"Heavenly Titanics". The history of the heyday and decline of the era of airships. Airships and airship building! The airship is controlled! History of airships

Once airships were the main form of air transport. They were often used for passenger transportation in the first half of the twentieth century. 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 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 finishing his grandiose project. But his ideas did not disappear, although they sank into oblivion for about six months. A new breakthrough came 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)

It cost a lot of money to build, 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, success awaited him. 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 flight 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 specialists 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 in Moscow of the "Graf Zeppelin" 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 Rostec structure.

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 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 location. 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.

), which creates aerostatic lift. The propellers rotated by the engines give the airship a forward speed of 60-150 km / h. The aft part of the hull has - stabilizers and. The airship body in flight creates an additional aerodynamic lifting force, thus the airship combines the performance characteristics of the balloon and the aircraft.

The airship is characterized by a large carrying capacity, flight range, the possibility of vertical take-off and landing, free drift in the atmosphere under the influence of air currents, long hovering over a given place. Attached to the lower part of the hull is (sometimes several gondolas), in which the control cabin, rooms for passengers and crew, fuel and various equipment are located. Airships usually fly at an altitude of up to 3000 m, in some cases - up to 6000 m. The airship takes off as a result of ballast discharge, and its descent is due to a partial release of lifting gas. At parking, they are attached to special mooring masts or brought in for storage and maintenance. Airship frameworks are usually assembled from flat triangular or polyhedral trusses; can be made of cloth (impregnated for gas tightness) or from a polymer film, or assembled from thin metal sheets or plastic panels. The external volume of the airship (hull) is up to 250 thousand m³, length is up to 250 m, diameter is up to 42 m.

The first project of a controlled balloon was proposed in 1784 by J. Meunier (France). But only in 1852 the Frenchman A. Giffard, for the first time in the world, performed on an airship of his own design with a rotating steam engine. In 1883, G. Tissandier and his brother built an airship with a 1.1 kW electric motor, which received current from galvanic batteries. From the end. 19th century until the early 1990s. airships were built in Germany, France, USA, Great Britain, USSR. The largest airships LZ-129 and LZ-130 were created in Germany in 1936 and 1938. They had a volume of 217 thousand m3, four engines with a total capacity of 3240 and 3090 kW, developed a speed of up to 150 km / h and could carry up to 50 passengers over a distance of 16 thousand km.

Encyclopedia "Technics". - M .: Rosman. 2006 .

Airship

Aviation: An Encyclopedia. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia. Chief editor G.P. Svishchev. 1994 .

Synonyms:

See what "airship" is in other dictionaries:

AIRJABLE, a lighter-than-air aircraft equipped with an engine and motion control system. A rigid airship, or zeppelin, has an internal spacer frame on which a fabric or aluminum alloy shell is fixed. Lifting ... ... Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary

airship- i, m. dirigeable m. 1.air. Aircraft lighter than air, equipped with motors and propellers, controlled balloon. Ush. 1934. The first aeronat, which managed to fly in the air, received the title of an airship ... not at all due to ... Historical Dictionary of Russian Gallicisms

Controlled balloon, airship, aircraft (Dirigible) an aircraft that is lighter than air (as opposed to an aircraft that is heavier than air). D. is kept in the air due to the fact that his body is filled with gas lighter than air ... Marine Dictionary

- (fr. controlled). Guided flying projectile. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. airship (fr. Dirigeable lit. controlled) controlled balloon, New Dictionary of Foreign Words. by EdwART, ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Balloon, zeppelin, balloon Dictionary of Russian synonyms. airship see balloon Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M .: Russian language. Z.E. Aleksandrova. 2011 ... Synonym dictionary

Airship- Airship. An aircraft is lighter than air, driven by a power plant ... Source: Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation of 12.09.2008 N 147 (as amended on 26.12.2011) On the approval of Federal Aviation Rules Requirements for crew members of air ... ... Official terminology

- (from the French dirigeable driven) driven aerostat with an engine. Has a streamlined body, one or more nacelles, tail. The first flight on a steerable balloon with a steam engine was made by H. Giffard (1852, France). Up to 50… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

