NormalizeHEADmain

68 files changed, 0 insertions, 10955 deletions

diff --git a/old/51547-0.txt b/old/51547-0.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index f3eece8..0000000
--- a/old/51547-0.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3623 +0,0 @@
-Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid), by Hugh Allen
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid)
-       A Study of One of America's Lesser Known Defense Weapons
-
-Author: Hugh Allen
-
-Release Date: March 25, 2016 [EBook #51547]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF THE AIRSHIP (NON-RIGID) ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan, Paul Hutcheson
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-                              The Story of
-                              THE AIRSHIP
-                              (NON-RIGID)
-
-
-       _A Study of One of America’s Lesser Known Defense Weapons_
-
-                             BY HUGH ALLEN
-
-    [Illustration: Airship in flight]
-
-                           AKRON, OHIO, 1943
-
-    [Illustration: ADMIRAL W. A. MOFFETT
-    To whom this book is dedicated]
-
-                     FIRST PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1942
-                    SECOND PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1943
-                     THIRD PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1943
-
-                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
-    THE LAKESIDE PRESS, R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY, CHICAGO AND
-                        CRAWFORDSVILLE, INDIANA
-
-
-
-
-                               Dedication
-
-
-To _Admiral William A. Moffett, and the men his leadership inspired—to
-Landsdowne, McCord and Berry—to Calnan and Dugan and other able juniors,
-to Maxfield and Hoyt, Hancock and Lawrence of an earlier decade—to the
-Army’s Hawthorne Gray, and as well to England’s Scott, France’s de
-Grenadin, Germany’s Lehmann and Goodyear’s Brannigan and Morton—names
-taken from lighter-than-air’s brief but distinguished casualty list—of
-men who believed in airships and accepted gallantly the penalty which
-progress eternally exacts from men—this book is dedicated._
-
-_Not forgetting the living men, the Navy’s Rosendahl, Fulton, Mills,
-Settle; Goodyear’s Litchfield and Arnstein, and hundreds of others who
-have carried on with unshaken faith, in the face of great setbacks._
-
-_Much of devotion and courage, of scientific research and engineering
-achievement has gone into this enterprise—and much has been proved.
-Today, airships of the non-rigid type are taking on a new responsibility
-to the nation. If they succeed, they may well bring back the great rigid
-airships, to act as long range scouts against enemy raid or surprise
-fleet movement, as fast moving bases and refueling points for fighting
-airplanes far at sea—and as factors in world commerce in days to come._
-
-_It is this impulse which is driving forward the men who believe in
-airships—that the sacrifices and efforts of Admiral Moffett and the rest
-shall not have gone in vain._
-
-    [Illustration: E. J. THOMAS
-    President of the Goodyear Company]
-
-    [Illustration: CAPTAIN C. E. ROSENDAHL, U.S.N.
-    He never gave up his ships]
-
-    [Illustration: COMMANDER T. G. W. SETTLE, U.S.N.
-    He explored the Stratosphere]
-
-    [Illustration: CHARLES BRANNIGAN
-    His courage still inspires airship men]
-
-    [Illustration: P. W. LITCHFIELD
-    An industrial leader, chairman of the Goodyear board, who has
-    believed for 30 years that airships would prove useful to his
-    country in peace or war]
-
-
-
-
-Foreword
-
-
-High admirals of the American fleet faced in 1940 the gravest
-responsibility in the National Defense the Navy had ever known. Wherever
-they turned, north, east, south, west, perils lurked. If they swung
-their binoculars toward Iceland, toward the Caribbean, toward Singapore,
-Alaska, or the Canal, everywhere waited potential threats against our
-American way of life, which they must meet with ships and men, with guns
-and stout hearts. This was not merely national defense, perhaps not even
-hemisphere defense, it was World War.
-
-Surveying their gigantic task, and moving swiftly to meet it, they found
-a place in their program for half forgotten craft, long over-shadowed by
-other arms of the fleet, the non-rigid airship, sometimes called a
-dirigible, but more often a “blimp.”
-
-Couldn’t the airship be used as a watchdog along the coast, against
-enemy submarines, in discovering enemy mines—relieve for sterner tasks
-the destroyers and other craft now wallowing their innards out in those
-restless shallow waters? Great Britain and France had used airships
-effectively in this service over the English Channel during the last
-war.
-
-The areas within their patrol range, a hundred or 200 miles out to sea,
-within the 100 fathom curve, was a vital one. There steamship lanes
-converge, great harbors lie, coastwise merchantmen cruise, there is the
-greatest concentration of military and commercial shipping.
-
-With depth bombs and machine guns the blimps might strike a stout blow
-of their own, even if they weren’t rated as combat craft. At least they
-could sound the alarm, call out reinforcements from swift moving
-shore-based craft, keep the intruder under surveillance. After all the
-main thing was to find the submarines in those endless miles of water.
-And in this field the very slowness of the airship, as compared to the
-airplane, would be an advantage, permit a more thorough search of the
-ocean’s surface, while its speed as compared to any man-of-war, would
-enable it to cover more ground within a given 24 hours.
-
-So on the Navy’s recommendation Congress in 1940 approved the building
-of the airship fleet up to substantial proportions, together with bases
-from which they might operate along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
-That program is now being put into effect and the Goodyear company which
-had built most of the airships used in the first World War, began again
-to build ships.
-
-The story of the great rigid airships, the Los Angeles, the Akron, Macon
-and Graf Zeppelin is fairly well known. That of the smaller non-rigids
-is less familiar. The larger airships still hold vital commercial and
-military promise for the future. However, this book will confine itself
-to the non-rigid airship, with only enough reference to the larger ships
-to round out the picture.
-
-Every new vehicle of combat or transport has had to fight its way to
-acceptance against misunderstanding and lack of understanding.
-Steamships had to prove themselves against sailing ships. Submarines had
-an uphill battle to establish themselves. The airplane was long on
-probation, and now the airship is on trial.
-
-This book will tell something about these ships, cite what is claimed
-for them and what has been reasonably proved they can do, see what
-progress has been made in performance, and point out what may be
-expected from them hereafter—not avoiding the moot question of
-vulnerability.
-
-Lighter-than-air is older by a century than the heavier-than-air branch
-of aeronautics. Its history is marked by long research and experiment
-and continued progress. Like every pioneering development it has had its
-setbacks. But the sincerity of the effort and solid accomplishment made,
-entitles the project to thoughtful consideration.
-
-
-
-
-                                Contents
-
-
-  Dedication                                                            v
-  Foreword                                                            vii
-  I. German Submarines in American Waters                               1
-      A little known story from the first World War.
-  II. British Airships in the First World War                           9
-      The use of non-rigid airships in Europe in 1914-18—as
-      convoys, and as scouts against mines and U-boats.
-  III. American Airships in Two Wars                                   13
-      Activities in first war, though building of ships, training
-      of men and erecting of bases had to be done after war broke
-      out.
-  IV. The Beginnings of Flight                                         21
-      Difference between airships and airplanes—classes of
-      airships—progress, from Montgolfiers to Santos Dumont to
-      1914.
-  V. Effect on Aeronautics of Post-War Reaction                        28
-      Blimps overshadowed by Zeppelins and airplanes—only rigid
-      airships had anything like continuing program, and they
-      because of possible commercial value—effect on public
-      opinion of Lindbergh flight and first arrival of the Graf
-      Zeppelin.
-  VI. Airship Improvements Between Wars                                32
-      Helium gas—structural changes—development of mooring
-      mast—Navy experiments in picking up water ballast from the
-      ocean.
-  VII. Adventures of the Goodyear Fleet                                45
-      Reason for starting—adventures—familiarize country with
-      airships—safety record—evolution of masting technique.
-  VIII. Results of Fleet Operations                                    61
-      Weather information—effect on flying and ground handling
-      practice—on ship design—created bases, ships and
-      construction plants which might prove useful in emergency.
-  IX. Vulnerability of Airships                                        67
-  References                                                           72
-  Index                                                                73
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I
-                  German Submarines in American Waters
-
-
-    [Illustration: Submarine]
-
-In the last six months of the first World War Germany sent six
-submarines to America at intervals starting in April, to lay mines along
-our shipping lanes, attack merchantmen, drive the fishing fleet ashore,
-try to force this country to call back part of its European fleet for
-home defense—and in any case to give America, geographically aloof from
-the war, a taste of what war was like.
-
-These activities were overshadowed at the time by graver events, or
-hidden by military secrecy. Few people even today know that ships were
-sunk and men killed by German U-boats within sight of our coast.[1]
-
-It was in no sense an all-out effort. Only a handful of submarines were
-used. The attack was launched late in the war, in fact one of the six
-didn’t even reach American waters, was called back by news of the
-Armistice. Submarines of that day had a cruising range of some three
-months, could spend only three weeks in our coastal waters, used the
-rest of the time getting over and back.
-
-But in those few weeks these six submarines destroyed exactly 100 ships,
-of all sizes, types and registry, killed 435 people. Most of the ships
-were peaceful unarmed merchantmen, coastwise ships from the West Indies
-and South America, tankers from Galveston, fishing ships heading back
-from the Grand Banks, supply ships carrying guns and war materials to
-England, a few stragglers from convoys.
-
-The subs’ biggest catch was the USS San Diego, a cruiser, sunk by mine
-off Fire Island, just outside New York harbor, July 19, 1918, with 1,180
-officers and men aboard. Only six lives, fortunately, were lost. The
-battleship Minnesota, escorted by a destroyer, struck a mine off Fenwick
-shoals light ship, early in the morning of September 29, but made
-temporary repairs and limped back into Philadelphia Navy Yard 18 hours
-later. A fragment of the mine was found imbedded in her frame work.
-
-    [Illustration: Reproduced from U.S. Navy map showing track of
-    submarines operating in American waters during last few months of
-    first World War.]
