Aërial Navigation: A Popular Treatise on the Growth of Air Craft and on Aëronautical MeteorologyZahm, Albert Francis
History
Aërial Navigation: A Popular Treatise on the Growth of Air Craft and on Aëronautical Meteorology
Zahm, Albert Francis
Aeronautics; Meteorology
The hull was of excellent workmanship and bold design. The envelope
was of rubberized tissue, measured 338 feet in length, 39.4 feet in
diameter and cubed 353,000 feet. Its length was, therefore, 8.5 times
its diameter, an extraordinary proportion for a balloon of the flexible
type. The hull was provided with three ballonets, two ripping panels,
and various valves, as shown in the scale drawing.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.—MORNING POST DIRIGIBLE, 1910.]
The car, made of steel tubing and large enough for twenty persons,
carried two Panhard-Levassor motors of 135 horse power each, actuating
two Chauvière wooden screws, sixteen feet in diameter, placed on either
side, well outward and upward, the transmission gear permitting either
engine, or both, to drive the screws at one time. Below the car and
well forward was a ground keel, or post, on which the whole vessel
could pivot with the wind, when riding at anchor, while a shorter
ground post was placed at the rear of the car.
The controlling surfaces were adequate and skillfully arranged. To
maintain steadiness and directness of flight, fixed empennage planes,
both horizontal and vertical, were provided, some attached to the stern
of the hull, others at the rear of the trussed suspension beam. To
direct the up and down movement, ailerons placed well to the front and
rear of the long framing, were turned about conjunctively in opposite
directions, thus causing the vessel to raise or lower her bow. Needless
to say, all these navigation appliances worked with ample force and
effectiveness from the beginning of the earliest tests.
After four preliminary ascensions the great air ship started from
Moisson to her destination at Farnborough, having on board Henri
Julliot, Louis Capazza, the pilot, Alexander Bannerman, director of
the aëronautic military school at Aldershot, and five other men. It
was a triumphant and glorious voyage, one of the most splendid in
the history of aërostation. Piloted by aid of chart and compass, and
by signal fires and captive balloons arranged along her route, the
vessel followed a direct course, without check or hindrance, crossing
a wide part of the English Channel and arriving before the hangar at
Aldershot, where the British soldiers awaited her, and where she was
safely landed, having made the whole voyage of 230 miles in 5.5 hours,
at a level varying between five hundred and two thousand feet. As
shown by the accompanying map, about one third of the route lay over
the Channel, or, more accurately, 78 miles, which was traversed in two
hours. Thus the whole journey was accomplished at an average speed
of nearly forty-two miles an hour, or in less time than it could be
effected in any other way than through the air.
[Illustration: 15 Novembre 1910
FIG. 25.—ROUTE OF BRITISH MILITARY DIRIGIBLES FROM FRANCE TO ENGLAND,
1910.]
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