AIRJABLE, airship, husband. (French dirigeable, literally controlled) (aviation). Aircraft lighter than air, equipped with motors and propellers, controlled balloon. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

AIRIZHABLE, me, husband. Powered by a controlled aerostat with a cigar-shaped body. | adj. airship, oh, oh. Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

airship- Aerostat moving in the atmosphere using a power plant and controlled in height, direction, speed, range and duration of flight. [FAP of March 31, 2002] Topics aviation regulations ... Technical translator's guide

AIRSHIP- an aircraft lighter than air with an engine and propellers for horizontal movement. The rudders are used to control in the horizontal plane. The movement in the vertical direction is regulated by the elevators, and large ... ... Big Polytechnic Encyclopedia

Books

• Martha and the Fantastic Airship, Nikolskaya A. Imagine that somewhere in the world next to us lives an amazing creature - a huge, shaggy, clawed and toothy. Fearfully? But in vain! After all, this creature is very kind, with the most gentle, sympathetic ...

An airship is an aircraft lighter than air, a balloon with an engine, thanks to which the airship can move regardless of the direction of air flows.
The earliest airships were driven by a steam engine or human muscle power, and since 1900, internal combustion engines have been widely used.

Airship Meunier, 1784

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.

Airship Giffard, 1852

Designer Giffard borrowed ideas from Meunier back in 1780, but his airship made its first flight after Giffard's death - 70 years later! It took so long for humanity to invent the first steam engine.

The next first fully controlled free flight in an electrically powered French military airship took place in 1884. The length of the airship was 52 m, in 23 minutes it flew a distance of 8 km.

These devices were short-lived and extremely fragile. Airships became public transport only twenty years later, when the internal combustion engine was invented, of the same type as in modern cars.

On October 19, 1901, the French aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont flew around the Eiffel Tower at a speed of just over 20 km / h on his Santos-Dumont aircraft No. 6. Then it was considered an eccentricity, but this particular model of the airship became one of the most advanced vehicles for several decades. ...

The heyday of airships fell on the 20-30s of the XX century. The airships were equipped with aircraft and, less often, diesel engines.

By design, airships are divided into three main types: soft, semi-rigid, and rigid.

F rigid airships... A metal frame was assembled (like a bird cage) and covered with a cloth outside.

Soft airships in fact, they look like balloons.

Semi-rigid airships have a metal shell at the bottom.

The design of all airships is simple: a huge cigar-shaped tank filled with hydrogen or helium, a cockpit and two rotary engines. To lift the balloon into the sky, hydrogen was used, which was stored inside a rigid frame in numerous compartments or cylinders. Climb and descent is done by tilting the airship with elevators - the engines then pull it up or down.
Inside the airship or under it there was a cockpit with a crew, and passengers were also located here.

Soft airship (Parseval PL25), 1910

Semi-rigid airship "Norway", 1920

Rigid airship (USS Macon), 1930

Control room. (USS Macon)

Rigid airships could carry more cargo than the first aircraft, and this position persisted for many decades.
The design of such airships and their development are associated with the name of the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

German officer Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, having visited America during the American Civil War, became interested in balloons used by opponents for aerial reconnaissance. Rising into the air, subdued by the flight over the Mississippi River, he forever linked his life with aeronautics. Since then, the words "airship" and "zeppelin" have become synonymous.

Zeppelin LZ 1902

Graf von Zeppelin dreamed of making airships the transport of the future - comfortable air liners, powerful cargo carriers. He believed that huge airships could also contribute to the achievement of military power in Germany.
It took Zeppelin twenty years to make a decent model of an airship. And in 1906 he built an improved airship, which interested the military.

Zeppelin on Lake Constance

From that moment, Count Zeppelin retired and took up the development and construction of airships. Having created a company for the construction of airships, the count gained fame, he was called "The greatest German of the XX century."

"Zeppelins" were huge in size and resembled a cigar in shape.

During the flights of airships, mail was transported. Envelopes were usually stamped with special postage stamps, and a number of states even issued postage stamps designed specifically to pay for mail carried by airships.

