Airship

“ The airship is, therefore, nothing else than a dirigible balloon, for the engines and other weights connected with the structure are supported in the air by an envelope or balloon, or a series of such chambers, according to design, filled with hydrogen or gas of some other nature. ”

“ Some of the most strenuous supporters of the airship as an auxiliary to the aeronautical service are fond of drawing a parallel between the air service and the Navy, the airship being put forward as analogous or comparable to the battleship or battle-cruiser, and the aeroplane to the torpedo boat or destroyer. ”

“ Photography of broken country and vast tracks of forest can be much more easily undertaken from an airship than an aeroplane, on account of its power to hover for prolonged periods over any given area and its greater powers of endurance. ”

“ You boys have the airship that can do this and I think you have the daring to try it. If you do it with no other purpose than to show that a flight across the Atlantic is a possibility, you will get for it glory and fame—both empty rewards. ”

“ OF THE NEW YORK HERALD.
“Three sets of follow or tandem planes project, with slight dihedral angles, for from eighty to forty feet on each side of the body of the craft, a wing width never before attained. Yet, in flight, the enormous craft is readily held aloft, with all its load, by wings that are no more than seven and one-half feet in chord—from front to trailing edge. Although it will be incomprehensible to many how such small lifting surface can elevate such a heavy structure, this becomes apparent when the airship is seen at rest. ”

“ What military prestige will it give the country that is the first to perfect an airship that can travel two hundred miles an hour—an aeroplane that can actually carry men and bombs? Point out that this means across the Atlantic in fifteen hours. ”

“ The arrangements made for handling airships on the ground and while landing, and also for moving them in the open, provide scope for great ingenuity. An airship when about to land is brought over the aerodrome and is "ballasted up" so that she becomes considerably lighter than the air which she displaces. ”

“ Given a seaworthy craft ably managed, a ship is as safe as a house. Even if the engines break down the vessel floats. But take an aircraft. If anything happens to it, it is not in its natural element. It must descend."
"A heavier-than-air machine, you mean."
"Precisely. And take the case of an airship. Its vulnerability to fire is a great drawback, while I doubt its ability to ride out a gale. A ship has a grip upon the water; an airship, if disabled, is simply at the mercy of the winds."
"And that is where we—the marine section—come in," added Derek. ”

“ Some day they will be the ones who travel up there, far above the people, and their airship will be more perfect than the one they now see. Theirs shall be an airship that can be steered and turned, lowered and raised, sail against wind and without wind. It shall carry them by day and by night, wherever they may wish to travel. They shall descend to the highest mountain peaks, travel over the dreariest deserts, and explore the most inaccessible regions. ”

“ Just as the curve of a clam shell helps it to mount upward, so the curve of the elevating or depressing rudder on an airship helps it to go up or down. If the rudder is inclined upward the aeroplane shoots toward the clouds. When the rudder is parallel to the plane of the earth's surface, the airship flies in a straight line. When the rudder is tilted downward, down goes the craft. ”

“ According to this plan, although both names stand for an aerial vessel88 capable of travelling in the sky by its own motion, an airship is a machine supported in the air by reason of its buoyancy, while a flying machine is kept aloft only by virtue of its onward movement.
In other words, part of the construction of an airship consists of a bag or balloon, filled with gas or hot air, which causes the whole to rise and maintain its position in the air. ”

“ On the other hand, the airship, being provided with engines to propel it through the air, and with rudders and elevators to control it for direction and height, can be steered in whatever direction is desired, and voyages can be made from one place to another--always provided that the force of the wind is not sufficiently strong to overcome the power of the engines. ”

“ There is a strong probability that the airship, rather than the airplane, may prove to be the great aerial liner of to-morrow. The large airship of the Zeppelin type, traveling at greater speed than the fastest express train, and carrying a large number of passengers and a heavy cargo, is apt before long to become the deadly rival of the steamship. A voyage across the Atlantic in such an airship would be far shorter, safer and pleasanter than in the finest of the ocean vessels. ”

“ But an accurately-placed shell, bursting in the heart of the machine—that is to say, among its machinery and crew—will no doubt prove disastrous; and the airship, with its long fragile hull, must prove vulnerable also. ”

“ We have reasonably full details of the construction of your new airship and, I believe, exact accounts of its unique features—the triple tandem planes, their automatic adjustment, the new ‘moon propellers’ and the enormous turbine sulphuric ether engines. ”

“ The development of aeronautics generally in this country was behind that of the Continent, and the airship had suffered to a greater extent than either the seaplane or the aeroplane. Our attitude in fact towards the air had not altered so very greatly from that of the man who remarked, on reading in his paper that some pioneer of aviation had met with destruction, "If we had been meant to fly, God would have given us wings." ”

“ From the war two new methods of transportation have emerged--the aeroplane and the airship. To the business man neither of these is at the present juncture likely to commend itself on the basis of cost per ton mile. When, however, it is considered that the aeroplane is faster than the express train and the airship's speed is double that of the fastest merchant ship, it will be appreciated that for certain commercial purposes both these mediums for transport have their possibilities. ”

“ He has recently built a complete airship of his own, and this morning I watched him make a very successful flight in it.”
“Indeed?” he exclaimed, the eager look returning. 73“There is money in a good airship, Miss Kane. This is the psychological moment to forge ahead in aviation, which will soon become the world’s popular mode of transit. It is easy to build an airship; yes. Perhaps I could build one myself. But where many will try, many will fail.” ”

“ No one who has considered rigid airship design and studied rapid strides which aeroplanes have made in the last three and a half years can doubt for a moment that an airship could be built in the course of the next two years which would have a disposal lift—or, [224] in aeroplane parlance, a ‘useful load’—of over two hundred tons, giving it an endurance of anything up to three weeks at a speed of forty to forty-five miles an hour. ”