-
-Mines were laid at strategic points. One field, with its mines 500 to
-1,000 yards apart was laid off Cape Hatteras, one at the mouth of
-Chesapeake Bay, one across Delaware Bay, two in between these key
-inlets, another off Barnegat, and the last off Fire Island. Some of the
-mines drifted ashore, others were found and destroyed—the last ones not
-till the following January. But mines accounted for six of the ships
-lost.
-
-One of the submarines, the U-117, built as a mine layer, planted 46 of
-the 58 mines laid along our shores; four others were merchant subs of
-the Deutschland type, including the Deutschland itself, which had twice
-previously visited this country on ostensibly friendly missions.
-
-Though the subs encountered a few victims on the way over or back, most
-of the ships were destroyed in the shallower waters within 200 miles of
-the American and Canadian coast. The fishing was better close in.
-
-Naval Intelligence knew, through Admiral Sims’ office in London, just
-when each submarine left Kiel, what its probable destination was, and
-its approximate arrival date. The Navy could not broadcast this
-information, lest U-boat captains learn they were expected, but took
-appropriate defense measures. Even so, each submarine traveled directly
-to its destination, carried out its mission.
-
-U-boats operated almost with immunity from Newfoundland to the Virginia
-capes. Twice American men of war passed over submerging craft so close
-as almost to ram them. The U-151 worked at cutting cables for three
-days, near enough to New York City that the crew could see the lights of
-Broadway at night. The U-115, lying off the Virginia capes, came to the
-surface one afternoon just in time for its periscope to disclose a
-cruiser, two destroyers and a Navy tug a mile away, peacefully returning
-from routine target practice, entirely unaware that the U-boat was
-lurking in the vicinity.
-
-The submarines got a poor press that summer, not only for reasons of
-military secrecy, but because more stirring news held the attention of
-the public. The AEF was beginning to see action in France.
-
-Still headlines flashed occasionally as censorship was raised, or
-survivors brought in stories. From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin
-during this period:
-
-“Hun U-boats Raid New Jersey coast—Schooner Edward H. Cole Attacked by
-two Submarines, Destroyed—Two Attacked Off New England—Atlantic Ports
-Closed”—and the story, under New York date line: “Germany has carried
-her unrestricted submarine warfare to this side of the ocean—at least
-five vessels sunk—submarine chasers ordered out from Cape May—Coast
-Guard stations on special lookout—marine insurance companies announce
-sharp increase in rates.”
-
-News Flash—“Wireless report from passenger steamer Carolina says she is
-under attack”—The Carolina is sunk, 300 survivors are landed at Barnegat
-Bay, 19 at Lewes Del., 30 at Atlantic City, others picked up in open
-boats.
-
-    [Illustration: On this map of actual ship sinkings and mine layings
-    in 1918 is superimposed a sketch of the area which a handful of
-    modern patrol blimps might cover.]
-
-Then: “Navy mine sweepers sent out to destroy mines and floating
-torpedoes which had missed target—tanker Herbert L. Pratt strikes mine
-in shallow water on maiden voyage—War Department asks Congress for
-$10,000,000 to set up balloon and plane stations along the coast to
-combat sub menace—British steamer Harpathian torpedoed off Virginia
-capes—American vessel, name withheld, puts back to ‘an Atlantic port’
-after being chased by U-boat.”
-
-The record continues: “San Diego sunk by mine—tug and four barges
-sunk—British freighter attacked—sub sends landing crew on board lumber
-schooner off Maine coast, set her afire—Steamer Merak sunk off
-Hatteras—tanker torpedoed off Barnegat Bay, beaches blanketed with
-oil—Norwegian steamer Vinland—British steamer Peniston and Swedish
-steamer Sydland off Nantucket—nine U. S. fishing vessels off
-Massachusetts coast—British tanker Mirlo—U.S. Schooner Dorothy
-Barrett—tanker Frederick R. Kellogg” and so on and on.
-
-Events of the time and since have swept these happenings out of the
-minds of most Americans—even if they knew of it at the time. But
-somewhere, half forgotten in Naval files, is an official report,
-painstakingly compiled after the war, from ship logs, from stories by
-merchant captains and crews, even by officers of surrendered German
-submarines, to make up as complete a record as possible of one of the
-amazing operations of the war—and one whose magnitude, in territory
-covered and damage done, few suspected, even within the Navy, at the
-time.
-
-Only two subs had so much as a brush with American ships. The transport
-von Steuben, former German liner, proceeding to the rescue of men in
-life boats from a merchant ship, dropped depth bombs which the U-boat
-escaped by diving to 83 meters, lying low till the enemy had gone.
-
-Closer call had the U-140, largest and most modern of the fleet, which
-after sinking several ships off Diamond Shoals, including the light ship
-itself, almost caught a tartar when the Brazilian passenger liner,
-Uberabe, zigzagging furiously to escape, sent out S.O.S. messages which
-brought four U.S. destroyers hurrying to the rescue. Nearest was the USS
-Stringham, which proceeding under full speed, using the Uberabe as a
-screen, charged on the U-boat, dropped 15 depth charges when the U-boat
-dived, timed to explode at different levels.
-
-    [Illustration: Training exercises with U. S. submarines have taught
-    airship captains much about the habits, movements and
-    characteristics of the underseas craft. (U. S. Navy photo).]
-
-    [Illustration: The year before America got into the last war the
-    German submarine U-51 sank a half dozen merchant ships off Nantucket
-    Island then proceeded into Newport. (U. S. Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: Navy airships in practice patrols identify, as to
-    class and nationality, all surface ships in their area, learn to
-    recognize the silhouette of a submarine from afar. (U. S. Navy
-    photo)]
-
-The U-boat captain, one of the best in the German navy, drove his craft
-at a sharp angle to 400 feet. One charge exploding underneath the sub
-turned it stern upward till it stood almost perpendicular. He managed to
-level out finally at 415 feet, lay there as long as he dared, finally
-reached the surface. His ship was so badly crippled it had to abandon
-its mission and set out for home—though it sunk a couple more ships in
-the mid-Atlantic on the way back.
-
-The only U-boat casualty was the U-156 which after getting 34 victims in
-American waters, getting eight in one day, was itself sunk by mines—but
-off Faroe Island as it was almost home.
-
-This then is the story of submarine operations in U. S. waters in 1918—a
-half hearted effort of short duration started late in the day—but which
-destroyed 100 ships, totalling 200,000 tons, most of them close to our
-shores.
-
-No one could doubt but that in the event of another war submarines would
-be used again, and in more vigorous fashion. The American fleet might
-easily keep major enemy ships at a safe distance, and bombing attack
-from any part of Europe or over the Pacific would have little military
-value. But certainly submarines would find their way past the screen of
-Navy craft, bob up off American harbors, again to lay mines in the path
-of coastwise steamers, deliver hit-and-run attack by torpedo and gunfire
-at American craft.
-
-We could be equally sure that these ugly motorized sharks, churning the
-muddy sub-surface waters, would not be satisfied to attack merchantmen
-only, would be looking for bigger prey.
-
-On the map showing the operations of German submarines in 1918 let us
-superimpose, as an example, the patrol area which two blimps, basing at
-Boston, Lakehurst, Cape May and Norfolk might effectively cover in a 12
-hour period.
-
-A patrol area of 2,000 square miles per ship is conservative. It assumes
-the ship flying at no faster than 35 knots, having visibility of five
-miles in all directions. As a matter of fact, allowing a little more
-than 40 knots speed—and the airship cruises considerably faster than
-that—we might say that a modern blimp could patrol an area 10 miles wide
-and 500 miles long in the 12 hours, or an area of 5,000 square miles.
-But by criss-crossing back and forth in accordance with a progressive
-plan, an area of 2,000 square miles could be made reasonably
-secure—except under extremely adverse conditions of visibility.
-
-Laying these patrol areas down over the map of submarine operations of
-1918 it is apparent that such patrols would cover much of the territory
-where ship sinkings were achieved, cover all of the areas where mines
-were laid.
-
-With blimps operating from such bases, in addition to the patrols being
-executed by other naval craft, we might conclude that no submarine could
-venture within 100 miles of the American coast during daylight hours
-without considerable risk of detection, and that blimps should be able
-to make contribution to the safety of coastwise shipping and harbor
-cities.
-
-The patrol areas assigned to the blimps would have their flanks exposed,
-but airship patrol would be co-ordinated with that of airplanes and
-surface craft, guarding the areas farther out.
-
-That this conclusion is reasonable is indicated by the fact that from
-1939 on, Lakehurst Naval Air Station, under command of Commander G. H.
-Mills had been doing just this, patroling areas all the way from
-Nantucket to Cape Hatteras.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER II
-                   British Airships in the First War
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airship over water]
-
-Germany entered the first World War with high expectations as to one,
-perhaps two of its new weapons of war. Its submarines might offset
-Britain’s superiority at sea, and certainly the Zeppelins, which had
-proved themselves in four years of commercial flying, would be able to
-cross the English Channel and carry the war to the island which had seen
-no invasion since William the Conqueror.
-
-No nation except Germany had Zeppelins. And as the German people began
-to feel the pinch of the blockade, cutting their life line of food and
-supplies, they brought increasing public pressure on High Command to use
-these weapons to punish England.
-
-Later commentators have speculated as to whether, if Germany had held
-its fire, waited till it could assemble an overpowering force of
-Zeppelins and submarines and stage a joint attack, it might not have
-been able to force a quick decision.
-
-But the Zeppelins were sent over a few at a time, as fast as they could
-be built, and England was given time to devise defenses. These were
-chiefly higher altitude airplanes, farther ranging anti-aircraft guns,
-sky piercing searchlights, which combined to force the invaders to fly
-continuously higher as the war wore on, as high as 25,000 feet at times,
-with corresponding sacrifice of bombing accuracy. And when machine guns,
-synchronized with the propellers, were mounted in airplane cockpits, and
-began to spit inflammable bullets into the hydrogen filled bags and send
-them down in flames, the duel took on more even terms.
