Dirigible

“ As we have traced the development of both dirigible and airplane from the first nascent germ of their creation to the point at which they were sufficiently developed to play a large part in the greatest of all wars, let us now consider how hosts of young men, boys in truth, were trained to fly like eagles and to give battle in mid-air to foes no less well trained and desperate than they. ”

“ Swarms of planes droned between sea and sky, all speeding in the one direction, west, to where the crumpled remnants of a dirigible were slipping quickly beneath the billows, beyond the sight of man. Planes of war game umpires, of officials, of newspaper correspondents and photographers. ”

“ It was not yet dawn, but a vast mob packed the field. For months the building of the great dirigible had been followed, detail by detail, by an interested public. Her plans, charts and dimensions had appeared in all the leading newspapers and magazines, accompanied by long articles.
Finally came the news of her completion. The announcement of the round-the-world flight as her maiden effort was the spark which caused the enthusiasm of the public to burst into flame. A year ago they had watched the detailed accounts of the Graf Zeppelin, as radiograms marked her flight. ”

“ Luckily the road went in the direction in which the dirigible had last been seen, and a short distance down the main track the boys found a field path leading off into an enclosure in which they could see men scurrying round the big dirigible with lanterns in their hands. ”

“ But the dirigible can sail out over the harbor, shut off its power and remain motionless in the air for hours, while its observer keeps a constant lookout for enemy undersea craft. When speed is necessary its powerful motor makes it a fast flying craft, sometimes considerably faster than the airplane. For the airplane must often travel against the wind, while the dirigible simply rises until it reaches a current of air moving in the desired direction, when it has the combined power of the wind and its engine to drive it forward. ”

“ Just a minute until I open the gas intake a little wider. You’re going to navigate as a dirigible; aren’t you?”
“No, I was thinking of sailing as an aeroplane,” was the answer.
“Oh, then wait until I throw in the rudder gears.”
The Comet, about which I will tell you more presently (that is, you boys who have had no previous acquaintance with her) , could be navigated as a dirigible balloon by means of a powerful lifting-gas stored in reservoirs, or she could sail as a biplane, her powerful propellers sending her along on the principle of all “heavier than air” machines. ”

“ He was in for a disappointment that afternoon for Charles High did not take him back that far. Instead, they stopped at the fourth transverse girder where a stairway led to the top of the dirigible. There were six of these stairs all told, each running to the top and giving access to the observation cockpits. There was a runway on top of the Goliath with strong cables stretched along the side but it would be almost worth a man’s life to attempt to walk on it while the dirigible was in motion and especially if the air happened to be the least bit rough. ”

“ But a dirigible has never succeeded in weathering a gale; its bulk, area, and weight, combined with its relatively slow movement, are against it, with the result that it is hurled to destruction. All things considered, the dirigible is regarded as an impracticable acquisition to a fleet, except in the eyes of the Germans, who have been induced to place implicit reliance upon their monsters. ”

“ In the language of the air, these little dirigibles are known as Blimps.
The Blimp was first developed for use in the war by the British Naval Air Service, but the United States soon saw its advantage as a means of patroling and guarding our harbors and coastline, and so she set to work to manufacture this type of dirigible in large numbers. To-day it is the chief dirigible of our aerial fleet. In some important ways it has the advantage over the airplane in combating the submarine. For the airplane can only remain in the air while it keeps going at high speed. ”

“ The dirigible dropped lower. It was now almost directly above the lost city. It could be seen that surrounding the golden dome was a vast, semi-circular platform or courtyard of stone, with other stones set up perpendicularly around it.
“It is precisely like the arrangement of the Temple of the Sun in Peru,” said the professor.
“It will make a good place to land,” spoke the practical Joe.
“Doesn’t it seem almost like a sacrilege to bring a modern dirigible to earth in the very courtyard where the rites of ancient religion were practiced?” spoke Nat, who was an imaginative lad. ”

“ For light loads, great speed, and quick manœuvering, the airplane is supreme. For heavy loads, long distance, ability to remain in the air for great periods of time, the dirigible is the only air craft that can fulfill the requirements. ”

“ The dirigible balloon, or airship, is built on the same general principles as the ordinary balloon—that is, with the envelope to contain the lifting gas, the car to carry the load, and the suspending cordage—but to this is added some form of propelling power to enable it to make headway against the wind, and a rudder for steering it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A ball of light, or a luminous object, had been seen to fall from the sky—or from a torpedo-shaped thing, or construction, in the sky. No one had seen this thing that had exploded fall from a larger body that was in the sky—but if we accept that at the same time there was a larger body in the sky——
My own acceptance is that a dirigible in the sky, or a construction that showed every sign of disrupting, had barely time to drop—whatever it did drop—and to speed away to safety above. ”

“ Family dirigible. A competent, steady man wanted for slow speed, low level Tangye dirigible. No night work, no sea trips. Must be member of the Church of England, and make himself useful in the garden. ”

“ In the afternoon of August 8th, 1884, Renard and Krebs ascended in the dirigible—which they had named 'La France,' from the military ballooning ground at Chalais-Meudon, making a circular flight of about five miles, the latter part of which was in the face of a slight wind. They found that the vessel answered well to her rudder, and the five-mile flight was made successfully in a period of 23 minutes. Subsequent experimental flights determined that the air speed of the dirigible was no less than 14 1/2 miles per hour, by far the best that had so far been accomplished in dirigible flight. ”

