satellites are now used (communications, transmission of television and radio programs, etc.). At the same time, the Berkut airship will, of course, be significantly cheaper than any spacecraft. In addition, if a communications satellite fails, it cannot be repaired. In the event of any malfunctions, the "Berkut" can always be lowered to the ground in order to carry out the necessary preventive maintenance and repairs. And finally, "Berkut" is an absolutely environmentally friendly device. The airship will take energy for engines and relay equipment from solar panels placed on the upper part of the shell. At night, power will be supplied from batteries that have accumulated electricity during the day.

Airship "Berkut" Inside the “Berkut” shell there are five woven containers with helium. At the surface of the earth, the air pumped into the shell will squeeze the containers, increasing the density of the lifting gas. In the stratosphere, when the Berkut is surrounded by rarefied air, the air from the shell will be pumped out, and the containers under the helium pressure will swell. As a result, its density will fall and, accordingly, the Archimedean force will increase, which will keep the device at a height. Berkut is designed in three modifications - for high latitudes (HL), for middle latitudes (ML), for equatorial latitudes (ET). The geostationary characteristics of the airship make it possible to carry out the functions of observation, communication and data transmission over an area of ​​more than 1 million km 2.

Closer to space

All airships discussed in this article are of the gas type. However, there are also thermal airships - actually controlled hot air balloons, in which heated air serves as the lifting gas. They are considered less functional than their gas counterparts, mainly due to their slower speed and poorer handling. The main field of application of thermal airships is airshow and sports. And it is in the sport of Russia that the highest achievement belongs.

On August 17, 2006, pilot Stanislav Fedorov reached an altitude of 8180 m on a Russian-made "Polar Goose" thermal airship. However, practical applications may also be found for sports airships. "Polar goose", having risen to an altitude of 10-15 km, can become a kind of first stage of the space launch system. It is known that during space launches a significant amount of energy is spent precisely at the initial stage of ascent. The further from the center of the Earth the launch pad is, the greater the fuel economy and the greater the payload it is possible to put into orbit. That is why they are trying to place spaceports closer to the equatorial region in order to win (due to the flattened shape of the Earth) several kilometers.

On September 10, 1908, the first flight of the first controlled balloon, created in Russia, was carried out for the first time.

The issues of controlled aeronautics in Russia began to be dealt with at the very beginning of the 19th century. So, in 1812, mechanic Franz Leppich proposed to the Russian government to build a controlled aerostat for military use. In July of the same year, the assembly of the apparatus began near Moscow. The balloon had an unusual design. Its soft fish-shaped shell was made of taffeta and was girded with a rigid hoop along the perimeter in the horizontal plane. A net was attached to this hoop, covering the upper part of the shell. The most unusual element of the structure was a rigid keel, fixed on a hoop at some distance from the shell by means of a series of struts located around the lower part of the shell. The keel also served as a gondola. A stabilizer was attached to the hoop at the rear of the shell. On both sides of the apparatus, two wings were hinged to the frame. By flapping these wings, it was supposed to move the balloon. All elements of the rigid frame were made of wood. According to rough estimates, the volume of the spacecraft shell was 8000 cubic meters, the length was 57 meters, and the maximum diameter was 16 meters. But the construction of this unusual balloon of unprecedented dimensions was never completed. The shell, filled with hydrogen, did not hold gas, and it was almost impossible to move the apparatus with the help of the propeller wings. For the controlled movement of such a large balloon, a propeller was needed, driven by a fairly light engine with a capacity of several tens of kilowatts. The creation of such an engine was at that time an insoluble task.

Nevertheless, one cannot fail to note the originality of the design of this apparatus, which was practically the first prototype of controlled semi-rigid balloons.

In the middle of the 19th century, a number of projects of controlled balloons were proposed by A. Snegirev (1841), N. Arkhangelsky (1847), M. I. Ivanin (1850), D. Chernosvitov (1857). In 1849, the original project was put forward by the military engineer Tretessky. The airship had to move by means of the reactive force of the gas jet flowing out of the hole in the aft part of the shell. To increase the reliability, the shell was made sectioned.