-
-Less spectacularly the Zeppelins were used on a wide scale as
-reconnaissance and scouting craft, which flying fast and far were given
-credit on more than one occasion for saving German Naval squadrons from
-being cut off by superior Allied forces, were acknowledged even by the
-British to have played an important part in the Battle of Jutland.
-
-It is a little hard to realize today that whatever air battles were
-waged over water in the last war were conducted chiefly by
-lighter-than-air craft. Planes staged spectacular battles along the
-Allied lines in France, but lack of range and carrying capacity forced
-them to leave sea battles to the airship. As a measure of that
-situation, the great hangars at Friedrichshafen, spawning ground of the
-Zeppelins, one of the outstanding targets in all Europe if England were
-to draw the dirigible’s fangs, lay hardly more than a hundred miles from
-the French borders, but even that distance was too great for effective
-attack.
-
-While these greater events were taking place, British airships, smaller
-in size, less spectacular, were playing no small part in repelling
-Germany’s other threat, the submarine.
-
-
-                   Blimps Used to Search for U-Boats
-
-Navy opinion around the world was skeptical at the beginning of the War
-as to whether submarines would ever be practical. There were mechanical
-troubles, accidents, usually costly. Even Germany, prior to 1914, used
-to send an escort of warships along to convoy its subs to their
-station—then send out for them afterward to bring them home again.
-
-But the war was only a few weeks old when the captain of the U-9,
-cruising down the Dutch coast, discovered that his gyro compass was off,
-and when he got his bearings saw that he was 50 miles off course. He
-wasted no breath, however, on many-syllabled German swear words, for off
-on his southern horizon were the masts of three British ships. He dived,
-came up alongside, and in 30 minutes, single handed, with well directed
-torpedoes, had sunk in turn HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy.
-
-The morning of September 22, 1914, marked the beginning of a new era in
-Naval warfare. The warring nations grew furiously busy building their
-own U-boats and devising defenses against the enemy’s. Among these
-defenses was the non-rigid airship.
-
-These two vehicles, so widely different, have much in common. If we may
-be technical for a minute we may say that the airship and the submarine
-are both buoyant bodies, completely immersed and floating in a
-medium—air and water respectively—of changing pressures, that each uses
-dual sets of steering gear and rudders to control direction and
-altitude. And further, that the airship in 1941 faces the same division
-of opinion as the submarine faced in 1914, as to whether, particularly
-with rigid airships, it will ever be widely used and accepted.
-
-In any event in 1914 there was an urgent and immediate job to be done.
-
-Indicator nets and high explosive mines might give some protection to
-harbors, might be stretched across steamship lanes and planted around
-the hiding places of the submarines, if those could be discovered. But
-troop ships and munition ships and food ships must be dispatched without
-interruption across the tricky waters of the English Channel to France,
-and for this purpose convoy escorts were devised, with camouflaged
-warships zigzagging alongside, while high aloft in lookout stations men
-with binoculars strained their eyes, searching the waters, ahead,
-astern, alongside, their search lingering long over every bit of
-floating wreckage—and there was a lot of it—to make sure it was not a
-periscope.
-
-These lookouts aboard ship quickly had a new ally in the air. As the
-submarine menace grew, binoculars began to flash too from the fuselages
-of bobbing blimps overhead. At a few hundred or perhaps a thousand feet
-elevation they could see deep below the surface, and quickly learned to
-recognize at considerable distance the tell-tale trail of bubbles or
-feathered waters or smear of oil which denoted the enemy’s presence,
-might even pick out the shadowy form of the submerged craft itself.
-
-The value of the airship in convoy was that it could fly slowly, could
-throttle down its motors and march in step with its charges, cruise
-ahead, alongside, behind. The very speed of its sister craft, the
-airplane, handicapped its use in this field.
-
-This characteristic of the blimp was even more useful in hunting U-boat
-nests. The blimp could head into the wind, with its motors barely
-turning over, hover for hours at zero speed over suspect areas. It could
-fly at low altitudes, follow even slender clues. Seagulls following a
-periscope sometimes gave highly useful information. An orange crate
-moving against the tide attracted the attention of one alert pilot, for
-the crate concealed a periscope, and the blimp dropped
-bombs—successfully.
-
-When a blimp discovered a submarine, it would give chase. With its 50
-knots of reserve speed it was faster than any warship, much faster than
-the poky wartime submarine, which could do only 10 or 12 knots on the
-surface, much less than half that when submerged. If it was lucky the
-airship might drop a bomb alongside before the sub got away.
-
-And run for cover the submarine always did. It wanted no argument with a
-ship which could see it under water, could out-run it, and might plunk a
-bomb alongside before its presence was even suspected.
-
-Airships did get their subs during the war. The records, always
-incomplete in the case of submarines, whose casualties were invisible,
-show that British blimps sighted 49 U-boats, led to the destruction of
-27. But their greater usefulness lay in the fact that their mere
-presence sent the underseas craft scuttling for submerged safety.
-
-Between June, 1917, and the end of the war British blimps flew 1,500,000
-miles, nearly as many as the Zeppelins. A French Commission made an
-exhaustive study of dirigible operations after the war, and the late
-Rear Admiral W. A. Moffett quoted from its reports in summarizing
-lighter-than-air lessons taken from the war, when he told the Naval
-Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives that “as far as they
-could learn, no steamer was ever molested by submarines when escorted by
-a non-rigid airship.”
-
-France and Italy had long coast lines, used the blimps extensively along
-the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, but England found
-still greater use for them because it was an island. So blimp scouts
-played a singularly useful role from Land’s End to the Orkneys, stood
-watch at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, the Solway, the Humber, and
-the Thames.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III
-                     American Airships in Two Wars
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airship and hangar]
-
-Compared to British and French airships, American dirigibles made a less
-impressive record during the first war.
-
-This for the reasons that there were few enemy activities in our waters
-until the very end, and that there were few American airships to oppose
-them. Virtually the entire airship organization had to be created after
-we got into the war.
-
-Naval attachés abroad had been watching blimp operations over the
-English channel, and on the basis of rather meager information which
-they furnished, Navy designers were working on plans, when the Secretary
-of the Navy, in February 1917, 60 days before the declaration of war,
-ordered 16 blimps started at once.
-
-Nine of these were to be built by Goodyear which had at least given some
-study to the principles, had built a few balloons, one of which, flown
-by its engineers out of Paris, had won the James Gordon Bennett Cup
-Race.
-
-No one in this country, however, knew much about building airships, and
-less about flying them after they were built. Operating bases would have
-to be built and the very construction plants as well. The first Goodyear
-airship under the Navy order was completed before the airship dock
-(hangar) at Wingfoot Lake was ready, and the ship had to be erected in
-Chicago and flown in.
-
-The engineers who built it, Upson and Preston, made their first airship
-flight in delivering the ship to Akron, using theoretical principles
-applied in the international balloon race the year before, to make up
-for their lack of practical experience.
-
-Those first ships were small, slow, lacked range, uncovered many
-shortcomings. Flight training was done under adverse circumstances. Men
-had to teach themselves to fly airships, then teach others to fly them.
-
-The pilots were chiefly engineering students from the colleges, with a
-sprinkling of Navy officers. They had to take their advanced training
-abroad at British and French bases, because there were no facilities
-here, and in fact did most of their flying abroad. By the end of the war
-American pilots were manning three British airship bases and had taken
-over practically all the French operations, including the large base at
-Paimboeuf, across the Loire from St. Nazaire, on the French coast.
-
-So the war was well along before American bases were set up and manned.
-These were at Chatham, Mass., at Montauk and Rockaway, N. Y., at Cape
-May, Norfolk and Key West. Like the airplane patrols the blimps saw
-little action, though they had an advantage in that they could stay out
-all day, while the short range planes of 1917-18 had to come back every
-few hours to refuel.
-
-A patrol airship at Chatham, Mass. missed its chance in that it was
-adrift at sea with engine trouble when the German U-156 slipped into the
-harbor at nearby Orleans and wiped out some fishing boats—though it
-might have done no better than the first plane which reached the scene,
-whose few bombs did not explode.
-
-The blimp patrols, however, uncovered one other type of activity. More
-than once they spotted suspicious looking craft emerging under cover of
-fog, from remote coves and inlets along the Long Island coast, fishing
-boats and barges with improvised power plant and curious looking
-paraphernalia on deck. Keeping the stranger in sight the blimp summoned
-armored craft from shore which sent boarding crews on, found mines
-destined for the New York steamship lanes.
-
-A more important result of the blimp operations was the improvements in
-design which were found, particularly in the “C” type ship, brought out
-in 1918, of which 20 were built. They had much better performance in
-range, power, could make 60 miles speed, were faster than any airships
-except the Zeppelins. Navy officers and crews came to have high respect
-for them.
-
-    [Illustration: Here’s the gallant C-5, which with a bit of luck
-    would have been the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic. (U. S.
-    Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: Wingfoot Lake, Akron, was a busy place during the
-    first war, as the spawning ground of scores of blimps, hundreds of
-    training and observation balloons.]
-
-    [Illustration: “Finger patches” of rope ends raveled out and
-    cemented to the outside of the bag were used in 1918 to support the
-    weight of the gondola—an improvised airplane fuselage.]
-
-    [Illustration: During most of the period between World wars the Navy
-    had only a few J-type ships, but used them effectively in training
-    and experimental work. (U. S. Navy photo)]
-
-Which led to one of the interesting aeronautic adventure stories of the
-period. It happened just after the Armistice.
