Pilgrim (airship)

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The " Pilgrim " (Eng .: pilgrims ) was a built in the US civilian blimp of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company from 1925. The rather small the Goodyear Pony Blimp subsequent airship was especially at the beginning as a sports airship or a type of air yacht viewed with associations to the utility of corresponding boats. It should lay the foundation for a completely new class of aircraft. Mainly used for tours and advertising purposes, the "Pilgrim" was then the first airship in the traditional Goodyear advertising blimp fleet . Because of its pioneering technical design, it is often referred to as the forefather of the modern impact airship .

history

The maiden voyage with hydrogen as the lifting gas took place in Akron / Ohio on June 3, 1925 with the pilot Jack Yolton. The first helium voyage took place on July 17th. The baptism took place on July 18, 1925 in Akron / Ohio. Godmother was Mrs. PW Litchfield, wife of the Goodyear Vice President who had commissioned the airship.

In some contemporary publications, the airship is referred to as the "world's smallest airship", although there were significantly smaller constructions (including the pony Blimp) before. The comparison is likely to have arisen above all against the background of the rigid airships " USS Shenandoah " and " USS Los Angeles ", which were then present and which the media liked to use for size comparison.

A mobile anchor mast was procured right from the start for operations from different locations . One thought u. a. also at golf clubs and marinas.

On October 29, 1925, Commander JH Klein, the Executive Officer on the US Navy rigid airship "ZR-3 USS Los Angeles" was a guest in Akron. He was also invited to a tour with the "Pilgrim".

In 1927 a radio program was broadcast by the "Pilgrim", which was called the first radio program from an airship. The reporter Graham McNamee used a portable 70 m shortwave transmitter to report live from his airship journey. The signal was picked up by Akron's WADC radio station and then broadcast over a 390 meter signal.

Already at this time, ideas came up to use small airships as feeders from airports to inner cities. At that time they were the only aircraft that were able to place loads and people on the roofs of houses, which the "Pilgrim" had already proven in practice without great difficulty. The much better suitability for aerial photography was also repeatedly emphasized.

One of the “Pilgrim's” uses at Christmas was to transport Santa Claus and drop gifts through Akron.

In 1929 it was reported that passengers were being carried out by airships from Akron Municipal Airport . The Goodyear Zeppelin Cooperation then led every Saturday and Sunday tours with his three stationed there airships, the "Pilgrim", the "Puritan" and the " Mayflower by". The 35 mile trips via Akron were $ 10 per ticket.

The "Puritan", which joined the emerging Goodyear fleet as the second airship in 1928, was often referred to as the sister ship of the "Pilgrim", but technically represented a significant further development.

The "Pilgrim" was decommissioned on December 30, 1931. By then it had made 4,765 trips, carried 5,355 passengers, had been in the air for 2,880 hours and covered a distance of 153,000 kilometers (95,000 mi).

construction

Even if they were not individually new, the “Pilgrim” combined many properties and technical solutions that were to become the standard for impact airships.

This includes, for example, the helium filling. Only with the approval of the congress in the previous year was it possible to use production surpluses from state helium production for commercial purposes. While a few US military airships , such as the C-7 or the USS Shenandoah, already contained helium as a lifting gas , the "Pilgrim" was the first to use it in a civilian airship.

The airship had a completely closed, streamlined cabin, which was attached to so-called curtains within the hull directly below the buoyant body. In many other airships of this time, an open nacelle hung freely from ropes attached to the outside of the hull, under the float. With its four seats, the cabin of the “Pilgrim” offered space for the pilot, a machinist and two passengers.

The motor with pusher propeller was attached to the rear end of the magnesium-clad tubular steel cabin. The engine could also be reached from inside.

The chassis consisted of a single-tire roller under the nacelle that could rotate freely around a vertical axis. A feature that later also became a quasi-standard in airship travel. The landing gear cannot yet be seen on early publications on the airship.

The anchor point of the "Pilgrim" was about halfway between the bow tip and the gondola on the shell.

Whereabouts

The gondola was donated to the Smithsonian Institution and thus to the affiliated National Air and Space Museum , where it is listed with inventory number A19330024000. It is exhibited (as of 2016) in the Boeing Aviation Hangar room at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly / Virginia.

Technical specifications

A Lawrance L-4 series aircraft engine

Depending on the source, some of the values ​​differ, but with minor deviations from one another.

  • Length: 33.5 m (110 ft)
  • Height 13.7 m (45 ft)
  • Carrying gas volume: 1416 m³ (50,000 cft) helium (initially hydrogen)
  • Ballonet : approx. 390 m³ (13750 cft)
  • Tail unit: cross-shaped, two vertical and two horizontal stabilization surfaces; only the lower of the two vertical surfaces had a rudder; both horizontal surfaces had an elevator each.
  • Drive:
    • a Lawrence L-4 three-cylinder radial engine with 44 kW (60 hp) and
    • a four-blade reed propeller about 2 m (6 ft, 5 in) in diameter
  • Top speed: approx. 96.5 km / h (60 mph)
  • Range about 530 km (330 mi) at full power and about 845 km (525 mi) at half power, which corresponds to about 64 km / h (40 mph)

literature

  • THE GOODYEAR "PILGRIM" AIRSHIP - A New American Sporting Dirigible; Flight dated May 6, 1926 pages 270 and 271; online as PDF in the flight archive: (page 270) and (page 271) (engl.)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Flight, A SPORTING dirigible; Edition: April 15, 1920; Pages 413-415; online as PDF-S.413 , PDF-S.414 and PDF-S.415 accessed on December 26, 2016
  2. ↑ http://www.catalinagoose.com/pacificmarine.html Pictures and Goodyear commercials for the Pony Blimp; Retrieved December 26, 2016
  3. ↑ Peter Kleinheins, Wolfgang Meighörner (ed.): The large zeppelins - The history of airship construction . 3. revised Edition. Springer, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-540-21170-5 . Pages 217 and 248
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Inaugural Flight of Goodyear "Pilgrim"; Aviation; Issue of August 24, 1925 page 214; online behind the registration barrier in the Aviation.com archive ; Retrieved December 19, 2016
  5. ↑ a b c d Pilgrim website at the National Air and Space Museum https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/goodyear-pilgrim-gondola accessed on December 19, 2016
  6. ↑ AIRPORTS AND AIRWAYS; Aviation; Issue of November 23, 1925 page 756; online behind the registration barrier in the Aviation.com archive ; Retrieved December 19, 2016
  7. ↑ Flying Broadcasting Station; Aviation; Issue of October 17, 1927 page 946; online behind the registration barrier in the Aviation.com archive ; Retrieved December 19, 2016
  8. ↑ a b c Goodyear "Puritan"; Aviation; Issue of September 28, 1928 pages 813 and 828-830; online behind the registration barrier in the Aviation.com archive ; Retrieved December 19, 2016
  9. ↑ PDF with a picture of a landing on a house roof , accessed on December 25, 2016.
  10. ↑ Blimps Carry Passengers; Aviation; Issue dated June 8, 1929 page 2001; online behind the registration barrier in the Aviation.com archive ; Retrieved December 19, 2016
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g Description of the Goodyear Pilgrim; Aviation; Issue of August 31, 1925 pages 242 and 245; online behind the registration barrier in the Aviation.com archive ; Retrieved December 19, 2016