In 1856, the project of a controlled balloon was developed by the captain of the first rank N.M. Sokovnin. The length, width and height of this apparatus were, respectively, 50, 25 and 42 m, the design lifting force was estimated at 25,000 N. In order to increase safety, the envelope was supposed to be filled with non-combustible ammonia. To move the balloon, Sokovnin designed a kind of jet engine. The air, which was in the cylinders under high pressure, was fed into special pipes, from which it flowed out. The pipes were proposed to be rotary, which would allow, according to the author, to control the apparatus without the help of aerodynamic rudders. In fact, Sokovnin was the first to propose a jet control system for an airship.

The most complete project was proposed in 1880 by Captain O.S. Kostovich. His controlled balloon, named "Russia", was refined over several years. In the final version, it was based on a rigid cylindrical frame with conical tips, made of lightweight and sufficiently strong material "arborite" (such as plywood), the manufacturing technology of which was developed by Kostovich himself. The frame was covered with silk fabric impregnated with a special compound to reduce gas permeability. There were bearing surfaces on the sides of the balloon. A horizontal beam passed along its axis, in the stern of which a four-bladed propeller was installed. The rudder was attached to the front of the beam. A movable load suspended from below was used to control the airship in the vertical plane. In the midsection of the shell there was a vertical pipe, to the bottom of which a gondola was attached. The volume of the shell was about 5,000 m3, the length was about 60 m, and the maximum diameter was 12 m. For his airship, Kostovich developed an eight-cylinder internal combustion engine that was surprisingly light for that time. With a power of 59 kW, its weight was only 240 kg.

In 1889, almost all parts of the balloon, including the engine, were manufactured. However, due to the lack of subsidies from the government, it was never collected. And yet this project of a rigid airship was a serious step forward in the development of controlled aeronautics, made almost two decades before the appearance of the Schwarz and Zeppelin vehicles.

It should also be noted the work of Doctor of Medicine K. Danilevsky from Kharkov, who built in 1897-1898 several small balloons equipped with a special system of rotary planes. The movement of the apparatus in the vertical plane was carried out by means of horizontally located screws, which were set in motion by the muscular force of a person with the help of pedals. Horizontal movement was provided during the ascent and descent by turning the planes in one direction or another. Such devices could not find real use, however, the technical idea of ​​flight control was original.

Thus, by the end of the 19th century, a controlled balloon was never built in Russia.

However, the extensive construction of controlled balloons that unfolded at the beginning of the 20th century abroad, in particular in Germany, France and Italy, and the significant achievements of these airships at that time, which could play an important role in the conduct of hostilities, forced the Russian War Ministry to seriously address the issue of supplying the army controlled balloons.

The first attempt to create an airship on its own was made at the Aeronautical Training Park in 1908. The balloon, named "Training", was built according to the project of Captain A. I. Shabsky. The construction of the apparatus was completed in September 1908, and on the 10th of the same month its first launch was carried out over Volkovo Pole near Tsarskoe Selo. The envelope of the balloon had a volume of about 1200 cubic meters and was made of two kite balloons of the Parseval system. Its length was 40 m, and its maximum diameter was 6.55 m. An 11.8 kW engine was installed in a wooden nacelle, which set in motion two propellers. The propellers were located on both sides of the gondola in front of it. "Training" took on board three people, could climb to an altitude of 800 m and develop a speed of about 22 km / h. The longest flight duration of the "Training" was about 3 hours. In 1909, the airship was modernized. The volume of the shell was increased to 1,500 cubic meters, a more powerful engine (18.4 kW) was installed, the screws were replaced, and the nacelle was rebuilt. However, further flights did not bring much success, and the device was dismantled at the end of the year.

In the same year, the Russian War Ministry purchased a semi-rigid airship from the Lebody plant in France, which was named the Swan in Russia. At the same time, a special commission of the engineering department under the leadership of Professor N. L. Kirpichev was developing and building the first domestic military airship.

This semi-rigid airship, named "Krechet", was built in July 1909. Engineers Nemchenko and Antonov took a great part in the development of the apparatus. Compared to its prototype, the French airship "Patrie", significant improvements were made to the "Krechet". On the "Krechet" there was no cloth front wind cutter and the lower support pylon of the gondola, the tail with a rigid frame was replaced by two drop-shaped horizontal stabilizers made of rubberized fabric, communicating with the main gas envelope. In addition, the size of the nacelle has been increased and the propellers are located higher. All this made it possible to significantly improve the controllability of the airship and unload its aft part. The first flight of the "Krechet" took place on July 30, 1910, that is, a year after its construction. After carrying out test flights, in which a speed of 43 km / h was reached and good controllability of the airship was demonstrated both in the vertical and in the horizontal plane, the Krechet was transferred to the army.