“ Owing to the clearness of the water in tropical regions, objects can be located at a great depth when viewed from the air, and it is imagined that an airship will be of great assistance in searching for likely places. Sponges and coral are also obtained by diving, and here the airship's co-operation will be of value. Small ships such as the S.S. Zero would be ideal craft for these and similar operations. ”

“ Owing to its ceiling, rate of climb and speed, which we take to be from 70 to 80 miles per hour in the airship of the future, the airship may be regarded as comparatively safe against attack from the ordinary type of seaplane. The chief danger to be apprehended is attack from small scouting seaplanes, possessing great speed and the power to climb to a great height, or from aeroplanes launched from the decks of ships. ”

“ The aeroplane is eminently adapted for certain purposes, and the greatest bigot in favour of the airship can hardly dispute the claims of this machine to remain predominant for short-distance travel, where high speed is essential and the load to be carried is light. For long distance voyages over the oceans or broken or unpopulated country, where large loads are to be carried, the airship should be found to be the more suitable. ”

“ The airship, unfortunately, suffered for many reasons from the lack of encouragement afforded generally to the development of aeronautics. The airship undoubtedly is expensive, and one airship of size costs more to build than many aeroplanes. In addition, everything connected with the airship is a source of considerable outlay. ”

“ Impossible!” ejaculated the visitor, gaping at the picture.
“I don’t wonder at your surprise,” responded the managing editor, “but that’s exactly what they accomplished in their Ocean Flyer—the largest and highest-powered aircraft ever devised—a vessel capable of carrying six or seven passengers at a consistent velocity of two hundred miles and more per hour; an airship which can be easily operated at a height of eight or ten miles, where the driver of any other machine would either freeze to death or die from lack of oxygen.” ”

“ How the giant airship was constructed and how the daring young aviator and his friends made the hazardous journey through the clouds from the new world to the old, is told in a way to hold the reader spellbound. ”

“ Steering was done by means of rudder or the engines, or both, and the airship was kept on an even keel by use of lateral planes. The airship could be brought down by forcing the gas out of the bags into the gas-tanks, thus decreasing the volume, and by increasing the air in the various compartments.
This airship had a flying radius of 800 miles, could climb to 12,000 feet, could carry a useful load of 30 tons, and could remain in the air for 50 hours. ”

“ But one man can’t work the machinery, so I’m just letting her [95] drift. I’m going to get up a bit of a sail, if I can, to give her steerage way, and then I’ll make for the nearest port. If I can fetch it my salvage money will make me rich.”
“Hadn’t you better let us take you in our airship,” suggested Jerry. “We have plenty of room, and you could hire a tug and get the Hassen to port more quickly.”
“What! Trust myself in an airship? I guess not!” cried the old sailor. “I’ll stick here, thank you just the same. And I hope you find your uncle, son,” he said to Bob. ”

“ Why the United States Government, to increase interest in airship navigation, and construction, especially for army purposes, has offered a prize of twenty thousand dollars for the first flight from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or from New York to San Francisco, by an airship carrying at least three persons. Only two landings are allowed during the flight, to take on gasolene, or make repairs. ”

“ I, Andrew Provost, of Park St., Toronto, Canada, and of 29 Fenchurch St., London, England, guarantee to build with the help of my nephew, Joseph Gresson, and others whom I may appoint, an airship similar to the well-known Zeppelin; that is to say, when inflated with gas the said ship shall be lighter than air. ”

“ For many years he had spent his time and fortune in making experiments in aerial navigation, and at length in 1900, having formed a company and collected a large sum of money for the purpose, he produced an enormous airship, which, from its size, has been compared to a man-of-war. ”

“ It is interesting to note, however, that the supporters of the airship have worked out a general theory that the lighter-than-air vessel with its already demonstrated cruising and weight-carrying capacity will be used for all long routes, and for that almost exclusively, while the heavier-than-air vessel, with its great speed and facility for maneuvering, will be used for local flights. ”

“ As the airship is designed to force its way through the air, instead of floating placidly in it, it is evident that it must have a certain tenseness of outline in order to retain its shape, and resist being doubled up by the resistance it encounters. ”

“ The large airship, even should it be found to be of greater military or naval importance than suggested in the present volume, is scarcely likely to be better situated, and suffers from the not inconsiderable disadvantage of requiring accommodation of an elaborate and expensive kind. ”

“ He brought the unconscious man into the cabin, and then, quickly returning to the platform, he detached the piece of scarf from the propeller blade. Next he started the motor, and also turned on the gas tank, so that the airship, in a few minutes, could float in space without motion. ”

“ Over the ocean the flying boat can beat the dirigible in time and cost up to five hundred [Pg 153] miles. Even at one thousand miles it is a commercial proposition, but it must then have all in its favor. For longer distances the airship has no competitor. ”

“ Within a comparatively short time, then, we ought to see many companies organized in this country for aerial transnavigation of the globe by helium airship! Before the year 1919 has come to a close we ought to see aeroplanes and dirigibles jumping the Atlantic from shore to shore. Who knows, it may even come to pass that man shall become as much a creature of the air as the birds! As a world of exploration and travel the heavens offer him many adventures. ”

“ A car 66 feet in length was rigged beneath the envelope by means of ropes eighteen inches long. Above the car the envelope was provided with a long air cushion in connection with a valve. The intention was by compression of the air in the cushion and the inner balloon, to alter the height of the airship, in order to travel with the most favourable air currents. The motive power was 20 oar propellers worked by men. ”