-
-Men had come out of the war with imaginations afire over the
-possibilities of aircraft. One challenge lay open—the Atlantic—no one
-had flown it.
-
-In the breathing spell brought by the Armistice, the British were
-preparing their new Zeppelin R-34 for the crossing; two English planes
-were being shipped to Newfoundland to try to fly back; the U. S. Navy
-had a seaplane crossing in prospect. There was even a German plan. A new
-Zeppelin had just been finished at Friedrichshafen when the Armistice
-was signed, and the crew planned to fly it to America as a
-demonstration—but authorities got wind of it and blocked the venture.
-
-But of all the Atlantic crossings about which men were dreaming in early
-1919, none is more interesting than the one projected for the little
-blimps.
-
-The C-5, newest of the non-rigid airships built for the Navy, was
-stationed at Montauk, and there one night a group of officers sat
-intensively studying charts and weather maps. St. John’s, Newfoundland,
-1,400 miles away, would be the first leg of the trip. It was easily
-within the cruising radius of the ship, particularly if they got helping
-winds, which they should if the time was carefully picked. From there to
-Ireland was another 1850 miles, also within range with the prevailing
-westerly winds.
-
-Permission was asked from Washington, and the Navy flashed back its
-approval and its blessing, assigned five experienced officers to the
-project: Lieut. Comdr. Coil, Lieuts. Lawrence, Little, Preston, and
-Peck. The USS Chicago was sent ahead to St. John’s to stand by and give
-any help needed.
-
-Shortly after sunrise on May 15, 1919, motors were warmed up and the
-ship shoved off from the tip of Long Island with six men aboard headed
-for Newfoundland. At 7 o’clock the next morning they circled over the
-deck of the _Chicago_, dropped their handling lines to the waiting
-ground crew on a rocky point at St. John’s. The first leg had been made
-in a little more than 24 hours, at an average speed of nearly 60 miles
-per hour.
-
-The morning was clear and comparatively calm. Coil and Lawrence went
-aboard the _Chicago_ to catch a little sleep before the final hop over
-the ocean. The others saw to re-fueling the C-5, stowing provisions
-aboard, topping off a bit of hydrogen from the cylinders alongside.
-Mechanics swarmed over the motors. All was well.
-
-But about 10 o’clock gusts began to sweep down from Hudson’s Bay,
-dragging the ground crew over the rocks. There were no mooring masts in
-those days. A modern mast would have saved the ship. More sailors were
-put on the lines and word sent to Coil and Lawrence. If the ground crew
-could hold the ship till the pilots could get aboard and cut loose, the
-storm would give them a flying start over the Atlantic.
-
-But the wind blew steadily stronger as the commander was hurrying
-ashore. It reached gale force, hurricane force, 40 knots, 60 knots in
-gusts, varying in direction crazily around a 60-degree arc. It picked
-the ship up and slammed it down, damaging the fuselage, breaking a
-propeller. Little and Peck climbed aboard to pull the rip panel and let
-the gas out. After the storm passed, they could cement the panel back
-in, reinflate the bag and go on.
-
-But the fates were against them. The cord leading to the rip panel
-broke. Desperately, the two men started climbing up the suspension
-cables to the gas bag with knives, planning to rip the panel out by
-hand. But a tremendous gust caught the ship, lifted it up. Seeing the
-danger to the crew, Peck shouted to them to let go, and he and Little
-dropped over the side. Little broke an ankle.
-
-The ship surged upward, crewless, set off like another “Flying Dutchman”
-across the Atlantic, was never seen again.
-
-Just three days later Hawker and Grieve set out from St. John’s, landed
-in the ocean. Alcock and Brown cut loose their landing gear a month
-later and landed in Ireland. One of the three Navy seaplanes, the NC-4,
-reached Europe on May 31 and the British dirigible R-34 set out on July
-2 for its successful round trip to Mitchel Field.
-
-But for a trick of fate and the lack of equipment available today, a
-blimp would have been first to get across.
-
-Many things happened in the airship field between the two wars, but most
-of them affected non-rigid airships only indirectly, as the Navy was
-primarily concerned with the larger rigids.
-
-The loss of the Hindenburg by hydrogen fire (which American helium would
-have prevented), coming on the heels of tragic setbacks in this country
-was enough to dismay anyone except Commander C. E. Rosendahl and his
-stouthearted associates at Lakehurst Naval Air Station.
-
-They didn’t give up. Setbacks were inevitable to progress. Count
-Zeppelin had built and lost five rigid airships prior to 1909, but he
-went on to build ships which were flown successfully in war and peace.
-If the Germans, using hydrogen, could do this, Americans, with helium,
-should not find it impossible, Lakehurst reasoned. And if they had no
-rigid airships to fly and no immediate likelihood of getting any they
-would use blimps.
-
-The Navy was more familiar than the public with what the British and
-French airships had accomplished in the first war. Studying, as all Navy
-officers were doing in that period, the various possibilities of attack
-and defense, in case the war then threatening Europe should sweep across
-the Atlantic, they came to the conclusion that the coast line of America
-was no more remote from German submarines in 1938 than the coast of
-England was in 1914.
-
-The airplane had improved vastly in speed, range, and striking power,
-and their very multiplicity had ruled out the blimps over the English
-channel, even if helium was available, but those conclusions did not
-hold along the American coast.
-
-The heroic part played by Allied blimps was a part of the legend of the
-airship service. Nothing new developed in war had subtracted anything
-from the ability of American airships to do in this war what British
-non-rigids had done in the last. Commander J. L. Kenworthy and after him
-Commander G. H. Mills as commanding officer at Lakehurst turned to
-non-rigids.
-
-Under Mills was instituted, quietly, unostentatiously, with what ships
-he had, a series of practice patrols to determine the usefulness of
-airships in this field, to discover and perfect technique, and to train
-officers and men.
-
-Lakehurst had a curious conglomeration of airships to start with. There
-were two J ships of immediate post-war type, with open cockpits, 210,000
-cubic feet capacity; two TC ships, inherited from the Army, of more
-modern design, and larger size; the ZMC2, an experimental job built to
-study the use of a metal cover, and about to be scrapped after nine
-years of existence; the L-1, the same size as the Goodyear ships,
-123,000 cubic feet, the first modern training ship, which would be
-joined later by the L-2 and L-3; the G-1, a larger trainer of Goodyear
-Defender size, useful for group instruction, and the 320,000 cubic foot
-K-1, which had been built for experiments in the use of fuel gas. Only
-the K-2, prototype of the 416,000 cubic foot patrol ships later ordered
-could be called a modern airship, though the Army dirigibles also had
-good cruising radius.
-
-Yet with this curious assortment of airships of various sizes, types and
-ages, the Navy carried on practice patrols covering the areas between
-Montauk and the Virginia Capes, flying day after day, built an
-impressive accumulation of flight data, missed very few days on account
-of weather, made it a point not to miss a rendezvous with the surface
-fleet. More than any one thing it was this demonstration, over an
-18-month period, which led to the revival of an airship program in this
-country, the ordering of ships and land bases.
-
-Let us see what a blimp patrol is like. The airship can fly up to 65
-knots or better, but this is no speed flight. The motors are throttled
-down to 40 knots, so that the crew may see clearly, take its time, study
-the moving surface underneath, scrutinize every trace of oil smear on
-the surface, alert for the tell-tale “feather” of the submarine’s wake,
-air bubbles, a phosphorescent glow at night, for even a bit of debris
-which might conceal a periscope.
-
-A school of whales, a lone hammerhead shark on the surface or submerged
-stirs the interest of the patrol, offers a tempting live target for the
-bombs,—light charges with little more powder than a shot gun shell uses.
-Now a ship records a direct hit on a shark’s back 500 feet below. He
-shakes his head, dives to escape this unseen enemy aloft. The airship
-gives chase, follows the moving shadow below, so strikingly resembling a
-submarine, finds the practice useful.
-
-Of the crew of eight, everyone on the airship is on watch, with an
-observation tower open on all sides, without interference of wings, as
-in the airplane. Compared with surface craft, the airship can patrol
-more area in a dawn to dusk patrol because of its speed and its wide
-range of unbroken observation.
-
-The submarine is more efficient in relatively shallow depths, but
-airships have spotted the silhouetted shadow of U-boats in clear water
-as deep as 70 feet below the surface. The submarine will attempt to
-maneuver within a mile of its target to launch its torpedoes
-effectively. But even at a mile away the ten inches of periscope which
-projects above the surface is difficult for other craft to
-detect,—either for a cruiser at sea level, or an airplane, flying at
-relatively high speed, a threat either may miss.
-
-Airship crews are at action stations even during peace time, on the
-alert against the appearance of strange craft. They identify each
-passing ship through binoculars, by voice or radio, taking no chances
-that attack without warning by a seeming peaceful ship might not be a
-declaration of war. As many as 40 or 50 ships may be encountered and
-identified in a day’s patrol. The airships are off at sun-up, back at
-sundown, unless on more extended reconnaissance, move quietly into the
-big dock.
-
-Patrol is tedious work. Occasionally there is a break in the routine.
-Lt. Boyd has been assigned command of the big TC-14 for the next day’s
-patrol. He is up late studying the curious tracks he is to follow in
-coordination with the other airships. At midnight however the radio
-brings startling word. An airplane leaving Norfolk with a crew of ten
-for Newport, is reported missing. Nearby destroyers, airplanes,
-airships, are ordered out as a searching party. The TC-14, having the
-longest cruising radius, 52 hours without refueling, is sent off at
-once, with a senior officer, Lt. Trotter, in charge. Men’s lives may be
-at stake.
