Coastal Class Airship
The Coastal-class airships were impact airships developed by the British Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) at the time of the First World War to protect the English coasts from German airship and submarine attacks.
They were a further development of the Sea Scout class , they were slightly larger, could stay in the air longer and carry a larger load of bombs. One of their main tasks was guarding convoys .
In order to keep costs low, existing technologies and equipment were used as far as possible. This also enabled a higher production capacity to be achieved. 45 ships of this class were built during the First World War. The first was put into service as a test and training ship at the end of 1915. In 1916 about 30 ships of this type were stationed at various locations. Only two of them were destroyed by enemy action.
There were two types of coastal airships, a standard coastal and a later improved C-class (C-Star)
Technical specifications
The nacelle was composed of two shortened fuselages.
- Length: 59.6 m (195 ft, 6 in)
- Diameter: 11.28 m (37 ft)
- Height: 15.85 m (52 ft)
- Volume: 4815 m³ (170,000 cft)
- Duration of use up to 22 hours
- Drive: 2 × 112 kW (150 PS) Sunbeam engines, later replaced by 164 kW (220 PS) engines
- Fuel supply: up to 1,000 l (220 gal)
- Climb rate up to approx. 300 m / min (1000 ft / min)
- Summit altitude: up to approx. 2440 m (8000 ft)
- Top speed: around 80 km / h
- Armament: 2 machine guns and bombs
- Communication: The airships were equipped with a radio.