“ The great problem in warfare of patrolling the frontier of a country against possible invasion seems to be solved by the dirigible. Two or three men aboard a dirigible, with a traveling radius of several hundred miles, could do more effective work than several thousand men scattered along the frontier line.
For dispatch work the flying machine is expected to be indispensable in warfare. The bearer of dispatches has always played an important part in war. His work is often of the most perilous nature, and his journeys, at best, are slow and uncertain. ”

“ In view of the decreasing pressure of the atmosphere as one goes higher the ascent of a dirigible should always be slow and never great, for gas will expand on the rise of a few yards. It is quite different from the case of the spherical balloon, which has no interior pressure to withstand. A dirigible whose envelope is distended by great pressure depends on its valves not to burst. ”

“ Have you a suitcase? Pack in it just what you will need while we are in the dirigible. When we get across, we will buy everything we need in the way of clothes. As soon as you get your things packed, come back and join me. We will spend the night quietly at home, and about four o’clock tomorrow morning we will go to the field, stuff the suitcases in one of the airplanes, and sail down to Barnegat. At dawn, O’Brien is to make a fuss around the field, and will start off with the dirigible that is there. If any chasing is to be done, those scoundrels will chase him. ”

“ FOREWORD Although successful heavier-than-air flight is less than two decades old, and successful dirigible propulsion antedates it by a very short period, the mass of experiment and accomplishment renders any one-volume history of the subject a matter of selection. ”

“ The R-34 was by no means the largest dirigible built, but we dare not boast of the size of the airships of to-day when the aeronautics is in its in-fancy, because our present dirigibles may seem puny alongside the big aircraft that may be built to-morrow. The dimensions of the R-34 have been given because of the historic interest in this first dirigible to span the Atlantic Ocean. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The French especially have given great attention to what they call the dirigible balloon, but no great amount of success has been achieved and, in my opinion, never will.
In the very nature of things, no safe airship [Pg 127] can ever be built. It was not intended that man should travel or carry burdens through the upper regions of the air. ”

“ As the lift and speed efficiency of a rigid airship increases rapidly in proportion to the vessel's size, it will be advantageous to use the largest airships that can be economically operated. A rigid dirigible able to carry fifty tons of passengers and freight for ten thousand miles at a speed of eighty miles an hour is quite feasible ”

“ Speed cut to just a trifle more than the dirigible's. Chris passed a few feet underneath the huge expanse of her lower directional rudder. From so close, its uncontrolled wavering was terrifying.
His faculties were concentrated on the task of sliding the scout's clamp into the groove of the plane rack, but he was also surveying the lone airplane hanging from it. A powerful machine, painted in Navy colors, a peculiar knob on the upper side of each half of the top wing gave it its unfamiliar appearance. Its pilot was obviously aboard the dirigible, working.... ”

“ The final chapter of the story of dirigibles is yet to be written, but in concluding this chapter it is interesting to note that the world's greatest aëronautic expert got his first inspiration from America and finally that America has now furnished the one element which was lacking to make the dirigible balloon a real success. ”

“ Searchlights were temporarily installed on almost every important hill-top from Berwick to Land's End, and from the South Foreland to Holyhead; airmen, both military and civilian, were encouraged to make night flights with the idea of being able to sight and perhaps keep in touch with the giant dirigible; while destroyers and seaplanes patrolled the coast, ready on the first intimation by wireless to concentrate at any rendezvous on the line of flight that the sought-for airship was likely to adopt. ”

“ The only reason for its existence is to serve as an instrument of study in the upper regions of the air, or to familiarize the constructor of air-ships with the medium in which he will have to try his dirigible aërial system. ”

“ Emphasis has been laid on the changes in the design or construction of aeroplanes and dirigibles, which show the evolution of flight and aircraft from early experiments with balloons and gliders to the transatlantic flights of the NC-4, the Vickers “Vimy” Bomber, and the R-34. Only those things have been singled out which indicated a step forward in the science of aeronautics. Emphasis is placed upon the commercial accomplishments of the aeroplane and the dirigible, and many of the present uses and future possibilities of aircraft as a commercial vehicle have been pointed out. ”

“ I DOUBT if anyone can appreciate the agonized intensity of that moment when we cut the anchor lines and heard the first sharp sputtering of the exhaust. On all sides men began to come toward us through the murk, idly as yet, and amazed that the dirigibles should be sent out on such a night. ”

“ If you can't get a schooner, try horse-back travel. I really believe some horses could get through the mud and dodge the boulders. (It was almost funny there!) ... But the ideal form of transportation over these United States is a big dirigible, say 700 ft. in length, modelled on Great Britain's R.34. (It had just recently crossed the Atlantic, hence the introduction.) ... I might have suggested the use of an aeroplane, but I have been told two aviators got stuck in Santa Fé last winter owing to the deep snow in the environs. ”

“ In all lighter-than-air machines the resistance to the air offered by the suspension ropes is considerable, and the reduction of this resistance has proved one of the most perplexing problems in the evolution of the dirigible. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The voyage was a glorious achievement for aëronautics, and for the enthusiastic constructor and his devoted aids. Starting at seven o’clock in the morning, with seven men aboard, including happy Clément, Sabathier, and an English delegate, the whalelike cruiser sailed directly to London with admirable regularity, covering the entire distance of 242 miles in six hours, or at the rate of forty miles an hour, which is better time than could be made by land and water. Enthusiastic cheers from the English spectators greeted the arrival of this French dirigible, built for the English government. ”