-
-By daylight, the TC-14 has flown over the entire northern half of the
-plane’s track and back, watching intently for distress signals or flares
-or any sign of the distressed plane. Three miles north of Hog Island
-light outside Norfolk, the ship encounters fog extending clear to the
-water. Search of this area is hopeless and the ship scouts the edges,
-waits for the fog to burn off. At noon as it lifts, pieces of wreckage
-are spotted at the very area which it had hidden, and which the TC-14
-had flown over five hours earlier.
-
-The airship cruised around, hoping that some bit of wreckage might
-support a survivor, finally returned to its station after 20 hours,
-during which time it had covered 1,000 miles, intensively in parallel
-courses 20 miles wide. Had the luckless plane or any of its crew been
-able to send up flares anywhere within an area of 20,000 square miles of
-water, the airship could have come up alongside and effected a rescue in
-a matter of minutes.
-
-In the meantime, Lt. Boyd, originally assigned to TC-14, was up at dawn
-only to learn of the change in plans. He was assigned to pilot the
-smaller G-1 trainer to New London, keep a sharp look-out enroute for the
-missing plane, then work with the destroyers on torpedo exercises. The
-G-1 had no galley aboard and in the rush the matter of food for an
-18-hour cruise was somehow overlooked, and Boyd and his crew set off
-with only a couple of sardine sandwiches apiece and a pot of coffee,
-which quickly grew cold.
-
-Late in the afternoon, seeing his crew growing hungrier and
-hungrier,—for airshipping is excellent for the appetite,—Boyd had an
-idea. He radioed the Destroyer Division Commander: “After last torpedo
-recovered, would you be able to furnish us with some hot coffee and a
-loaf of bread, if we lower a container on a 200-foot line across your
-after deck?”
-
-Never in naval history had an airship borrowed chow from a surface
-craft. But the answer came promptly. “Affirmative. Do you wish cream and
-sugar?”
-
-There was nothing in the books giving the procedure for borrowing a meal
-from the air, but the crew rigged up a line from a target sleeve reel,
-fastened a hook with a quick release at the end, attached a monkey
-wrench to weight it down, stood by for the word to come alongside.
-
-Then while the crews of three destroyers watched, the G-1 swung slowly
-over the destroyer’s deck. One sailor caught the line held it while a
-second filled the coffee pot, and a third attached a load of sandwiches.
-Then the airship sailors hauled away, radioed their thanks, set off for
-the 200 mile trip back to Lakehurst, while hundreds of sailors below
-waved their white caps and cheered, a little inter-ship courtesy between
-sky and sea which all hands will long remember.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IV
-                        The Beginnings of Flight
-
-
-    [Illustration: Hot-air balloon]
-
-In the spring of 1783, as the American Revolution was nearing a
-successful conclusion, two brothers named Montgolfier sitting before a
-fire at a little town in France found themselves wondering why smoke
-went up into the air.
-
-That was just as foolish as Newton wondering why an apple, detached from
-the tree, fell down. Smoke had always gone up and apples had always come
-down. That was all there was to it.
-
-But when men wonder momentous events may be in the making. In these
-instances epochal discoveries resulted: the law of gravitation and the
-possibility of human flight.
-
-The legends of Icarus and the narrative of Darius Green are symbols of
-the long ambition of earth-bound men, even before the days of recorded
-history, to leave the earth and soar into the air. The Montgolfiers had
-found the key.
-
-But a hundred years would pass before the discovery would be put to use.
-It was in 1903 that another pair of brothers, the Wrights, made their
-first flight from Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina. The first Zeppelin
-took off from the shores of Lake Constance in 1900.
-
-The Montgolfiers wasted no time testing out their conclusion that smoke
-rose because it was lighter than the air. They built a great paper bag
-35 feet high, hung a brazier of burning charcoal under it, and off it
-went. Annonnay is a small town but the story of that miracle spread far
-and wide. The Academy of Science invited them to the capital to repeat
-the experiment.
-
-But while they were building a new bag a French physicist, Prof. J. A.
-C. Charles, stole a march on them. He knew that hydrogen was also
-lighter than air, so constructed a bag of silk, inflated it with
-hydrogen, sent it aloft before the Montgolfiers were ready.
-
-Still the countrymen were not to lose their hour of glory. Merely to
-repeat what had already been done was not enough. Their balloon was to
-be flown from the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, before the king
-and court and all the great folk of Paris, with half the people of the
-city craning their necks to watch it pass over. So they loaded aboard a
-basket containing a sheep, a duck and a rooster, and these three became
-aircraft’s first passengers.
-
-When the U. S. Army Air Corps years later sought an appropriate insignia
-for its lighter-than-air division, it could think of nothing more
-fitting than a design which included a rooster, a duck and a sheep.
-
-Everyone was ready for the next step. A French judge had the solution.
-He offered the choice to several prisoners awaiting execution—a balloon
-flight or the guillotine. Two volunteered, felt they had at least a
-chance with the balloon, whereas the guillotine was distressingly final.
-They had nothing to lose. That word rang through Paris. A young gallant
-named De Rozier objected.
-
-“The chance might succeed,” he said. “The honor of being the first man
-to fly should not go to a convict, but to a gentleman of France. I offer
-my life.”
-
-Even the king protested at this needless risk, but De Rozier took off
-the following month, flew half way over Paris, landed safely. This
-happened on Nov. 21, 1783.
-
-Among the witnesses to these experiments was Benjamin Franklin, the
-American ambassador, himself a scientist of no small renown. He
-predicted great things for aeronautics.
-
-“But of what use is a balloon?” asked a practical-minded friend.
-
-“Of what use,” replied the American, “is a baby?”
-
-A little later, on January 7, 1785, Jean Pierre Francois Blanchard, a
-Frenchman, and Dr. John Jeffries, an American, practicing medicine in
-England, inflated a balloon, took off from the cliffs of Dover at one
-o’clock in the afternoon, arrived safely in Calais three hours later.
-
-    [Illustration: Santos Dumont startled Paris in 1910, when he let an
-    American girl fly one of his airships over the city. To descend she
-    threw her weight forward, to climb she moved back a step.]
-
-    [Illustration: A dramatic meeting of two rivals for the honor of
-    making the first Atlantic crossing. The Navy’s NC flying boats and
-    the non-rigid C-5, photographed shortly before their take-off.]
-
-    [Illustration: Blimps too may use masts aboard surface ships as
-    anchorage point on long cruises, as the U.S.S. Los Angeles
-    successfully demonstrated when moored to the U.S.S. Patoka. (U. S.
-    Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: The Army’s TC-7 demonstrates the first airplane
-    pick-up at Dayton. Army pilots found that at flying speed the plane
-    weighed nothing, was sustained by dynamic forces. (U. S. Army
-    photo)]
-
-Flight was here, though it would be a long time becoming practical. Dr.
-Charles and many others contributed, even at that early day. Knowing
-that hydrogen expanded as the air pressure grew less, at higher
-altitudes, Charles devised a valve at the top of the balloon, so that
-the surplus gas could be released, not burst the balloon. He devised a
-net from which the basket could be suspended, distributing its load over
-the entire bag.
-
-The drag rope was evolved, an ingenious device to stabilize the
-balloon’s flight in unstable air. If the balloon tended to rise it would
-have to carry the entire weight of the rope. If it grew sluggish and
-drifted low, it had less weight to carry, as much of the rope now lay on
-the ground. These ballooning principles, early found, are still in use.
-But the “dirigible” balloon, or airship must wait for light weight,
-dependable motors, despite the hundreds of ingenious experiments made by
-men over a full century.
-
-Since this is an airship story, we should first make clear the
-difference between the airship and the airplane.
-
-The French hit on an apt phrase to distinguish them, dividing aircraft
-into those which are lighter than the air, such as airships, and those
-which are heavier than the air, like airplanes.
-
-Airships are literally lighter than air. So are all free balloons, used
-for training and racing, and all anchored balloons, such as the
-observation balloon widely used in the last war and the barrage balloons
-of the present war.
-
-The airship goes up and stays up because the buoyancy given by its
-lifting gas makes it actually lighter than the air it displaces, and
-even with the load of motors, fuel, equipment and passengers, must still
-use ballast to hold it in equilibrium.
-
-The airplane, on the other hand, is heavier than the air. Even the
-lightest plane can stay up only if it is moving fast enough to get a
-lifting effect from the movement of air along the wings, similar to that
-which makes a kite stay up. A kite may be flown in calm weather only if
-the one who holds the cord keeps running. On a windy day, the kite may
-be anchored on the ground, and the movement of the wind alone will have
-sufficient lifting effect. So powerful are these air forces that a plane
-weighing 20 tons may climb to an altitude of 10,000 feet if its speed is
-great enough, and its area of wing surface broad enough to produce this
-kiting effect.
-
-But an airplane can remain aloft only as long as it is moving faster
-than a certain minimum speed. Cut the motors, or even throttle down
-below this stalling speed, and the plane will start earthward.
-
-The airship needs its motors only to propel it forward. It can cut its
-speed, even stop its engines, and nothing happens. It retains its
-buoyancy, continues to float. The airplane’s lift is dynamic, that of
-the airship is static.
-
-The airship has some dynamic lift, also, because its horizontal fins or
-rudders, and the body of the airship have some kiting effect in flight.
-The blimp pilot, starting on a long trip, will fill up his tanks with
-all the fuel the ship can lift statically, then take on another 2,000
-pounds, taxi across the airport till he gets flying speed and so get
-under way with many more miles added to his cruising speed.
-
-This dynamic lift however, while useful in certain operations is still
-incidental. Primarily the airship gets its lift from the fact that the
-gas in the envelope is much lighter than the air.
-
-Hydrogen is only one-fifteenth the weight of air, helium, the
-non-inflammable American gas, is a little heavier, about one-seventh.
-The practical lift is 68 pounds to the thousand cubic feet of hydrogen,
-63 pounds in the case of helium.