View from the gondola of a French airship in 1918

The first in Europe air passenger line Friedrichshafen - Dusseldorf, on which the German airship plied, was opened in 1910.

During World War I, the German armed forces used Zeppelins for reconnaissance and bombing raids on enemy territory. Unlike airplanes (the role of bombers was performed by light reconnaissance aircraft, the pilots of which took several small bombs with them), airships at the beginning of the world war were already a formidable force.

Airship raid on Calais

The most powerful aeronautical powers were Russia, which had more than two dozen aircraft in St. Petersburg, and Germany, which had 18 airships.

In 1926, a joint Norwegian-Italian-American expedition led by R. Amundsen aboard the Norway airship, designed by Umberto Nobile, carried out the first transarctic flight along the route: Spitsbergen Island - North Pole - Alaska.

By 1929, airship technology had advanced to a very high level; the airship "Graf Zeppelin" began the first transatlantic flights - flights to America.

LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin"

In 1929, the airship LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" made its legendary round-the-world flight with three intermediate landings. In 20 days, he covered more than 34 thousand kilometers with an average flight speed of about 115 km / h!

Traveling in an airship was different from flying in a modern airplane.
Imagine yourself aboard the Hindenburg airship, which was three times the length of a modern airbus and was as tall as a 13-storey building.
You are not assigned a chair, but a whole cabin with a bed and a toilet. There is no need to wear seat belts during takeoff. You can stand in the cabin, stroll around the salon or deck, look out the windows. In the restaurant there are tables served with silver cutlery and china. There was even a small piano in the salon.

Restaurant on the "Hindenburg"

Salon on the "Hindenburg"

All these rooms were in the huge "belly" of the airship, designed for 50 passengers.

Moving at a speed of 130 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 200 meters above sea level, the Hindenburg made its fastest flight across the North Atlantic in 43 hours in 1936.

Airship engine "Hindenburg"

One of the biggest enemies of the Zeppelin was bad weather.
Of the twenty-four airships built, eight were out of order due to bad weather. Nevertheless, in Germany they still believed in the reliability of the "Zeppelin" and continued their production.

German naval zeppelin L 20 after a forced landing off the coast of Norway, 1916

It is often thought that 1930s airships could land vertically, like a helicopter. But this could be done only in the complete absence of wind.

In real conditions, landing an airship requires that people on the ground pick up ropes dropped from different points of the airship and tie them to suitable ground objects, then the airship can be pulled to the ground.

The most convenient and safest way of landing (especially for large airships) is mooring to special masts. From the top of the mooring mast, a rope was dropped, which was laid along the ground in the direction of the wind. The airship approached the mast from the leeward side, and a rope was also dropped from its nose. People on the ground tied these two ropes, and then the airship was pulled up to the mast with a winch - its nose was fixed in the docking socket.

Rigid airship ZR 1 "Shenandoah" on the mooring mast

Rigid airship ZR 3 "Los Angeles" (German airship LZ 126) on a cable dock on an aircraft carrier, 1928.

The moored airship can rotate freely around the mast like a weather vane. The docking station could move up and down the mast - this made it possible to lower the airship closer to the ground for loading and unloading and embarking and disembarking passengers.

Mooring masts are the only suitable anchorage for airships. After all, airships are huge, and a special hangar-garage for them will be not only colossal in size, but also very expensive! By the way, in order to get a relatively small airship into the hangar in strong winds, efforts of up to 200 people were required.

Attempts to create airborne aircraft carriers began with the appearance of the first zeppelin, which suggested by their size that they could well be based on aircraft that at that time were small in size and negligible flight range, which limited their use.

In 1930, experiments began on their creation, and even several flying aircraft carriers were put into operation.

Flying aircraft carrier USS Akron (ZRS-4)

When taking off from an aircraft carrier, the biplane was lowered down on a special crane from the open hatch of the airship, which was in full swing, after which it unhooked and flew on its own.

