Airship
Commercial airships are airships that are used for the civilian transport of people and goods.
The pioneering days
Airships were initially technically superior to airplanes . They could carry more payload over longer distances at almost the same speed as airplanes.
The first airline ever, DELAG , founded in 1909 , operated zeppelin airships in traffic before and after the First World War . In 1911 the activity of the steward on LZ 10 Schwaben was introduced for the first time. A transport network was created within Germany, but the First World War prevented its expansion to Europe.
Some Parseval impact airships were also used as passenger airships, mainly for round trips (PL 3, 5, 6 and 12). At PL 6 , the first trip in 1910, advertising could already be projected onto the underside of the float.
The First World War brought civil aviation to a standstill. All civil airships had to be handed over to the military. The First World War also brought great technical advances. Above all the construction of rigid airships, but also the aircraft developed with great strides.
The heyday in the 1930s
Commercial airships experienced their heyday in the 1920s and 1930s of the twentieth century. At that time, airships were technologically at least on a par with airplanes, and in many areas, such as range and payload, were even far superior. Their main advantage over ships was the significantly shorter travel time; in addition, rigid airships drove quieter and more vibration-free compared to ocean-going ships. Although the conditions on board an airship were mostly spartan in order to save space and weight, the operator's marketing managed to suggest that a luxury liner with comparable comfort prevailed.
With the airships LZ 120 Bodensee and LZ 121 Nordstern , DELAG wanted to connect cities in Europe with one another after the First World War. LZ 120 was already in service between Friedrichshafen and Berlin. However, both ships had to be given as reparations to the victors of the First World War : LZ 120 to Italy, where it was named "Esperia", and LZ 121 as "Méditerranée" to France.
Also Schütte-Lanz was planning several large rigid airships for the transport service. However, the plans could not be implemented. The company therefore stopped building airships.
Since Germany was not allowed to build military airships and the size of the airships was restricted by the Allies , the so-called " reparations airship " (ZR 3 USS Los Angeles ) built for the US Navy in 1923 was designed purely for civilian use and therefore also had cabins for 20 to 30 passengers.
Great Britain planned a series of large airships in the late 1920s to provide a flight connection between the kingdom and the colonies of the Empire (e.g. Canada, India, Australia). For this purpose, among other things, two huge airships were commissioned. The R100 and R101 were made to identical specifications, but once by Vickers and once by the government. However, the first long journey of the R101 ended in a catastrophe after just a few kilometers. R100's only major journey remained an Atlantic crossing to Canada and back.
The German zeppelins LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin (from 1931) and LZ 129 Hindenburg (from 1936) ran on schedule in regular service across the Atlantic ( Graf Zeppelin to Brazil, Hindenburg to both Brazil and the USA). They carried passengers, mail and freight. The losses from the in itself deficit passenger transport could be partially covered by the air mail revenues, and the operation was more or less successful overall. LZ 127 even circled the world once in 1929 on its world tour with paying guests on board. The airships represented cutting-edge technology and were, so to speak, the Concorde of the 1930s.
The success and enthusiasm for the huge airships was so great that even the top of the Empire State Building in New York was originally intended to serve as an anchor mast for passenger airships .
The approaching Second World War ended the era of the large airships and, for the time being, that of civilian airship travel. After the accident of the Hindenburg , which was actually designed for helium, the Zeppelin company tried again to buy helium from the USA for the sister ship LZ 130 "Graf Zeppelin II", which was already under construction . However, this failed due to the political framework. LZ 130 was also filled with hydrogen and therefore did not receive approval from the Reich Aviation Ministry for passenger transport. He then only carried out a few test and propaganda trips. Shortly before the beginning of the Second World War, the last two remaining large airships LZ 127 and LZ 130, the first parts of another sister ship LZ 131 already under construction and the airship hangar in Frankfurt / Main were scrapped by order of the Reich leadership.
During the Second World War, only smaller military airships were used.
Current airship travel
Even after the Second World War, no more large rigid airships were built. Civilian airships were mainly used as flying advertising media. ( Trumpf airship ) They can be equipped with huge illuminated billboards or screens and are an eye-catcher in the air even at night. Purely advertising airships, however, are not airships in the actual sense, since they transport neither passengers nor cargo. However, they make up the majority of civil aviation today. Advertising airships also serve as a camera platform and relay station at major events (e.g. car races). In this role, the Goodyear commercial blimps are best known. Also Skyships ( SkyShip 500 and SkyShip 600 ) from England and the WDL Airships for advertising from Germany are seen now and then in the sky.
The Piasecki Heli-Stat was an attempt in the 1980s to combine an airship and helicopter into one means of transport. However, it failed when the prototype crashed.
At the beginning of the 21st century there are around 30 airships worldwide. By the standards of the 1920s and 1930s, they were rather small. They are mainly used for advertising purposes and for tours with guests of the respective advertising partner or paying passengers.
Passenger traffic was only reintroduced in the form of tours . Aircraft have overtaken airships in the pure transport service. Only the experience of airship travel, the calm gliding along at a relatively low altitude, which is otherwise only possible with balloons, opens up a niche for the airship in tourism. This has been used by the currently largest airship, the Zeppelin NT , since 2001 . The tradition of airship mail was continued with the Zeppelin NT . This post is particularly appreciated by philatelists .
The only practical attempt to date to build a large airship again failed in 2002. With the CL160, Cargolifter AG wanted to manufacture a transport airship for large, bulky loads weighing up to 160 t. However, the company had to file for bankruptcy.
research
Every now and then airships are also used for research tasks. Various research work was carried out from the USS Los Angeles (including solar observation, radio tests). LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin undertook a research trip to the border of the Arctic , the Zeppelin NT helped develop the European satellite navigation system Galileo . He simulated a satellite to study signal reception at different angles and in different environments. In 2005 he was sent to South Africa to look for geological formations that could contain diamonds for a mining company.
Smaller hot air airships are used, among other things, for exploring the treetops in the tropical rainforest or for archaeological investigations.
literature
- Peter Kleinheins, Wolfgang Meighörner (Hrsg.): The large zeppelins - The history of airship construction . 3. revised Edition. Springer, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-540-21170-5 .
See also
- LZ 11 Viktoria Luise - a DELAG airship