-
-Lighter-than-air ships are of three classes, rigid, semi-rigid and
-non-rigid. The rigid airship has a complete metal skeleton, which gives
-the ship strength and shape. Into the metal frame of the rigid airship
-are built quarters, shops, communication ways, even engine rooms in the
-case of the Akron and Macon, with only the control car, fins, and
-propellers projecting outside the symmetrical hull. The lifting gas is
-carried in a dozen or more separate gas cells, nested within the bays of
-the ship.
-
-The non-rigid airship has no such internal support. The bag keeps its
-taut shape only from the gas and air pressure maintained within. Release
-the gas and the bag becomes merely a flabby mass of fabric on the hangar
-floor. Ship crews do not live in the balloon section, but in the control
-car below.
-
-The British, apt at nicknames, differentiated between the two types of
-airships by calling them “rigid” and “limp” types, and since an early
-“Type B” was widely used in the first World War, quickly contracted “B,
-limp” into the handier word “Blimp.”
-
-The third type, semi-rigid, has a metal keel extending the length of the
-ship, to which control surfaces and the car are attached, and with a
-metal cone to stiffen the bow section.
-
-The rigid ship is of German origin. Developed by Count Zeppelin, retired
-army officer, and largely used by that nation during the war of 1914-18,
-it was taken up after the war started, by the British and Americans, and
-to a small extent later by France and Italy.
-
-Non-rigid ships were widely used by the British and French, to a less
-extent by Italy and United States.
-
-The intermediate semi-rigid was largely Italian and French in war use,
-though United States bought one ship after the war from the Italians,
-built one itself. The Germans also built smaller Parseval semi-rigids.
-
-The rigid airships are the largest, the non-rigids smallest. The rigid
-has to be large to hold enough gas to lift its metal frame along with
-the load of fuel, oil, crew, supplies, passengers and cargo. The blimps
-can be much smaller.
-
-The Army’s first airship, built by Major Tom Baldwin, old time
-balloonist, had 19,500 cubic feet capacity. Goodyear’s pioneer helium
-ship “Pilgrim” had 51,000 cubic feet. These contrast with the seven
-million feet capacity of the Hindenburg, and the ten million cubic feet
-of ships projected for the future.
-
-The following table will show the range of sizes:
-
-  Rigid Airships:  Hindenburg (German)               7,070,000 cubic feet
-                   Akron-Macon (U. S.)               6,500,000 cubic feet
-                   R-100, 101 (British)              5,000,000 cubic feet
-                   Graf Zeppelin (German)            3,700,000 cubic feet
-                   Los Angeles (U. S.)               2,500,000 cubic feet
-                   R-34 (British)                    2,000,000 cubic feet
-  Semi-Rigids:     Norge (Italian)                     670,000 cubic feet
-                   RS-1 (U. S.)                        719,000 cubic feet
-  Non-Rigids:      Navy K type (Patrol)                416,000 cubic feet
-                   Navy G type (Advanced Training)     180,000 cubic feet
-                   Navy L type (Trainer)               123,000 cubic feet
-                   Goodyear (Passenger)                123,000 cubic feet
-                   Pilgrim (Goodyear)                   51,000 cubic feet
-
-The Akron and Macon were 785 feet in length, the K type non-rigid, 250
-feet long, the Navy “L’s” 150 feet long.
-
-Let’s cut back now to the Montgolfiers. Progress was disappointingly
-slow. The simple balloon would only go up and down, and in the direction
-of the wind. Before it could be practical, men must be able to drive it
-wherever they liked, make it dirigible, or directable.
-
-Ingenious men, Meusnier, Giffard, Tissandier, Renard, Krebs, many others
-worked over that problem through the entire nineteenth century. They
-devised ballonets or air compartments to keep the pressure up. They
-built airships of cylinder shape, spindle shape, torpedo shape, airships
-shaped like a cigar, like a string bean, like a whale. But the stumbling
-block remained, the need of an efficient power plant.
-
-The steam engine was dependable, but once you had installed firebox,
-boiler and cord wood aboard, there was little if any lift remaining for
-crew or cargo. Giffard in 1852 built an ingenious small engine using
-steam but it still weighed 100 pounds per horsepower, drove the ship at
-a speed of only three miles an hour. Automobile engines today weigh as
-little as six pounds per horsepower, modern airplane engines one pound
-per horsepower.
-
-Man experimented with feather-bladed oars, with a screw propeller,
-turned by hand, using a crew of eight men. Haenlein, German, built a
-motor that would use the lifting gas from the ship—coal gas or hydrogen.
-Rennard in 1884 built an electric motor, taking power from a storage
-battery.
-
-But real progress would have to wait for the discovery of petroleum in
-Pennsylvania and the invention of the internal combustion engine. When
-the gasoline engine came in, in the 90’s, the dirigible builders saw the
-long sought key to their problem.
-
-While Count Zeppelin was experimenting with his big ships in Germany,
-Lebaudy, Juliot, Clement Bayard in France and most conspicuously the
-young Brazilian, Santos Dumont, were working with the smaller
-dirigibles. Santos Dumont built 14 airships in the first decade of the
-century, brought the attention of the world to this project. He won a
-100,000 franc prize in 1901 for flying across Paris to circle Eiffel
-Tower and return to his starting point—and gave the money to the Paris
-poor.
-
-The Wright Brothers made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, in 1903,
-opening a different field of experiment. France pushed both lines of
-research. After Santos Dumont’s dirigible flight, Bleriot started from
-the little town of Toury in an airplane, flew to the next town and back,
-a distance of 17 miles, making only two en route stops,—and the town
-erected a monument to him.
-
-In 1909, Bleriot flew a plane across the English Channel and in the
-following year the airship Clement Bayard II duplicated the feat,
-carrying a crew of seven, made the 242 miles to London in six hours.
-
-The year 1910 was a momentous one for all aircraft, with France as the
-world center. Bleriot and Farman, Frenchmen, Latham, British, the
-Wrights and Curtiss, Americans, broke records almost daily at a big meet
-in August that year, while at longer range the French and English
-dirigibles and the Parsevals of Germany, and still more important the
-great Zeppelins at Lake Constance droned the news of a new epoch.
-
-A young American engineer, P. W. Litchfield, attended the Paris meet,
-saw these wonders, made notes. He stopped in Scotland on his way back,
-bought a machine for spreading rubber on fabric, hired the two men
-tending it (those men, Ferguson and Aikman, were still at their posts in
-Akron thirty odd years later), hired two young technical graduates on
-his return, tied in the fortunes of his struggling company with what he
-believed was a coming industry.
-
-The next five years would see the nations of the world bending their
-efforts toward perfecting these vehicles of flight,—little realizing
-they were building a combat weapon which would revolutionize warfare.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V
-               Effect on Aeronautics of Post-War Reaction
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airship and escort planes]
-
-Development of non-rigid airships slowed down after the impetus of the
-war had spent itself, as was the case in aeronautics generally and in
-all defense efforts.
-
-With the Armistice of November, 1918, the world was through with war.
-Men relaxed and reaction set in. There would not be another major war in
-a hundred years. Well-meaning people everywhere grasped at the straw of
-universal peace, of negotiated settlement of difficulties between
-nations, of disarmament of military forces to the point of being little
-more than an international police force. Germany, the trouble-maker, had
-been disarmed and handcuffed, would make no more trouble. The world,
-breathing freely after four years, wanted only to be left alone.
-
-Today with major countries striving feverishly to build guns and navies,
-it is hard to believe that naïve nations were scrapping ships only a few
-years ago and pledging themselves to limit future building. No one in
-the immediate post-war era could believe that men must prepare for
-another war, an all-out war more terrible and ruthless than men had
-known,—one which would send flame-spitting machines down from the air
-and through woods and fields, against which conventional foot soldiers
-would be as helpless as if they carried bows and arrows. Wishing only to
-live at peace with other nations, we could conceive no need to make
-defense preparation against frightfulness.
-
-Congress was divided between “big navy men” and “little navy men,” and
-generals and admirals who brought in programs for expansion or even
-reasonable maintenance were shouted down. The public was in no mood to
-listen.
-
-If the usefulness of the Army and Navy was discounted during this
-period, more so was the rising new Air Force. Few were interested in
-airplanes, and these chiefly wartime pilots, who sought to keep aviation
-alive, made a precarious living flying wartime “Jennies” and “Standards”
-out of cow pastures, carrying passengers at a dollar a head, or how much
-have you. The word “haywire” came into the language, as they made
-open-air repairs to wings and fuselage with baling wire.
-
-Lighter-than-air had no Rickenbackers or Richthofens to point to, but
-got some advantage during this period from the activities of the
-Shenandoah, completed in 1923, and the Los Angeles, delivered in 1924.
-These ships could not be regarded as military craft, carried no arms.
-The Shenandoah was experimental, based on a 1916 design. The Los Angeles
-was technically a commercial ship, with passenger accommodations built
-in, could be used only for training.
-
-This grew out of the fact that the Allies planned to order the Zeppelin
-works at Friedrichshafen torn down but had held up the order long enough
-for it to turn out one more ship. This last ship would be given to
-United States in lieu of the Zeppelin this country would have received
-from Germany, if the airship crews, like those of the surface fleet, had
-not scuttled their craft after the Armistice, to keep them from falling
-into enemy hands. The Allies stipulated that the Los Angeles should
-carry no armament. It took a specific waiver from them for the ship to
-take part several years later in fleet maneuvers.
-
-Other airship activities in this country were at a minimum. The blimps,
-little heard of in this country during War I, remained in the
-background. A joint board of the two services gave the Navy
-responsibility for developing rigid airships, the Army to take
-non-rigids and semi-rigids. The Navy maintained a few post-war blimps
-for training, had little funds except for maintenance.