In the same year, 1910, the operation of the "Swan" began. In the fall of 1910, two more Russian military airships of the soft system "Dove" and "Yastreb" ("Dux") were built, the first at the Izhora plant in Kolpino near Petrograd, and the second Joint-stock company Dux in Moscow. "Dove" was built according to the project of professors Boklevsky, Van der Fleet and engineer V. F. Naydenov with the participation of captain B. V. Golubov, the author of "Yastreb" was A. I. Shabsky.

In 1910, Russia acquired four more airships abroad: three in France - "Clement Bayard", named "Berkut", "Zodiac VII" and "Zodiac IX" ("Korshun" and "Seagull") - and one in Germany - " Parseval VII ", called" Vulture ".

By the beginning of 1911, Russia had nine controlled balloons, of which four were domestically built, and ranked third in the number of airships in the world after Germany and France. Domestic airships were practically not inferior to those acquired by foreign devices. However, it should not be forgotten that far from the best airships were purchased abroad. As for the rigid airships of Germany of that time, which had a volume of up to 19,300 cubic meters, a speed of up to 60 km / h and a flight range of about 1600 km, domestic controlled balloons could not compete with them.

In 1912, a small semi-rigid airship "Kobchik" with a volume of 2400 cubic meters was built in Petrograd according to the project of S. A. Nemchenko, and at the Izhora plant - "Sokol" of the "Dove" type. "Falcon" in comparison with its predecessors had better contours, more developed elevators and was equipped with a more powerful engine (59 kW), which drove two propellers through a chain drive. Successful flights of the "Dove" and "Falcon", which showed the correspondence of their flight performance to the calculations, were the basis for the laying in 1911 at the Izhora plant of a large airship with a volume of 9600 cubic meters, named "Albatross". Its construction was completed in the fall of 1913. It was the most advanced airship ever built in Russian factories. It had a length of 77 m, a height of 22 m and a width of 15.5 m, and developed a speed of up to 68 km / h. The maximum lift height reached 2400 m, and the flight duration was 20 hours. The shell provided for two ballonets, each with a volume of 1200 cubic meters. Power point consisted of two engines with a capacity of 118 kW. The authors of the Albatross project were B.V. Golubov and D.S.Sukhorzhevsky.

In 1913, three more large-volume airships were purchased abroad: Astra Torres (10,000 m3), Clement Bayard (9600 m3) in France and Parseval XIV (9600 m3) in Germany. They were named in Russia, respectively, "Astra", "Condor" and "Petrel". Best performance possessed "Burevestnik", which developed a speed of up to 67 km / h.

In 1914, large airships with a volume of approximately 20,000 m3 were ordered from three factories - Izhora, Baltic and "Clement Bayard" in France.

By the beginning of the First World War, Russia had 14 airships, but of them only four "Albatross", "Astra", "Condor" and "Burevestnik" - according to their flight performance characteristics, with certain reservations, could be considered suitable for participation in hostilities. As a result, Russian controlled balloons were practically not used in combat operations. Only the airship "Astra" in May - June 1915 performed three night flights with bombing at the location of the German troops. In these flights, the airship received a lot of damage and was almost never used in the future. In the second half of June 1915, the Astra was dismantled.

The absence in Russia during the First World War of airships with the necessary flight performance was due to a number of objective reasons. These include the government's mistrust of domestic developments and the associated too little funding, as well as the lack of a sufficient number of qualified personnel familiar with the structure of the airship, its properties and operating features. An important role was also played by the fact that none of the domestic factories produced powerful reliable engines with mass characteristics that met the requirements of their installation on airships. Engines also had to be purchased abroad.

Nevertheless, in the projects and designs of domestically built airships of that time, there were many original technical solutions proposed and implemented much earlier than on foreign controlled balloons, and which became widespread at further stages of the development of airships.