Città di Ferrara (airship)
The M 2 "Città di Ferrara" (City of Ferrara) was a military airship of the Italian Royal Navy (Italian Regia Marina). This was a semi-rigid airship of the class "M" (Italian: Medio = medium-sized ).
Technical specifications
The Città di Ferrara was designed by Enrico Forlanini and built in Ferrara . It was completed in August 1913 and handed over to the Royal Navy. The shell had a length of 83 m , a maximum diameter of 17 m and a volume of 12,000 m³. The four engines of 125 hp each drove two propellers. The airship carried a payload of 3000 kg (including 1000 kg for bombs ) and reached a speed of 85 km / h. The crew consisted of two officers and seven men . It reached a maximum height of 2000 to 2500 m and was thus out of the range of the rapid fire guns and had a range of 300 km. The military airship was mainly used to bomb land targets and ships at anchor.
history
In the spring of 1915 the airship was moved from Ferrara to the naval base at Jesi under Lieutenant Castruccio Castracane. When the Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Zrínyi shelled the city of Senigallia on May 24, 1915 , the Città di Ferrara attempted to attack the ship. However, all six bombs missed their target. The torpedo boat SMS Velebit took the airship under fire - but could not score any hits. On the same day at 5 a.m., the airship is said to have bombed the port of Pula . However, this is likely to be confused with the Città di Jesi . Three days later, the Città di Ferrara launched an attack on Šibenik . She was initially shot at but not hit and then attacked a steamer on Lake Prokljan . Then she returned to the base. The ascending flying boats could no longer reach them.
On June 8, 1915 at 3 a.m., the Città di Ferrara bombed the Danubius shipyard in Fiume . On the return flight she was followed by an Austro-Hungarian Lohner-L flying boat (service serial number L48) and caught up with the island of Asinello . The airship tried to shoot down the flying boat with machine gun fire. This failed and when the ammunition was used up, the flying boat approached and shot at the hull of the airship with carbines and ammunition specially developed for combating airships. When this had no effect, the signal pistol was fired and thus managed to ignite the shell. The Città di Ferrara had to make an emergency landing in the sea. Here Leutnant zur See De Pisa and the machinist Staff Sergeant Mantero died. All other crew members were captured by the torpedo gunboat SMS Magnet . The remains of the airship were recovered and some of them are still in the naval magazine today.
Web links
- The destruction of the Italian airship Cittá di Ferrara.
- Il Fronte del Cielo - 9.1 - Dirigibili e Draken - L'esordio
- La grande guerra dei dirigibili della Regia Marina
- WŁOSKIE STEROWCE WIELKIEJ WOJNY NAD ADRIATYKIEM
- Conductibile "Città di Ferrara"
- I PIU LEGGERI DELL ARIA: DIRIGIBILI E PALLONI
- 1916. Cent'anni fa la Prima Guerra Mondiale. Vincenzo Secci e il dirigibile Città di Ferrara (36)
- Dirigibile “Citta di Ferrara”