-
-The Army, having Wright Field to do its engineering and experimental
-work, fared somewhat better, carried on a training and something of a
-development program. It built bases at Scott Field, Ill., and Langley
-Field, Va., ordered one or two non-rigid ships a year, purchased a
-semi-rigid ship from Italy, ordered another, the RS-1, from Goodyear,
-operated it successfully.
-
-The Army’s non-rigids, however, were overshadowed by the Navy’s rigids
-and even more by its own airplanes, with the result finally that the
-Chief of the Air Corps, Major General O. O. Westover, a believer in
-lighter-than-air, an airship as well as airplane pilot, and a former
-winner of the James Gordon Bennett cup in international balloon racing,
-told Congress bluntly that there was no point in dragging along, that
-unless funds were appropriated for a real airship program the Army might
-as well close up shop. And this step Congress, in the end, took, and the
-Army blimps and equipment were transferred to the Navy, and the
-experimental program started by the one service was carried on by the
-other.
-
-The rigid ships were in more favorable position because they seemed to
-have commercial possibilities, and it was the long-range policy of the
-government to aid transportation. Government support to commercial
-airships could be justified under the policy by which the government
-gave land grants to the railways, built highways for the automobile,
-deepened harbors and built lighthouses for the steamships, laid out
-airports for planes, gave airmail contracts to keep the U. S. merchant
-flag floating on the high seas and air routes open over land.
-
-On this theory Navy airships, even though semi-military, got some
-support during the reaction period, because they might blaze a trail
-later for commercial lines—which, with ships and crews and terminals,
-would be available in emergency as a secondary line of defense, like the
-merchant marine.
-
-The little non-rigid blimps remained the neglected Cinderellas of
-post-war days.
-
-The Goodyear Company at Akron, which had built 1000 balloons of all
-types and 100 airships during and after the war, stepped into the
-picture during this period with a modest program of its own. The first
-of the Goodyear fleet, the pioneer, helium-inflated Pilgrim, now in the
-Smithsonian Institute, was built in 1925.
-
-    [Illustration: The Atlantic crossing of the Graf Zeppelin in 1928
-    and its round-the-world flight in the following year gave new
-    stimulus to all aeronautics. With a relatively tiny Goodyear blimp
-    as escort, the Graf lands at Los Angeles after crossing the
-    Pacific.]
-
-    [Illustration: At Lakehurst the Graf tries out the “Iron Horse,” the
-    U.S. Navy’s mobile mooring mast, finds it highly useful, utilized
-    masting equipment thereafter to compile an unusual record for
-    regularity of departures, even under highly unfavorable weather
-    conditions. (U. S. Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: The U.S.S. Akron, first result growing out of renewed
-    interest in aeronautics after the reaction period, goes on the mast
-    inside the Goodyear air dock, prior to leaving for her trial
-    flights.]
-
-    [Illustration: No large ground crews are needed with the mobile
-    mast. Even the mighty Akron swings around easily at anchorage, heads
-    into the wind like a weather vane, its control car resting on the
-    ground.]
-
-In building this ship, Mr. Litchfield and his company indicated their
-belief in the value of big airships for trans-oceanic travel, for which
-the blimps would provide inexpensive training for pilots, and experience
-in operating under varying weather conditions.
-
-The Pilgrim, the Puritan, the Vigilant, the Mayflower and the rest of
-the Goodyear fleet which followed—named after cup defenders in
-international yacht racing—would also uncover during the course of
-day-after-day operations, improvements in ships and operating technique,
-which would be available to its customers, the Army and Navy.
-
-In building its own ships, Goodyear was following the tradition of
-American industry, which does not sit back and merely build goods to
-order, but has sought by developing better goods to anticipate and
-stimulate customer demand. In the automobile industry, for example,
-self-starters, closed cars, steel bodies, balloon tires, streamlining,
-and the rest were initiated by industry to increase public acceptance
-and further popularize the automobile. By building its own airships and
-flying them, Goodyear hoped to expand the market for military and
-commercial airships.
-
-The doldrum period, which made progress difficult, came to an end with
-dramatic suddenness. In the year 1927 a youthful pilot flew an airplane,
-alone, across the Atlantic ocean, and in the following year a
-middle-aged scientist made a round trip from Europe to America by
-airship, with 24 people aboard. The imagination of America and the world
-took fire. Aeronautics started anew.
-
-Perhaps no events in years have appealed so fully to the public
-consciousness or had such dynamic effects. Almost from the day of
-Lindbergh’s flight and the Graf Zeppelin’s arrival at Lakehurst,
-aeronautical engineers found themselves with money to spend in research
-and machinery. Airports unrolled across the carpet of America, night
-lighting came in, pilots became business men, appropriations were rushed
-through Congress, state assemblies, and city councils, and aeronautics
-became Big Business almost over night. The period of inaction and of
-reaction was over.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER VI
-                   Airship Improvements Between Wars
-
-
-    [Illustration: Docked airship]
-
-The wartime airship was a cigar-shaped gas bag with an airplane cockpit,
-open to the weather, slung below. The contrast between it and the sleek,
-fast, streamlined Navy airship of today is almost as striking as that
-between wartime planes and automobiles and modern ones.
-
-Many improvements have been made, even though the airship has not had
-the experience of building thousands of units, as the automobile and
-airplane have had, or ample funds for research and experiment. Less than
-150 non-rigid airships have been built all told since 1914.
-
-The “B” type blimp, chiefly used in the World War, contained 80,000
-cubic feet of hydrogen, though some British and French non-rigids were
-built in larger sizes, and the United States Navy “C” ships, toward the
-end of the war, had 200,000 cubic feet of lifting gas. These compare
-with the 416,000 cubic feet of helium in the new Navy “K” ships. Speed,
-under the pressure of war needs moved up from 47 miles in the “B” to
-close to 60 in the “C,” but is around 80 in today’s “K” ships.
-
-Wartime ships carried three to five men and a day’s fuel. Today’s carry
-eight or ten, enough pilots, radio men, navigators, riggers and
-mechanics for two full watches, though normally everyone is on duty
-during patrols. The “B” was good for perhaps 900 miles, the “K” for well
-over twice that distance.
-
-Wartime ships had to keep the control car well away from the bag to
-prevent sparks from igniting the hydrogen gas. A windshield was the
-pilot’s only protection from the elements. Modern ships, using
-non-inflammable helium, have closed cars, streamlined into the bag,
-ample room for navigation and radio, sleeping and eating quarters, even
-a photographic dark room, can be heated and noise-proofed.
-
-Early airships were pulled down and held by a large ground crew, a
-pneumatic bumper bag on the car cushioning its landing. Today’s ships
-land on a swiveled wheel, roll up to a mast—or taxi off across the
-airport like an airplane and take off.
-
-These, however, are merely flight factors. More important is it that the
-wartime blimp was to a large extent hangar-bound. It could go no further
-from its base than it could safely return before its fuel was exhausted.
-
-Today’s ships are expeditionary craft, can go almost anywhere, stay as
-long as they want. They are no longer land-bound, can be refueled and
-reserviced at sea. They are much safer, rank high in this respect among
-all carriers whether on land, sea or in the air.
-
-Three independent lines of study contributed to these results, those of
-the Army, Navy and Goodyear, each free to follow its own ideas, to
-observe results found by the others, adopt them, use them as starting
-points for further developments, or discard them.
-
-The improvements were achieved in a relatively short period. The army
-started in after the war and carried on a continuing program till 1932.
-The Navy, absorbed in its rigid airships, did not get into non-rigids
-till the early 1930’s. Goodyear built the Pilgrim in 1925 but its
-development program really began with the blimp fleet in 1929.
-
-Noteworthy improvement was found during this period in materials,
-structure, design, engines and radio communication, with outstanding
-advances along three major lines.
-
-First was increased safety, permitted by helium gas. Wartime airships
-used hydrogen because it was all they had, had to develop what
-protection they could against fire through construction devices and
-operating technique. Hydrogen was not only inflammable, but under
-certain conditions explosive. World War pilots had to fly their hydrogen
-ships through thunder and lightning storms, dodge inflammatory bullets
-if they could. Zeppelin sailors wore felt shoes, with no nails to create
-a spark, used frogs for buttons, had to guard against static.
-
-It was a fortunate thing for the airship world when a gas was found in
-1907 in Dexter, Kansas, which would not burn. Curious scientists, asking
-why, found it was helium, a gas previously identified (in 1869) only in
-the rays of the sun. Helium gas is inert, refusing to combine with any
-other element, does not deteriorate metal or fabric. It was not much
-heavier than hydrogen, the lightest of all gases, so proved a welcome
-gift to lighter-than-air.
-
-For some reason, not explained except on the theory that Providence
-takes special interest in America, helium has been found in quantity
-only in this country. It is a component, present to the extent of two or
-three percent in certain natural gas, though ranging as high as eight or
-ten percent in favored areas. It can be separated by compression and
-liquefaction from the natural gas,—which is that much improved by the
-removal of the non-inflammable content.
-
-The world’s chief known supply of helium lies in certain sections of
-Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Utah. More important, United States is the
-only country having great pipe lines, can distribute natural gas from
-Texas to cities as far away as Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago.
-Without such a market operators would have to separate and release the
-95% of natural gas to get the 5% of helium, and costs would be still
-higher.
-
-Helium is perhaps the most useful of the few natural monopolies given to
-this country.
-
-It was only toward the end of the World War, however, that Army
-engineers worked out a process of separating helium from natural gas. A
-plant was built at Fort Worth and the first cylinders of helium had
-reached New Orleans ready for shipment to France to inflate observation
-balloons when the Armistice was signed.
-
-Army, Navy and Bureau of Mine engineers worked thereafter to increase
-production and cut costs, but as late as 1925 Will Rogers called
-attention to the fact that the Navy had not been able to get enough
-helium to supply both the Shenandoah and the Los Angeles at the same
-time. If one was using the helium the other had to stay home. Two ships,
-and only one set of helium, he commented.