A fighter at the time of landing on an aircraft-carrying airship USS Akron (ZRS-4)

When landing, the same actions took place in the reverse order: the biplane, having equalized its speed with the speed of the airship, clung to the hook of a special crane, and then pulled into the hatch.

The creators of airships, neglecting elementary safety measures, filled them with unsafe but cheap hydrogen instead of inert, but expensive and inaccessible helium. In May 1937, there was a catastrophe that shook the whole world.
The Hindenburg had already landed at the mast at Lakehurst when suddenly small tongues of flame appeared in the tail section. They exploded hydrogen in the compartments, and the airship engulfed fire. 25 people were killed.

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 exhibits provide an excellent insight into 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, a modern airship Zeppelin NT, a 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 Germany from the production of weapons, in 1921 switched to the production of its own cars. Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH made only car chassis, and the bodies were already made by the body shop - 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 Maybach and Zeppelin names were inseparable and became a symbol of 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 on 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 boarding of the airship was entered 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 cabins 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 in order to prevent hydrogen penetration into the interior in the event of a leak, and the entrance to the interior 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 was able 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 airship restaurant-hall 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 speed 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 so on. 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 due 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 (in both directions 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.

On the photo is 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 circumnavigate 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. 36 people out of 97 - 13 passengers, 22 crew members and one ground service employee were killed. 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 crash of the Hindenburg was filmed, this shocking newsreel spread around 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 commission of inquiry 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 the 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 era of huge airships to decline. 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, the wreckage left after the crash of the world's largest aircraft is also on display.

30. Elements of the original frame.

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

32. One of 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. This 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, the top of the mooring mast with a piece of the Hindenburg's bow is exhibited

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 include Friedrichshafen in their vacation 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 know about the origin, formation and decline of the era of airships. And do they have a future? Was there a topic?))))))

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

Airship (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. An apparatus 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 Videlon-les-Annon. 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 of 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 allegedly fruitless and unnecessary in our country." This view of the tsar's 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, used to study the atmosphere, conduct meteorological, physical, astronomical observations.

But all the same, balloons did not meet the main purpose of aeronautics - they could not serve as a means of communication. This required a controlled balloon, or airship. Attempts to control the flight of a balloon with the help of oars and sails, as was the case with ships in the open sea, did not bring success. It became obvious that for a controlled flight the balloon must be equipped with a propulsion device of a different kind.

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. 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

The 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. This difference between the date of the invention of the balloon and the first flight of the airship is due to the lack 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 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. 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 apparatus 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: subsequently, it was they who were 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 shell shape 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 ambient air - would change its volume. The 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 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, which blows air into the ballonets, lead to catastrophes, while the main advantage is the large weight return.

The soft layout limits the dimensions of the airship, which, however, determines the relative ease of assembly and disassembly and transport operations.

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 introducing 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 in size.

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 "swan". 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, wrapped on the outside with fabric, which 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 the units of the ship 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 air 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 aeronautical 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.

The first flight of a 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 completely functional model of the airship LZ2, and in 1908 and LZ4, on which the seventy-year-old aristocrat stayed 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 the 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 World War I, 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 a raid by 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, the maneuverability left much to be desired, and the dependence on weather conditions also did not increase 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 developed as best as possible, and defects are corrected in the interests of all mankind and culture." Further development of airship construction confirmed the validity of his words.

As often happens, a new achievement in engineering has served, first of all, not a 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 were carried out and bomb 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 Germany built about 76 airships, of which 63 zeppelin and 9 were designed 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 years 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. 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 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 officer - observer, 1 quartermaster, 1 chief engineer, 2 riggers (foreman-signalman), 2 people on balancing mechanisms (boatswains), 2 minders (junior officers) for each 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, as a result of 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 Germany was banned from possessing dual-use aircraft under post-war agreements, 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 was 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 its “father”, began transatlantic flights in September 1929. In the same year, the LZ127 made the legendary round-the-world flight with three intermediate landings, making it 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 the Hitlerite Germany 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 astounding 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 from aluminum. Even a piano.

At that time, "Hindenburg" became the record holder, having covered 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 at the top 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, carrying 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

Aviation 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