-
-The use of helium cut the casualty list on the Shenandoah, would have
-saved the Hindenburg. Non-rigid airships have had no fire or explosive
-accidents since helium came into use as the lifting gas.
-
-It was the loss by a hydrogen fire of the Italian-built Roma, after it
-struck a high tension line at Langley Field in February, 1922, which
-fixed the policy of “helium only” for U. S. Army and Navy airships. The
-Army’s C-7 was the first airship to use helium. In building the Pilgrim
-in 1925, Goodyear followed the same policy—even though it had to pay
-$125 a thousand cubic feet for helium while it could have obtained
-hydrogen for $5 per thousand.
-
-Further improvements and increasing volume of production brought the
-cost down in time from $125 to less than $20, and helium expense became
-relatively unimportant in providing safety for Goodyear’s airship
-operations.
-
-Important too during this period was the Army’s development of tank cars
-for transporting helium. A large item of helium expense was freight, the
-cost of hauling 130 pound metal containers which held 170 to 200 cu. ft.
-of the gas. It took 250 such containers to inflate Goodyear’s smallest
-ship, the Pilgrim. The tank cars hold 200,000 cu. ft. of gas, almost
-enough to inflate two Goodyear airships.
-
-Experiments with specially woven fabric and the use of synthetic rubber
-cut down the losses resulting from diffusion, and where formerly it was
-necessary to remove the helium and purify it every six months, diffusion
-losses were cut to one or two per cent a month, with purification needed
-only every other year.
-
-In addition to increasing safety, helium permitted improvements in
-airship design. The wartime craft had its control cars suspended by
-cables from finger patches cemented to the outside of the bag. But with
-helium ships the car could be built into the bag, attached by an
-internal catenary suspension system to the top of the gas section. Each
-exposed suspension cable, no matter how small, creates parasitic
-resistance from the air, so that the removal of yards of steel and rope
-had the result of increasing the speed of the ship with the same
-horsepower.
-
-The second set of major improvements centers around the mooring mast.
-The mooring mast idea was not new. The British had built the first ones
-during the World War for its large rigid ships, found that a ship
-attached to it would swing easily, like a weather vane, continuing to
-point into the wind, and that a well streamlined ship would hold
-securely even in winds of great velocity.
-
-When Alfred E. Smith ordered a mooring mast built on top the Empire
-State building, it was with the assurance from his engineers that even
-with the tugging of the 150-ton Graf Zeppelin, the strain would be
-little more than the normal push of the wind against the building
-itself, that the added stresses would be negligible.
-
-The Germans had had little occasion to use mooring masts.
-Friedrichshafen, where most of the Zeppelins were built, lay in a
-natural bowl, well protected from the winds, and ships could take off
-and land, be walked in or out of the hangar with little risk from the
-weather.
-
-Lakehurst, on the other hand, lay in an exposed position, in the path of
-coast-wise storms, a frequent battle-ground between onshore winds from
-the ocean and storms breaking over the mountains from the west. A study
-made later to determine bases for projected American passenger
-operations showed that of weather conditions prevailing between Boston
-and the Virginia Cape, those at Lakehurst were almost the most
-unfavorable.
-
-    [Illustration: Four stages in the evolution of the mooring mast. At
-    the outset large ground crews held the ship on the ground.]
-
-    [Illustration: Then a stub mast was placed atop a truck, to hold the
-    ship on the ground, maneuver it in or out of the dock.]
-
-    [Illustration: A high mast, made in sections, can be erected
-    anywhere, anchored by guy wires, holds the airship securely against
-    winds of gale force.]
-
-    [Illustration: The little brother of the “Iron Horse”, which will
-    receive the largest of the new Navy blimps, maneuver them on the
-    field.]
-
-People knew little about airship operating when the Navy base was moved
-from Pensacola to Lakehurst on a waste site in the Jersey pine lands
-which the Army no longer needed after the war as a proving ground for
-its artillery.
-
-This defect proved an advantage. The Navy was forced by the very nature
-of things to concentrate on a problem which had been no problem to
-Doctor Eckener and his associates. At the urging of Admiral Moffett,
-Commander Garland Fulton, Lieutenant Commander C. E. Rosendahl and
-others, Navy engineers built a high mast, 180 feet tall, following
-British practice, with a service elevator inside, then tackled the
-problem of keeping the ship on even keel against up and down gusts.
-Since the wind does not come out of the ground, a low mast was
-suggested, half the height of the ship, so that when anchored the ship
-would all but rest on the ground. The Navy was working on this when an
-incident happened to strengthen the argument.
-
-The co-incidence of a wind shift, and rising temperatures one afternoon
-as the Los Angeles was resting comfortably at anchorage, started the
-tail rising, and it continued to rise till it reached almost 90 degrees.
-Then the ship turned gently on its swivel, and descended easily on the
-other side, with no more damage than some broken china in the galley.
-Still a 700-foot airship has no business doing head-stands, so the low
-mast development was rushed through. It proved successful.
-
-The next step was to make the low mast mobile, so that it could not only
-hold the ship on the ground but take it in and out of the hangar. First
-of these was Lakehurst’s famous “iron horse,” a giant motor-driven
-tripod, which rolled out on the airport, hauling incoming ships into the
-hangar, took advantage of daylight calms to take ships out into the
-field ahead of time so as to be ready to leave on schedule.
-
-On the Graf Zeppelin’s trip around the world in 1929, hangars were
-available for fueling stops at Lakehurst, Friedrichshafen, and curiously
-enough in Japan, a German shed turned over to the Nipponese after the
-1918 Armistice, having been re-erected at Tokio. There was none however
-on the American West Coast to house the ship after its long trip across
-the Pacific. So the Navy, under direction of Lieutenant Commander T. G.
-W. Settle, hauled a mast up to Los Angeles from San Diego (it had been
-erected there for the Shenandoah’s flight around the rim of the country
-in 1923) anchored it with guy wires. It served the purpose perfectly.
-
-The Germans, skeptical at first, became convinced of the value of the
-mast, themselves erected masts at Frankfort, and Seville, at Pernambuco
-and Rio de Janiero, used them as terminals.
-
-Once the masting technique had been worked out, the Graf Zeppelin and
-the Hindenburg, in the years 1930-6, made a record of regularity which
-no other vehicle of transportation has approached. They took off at
-times over the ocean for Europe when all other aircraft in the area was
-grounded, when the fog hid the entire top half of the ship, and the ship
-disappeared into the fog within a few seconds after the “Up Ship” signal
-was given. What few delays appear on the record were due to waiting for
-connecting airplanes to arrive with the latest European mail for the
-Americas.
-
-So far the use of masts had been entirely a matter for the large rigid
-airships. The Army did the first development work on high and low masts
-for its smaller ships at Scott Field, as well as a landing wheel for
-them to ride on. A situation at Akron started experimentation along a
-different line. At Goodyear’s Wingfoot Lake Field, Mr. Litchfield
-frowned over the expense of having a considerable crew on hand to land
-and launch the blimps, with little to do after the ship was in the air.
-To an Army or Navy post, with plenty of men in training, this surplus of
-men was no difficulty, but any private corporation operating passenger
-airship lines would find the expense burdensome.
-
-    [Illustration: The Navy L-2, one of the first ships under the
-    expanded program, lands at Wingfoot Lake, Akron, is walked to the
-    mooring mast.]
-
-    [Illustration: Close-up view of engine and cowling, and swiveled
-    landing wheel.]
-
-    [Illustration: With a drogue or sea anchor to hold the airship
-    steady, supplies or personnel may be taken aboard at sea. (U. S.
-    Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: A newly-hatched airship breaks its shell at Akron,
-    will try its wings then join the Navy.]
-
-He put the question to his men in 1930, offering cash prizes for the
-best solution. Out of many ideas, one clear-cut line of progress
-appeared. This was to make the ground crew truck a maneuvering base,
-with a mast on top, which could be folded down when not in use. The
-truck then could not only hold the ship on the ground, but guide it in
-and out of the hangar with more security than by using a large number of
-men. Extra wheels mounted on outriggers kept the truck from being turned
-over by side gusts. In succeeding years the ground crew truck became a
-traveling mooring point which could follow the ship across country, give
-it anchorage when night fell, and at the same time act as a traveling
-supply depot, machine shop, radio cabin, and crew quarters.
-
-A portable mast, built in sections, high enough for ships to mast at the
-nose, was the next step. It could be set up on an hour’s notice,
-anchored by guy wires and screw stakes for more extended operations.
-Gradually the airship became independent of the hangar, came to use it
-only for overhaul and the purification of its helium gas. The blimp
-could be fueled and serviced completely in the open.
-
-Lacking a dock in San Francisco, at the time of the Exposition in 1939,
-the Goodyear blimp Volunteer moved up from Los Angeles, based on a mast
-for five months. The only time it sought shelter was when a splinter
-from the propeller pierced the bag, causing a leak. The ship flew 60
-miles down the bay to the Navy base at Sunnyvale, like a boy coming in
-from play to have a splinter removed from his finger, went back again,
-didn’t even stay over night.
-
-In the winter of 1940-41 the “Reliance” which had been spending its
-winters in Miami, using a wartime Navy hangar which the city had moved
-up from Key West, found that building commandeered for defense work. So
-a mast was set up on the Causeway, and the ship operated with no other
-home than that for six months, saw no shelter from the time it left
-Wingfoot Lake in early December till it returned at the end of May.
-
-The Navy had a different problem as it moved into the non-rigid picture
-in the early 1930’s. Its problem was only incidentally to operate away
-from its base at Lakehurst. Ships were getting larger in size, and masts
-were needed where they could be moored outdoors, or taken in and out of
-the hangar. The solution was a smaller replica of the rigid airship’s
-“Iron Horse” except that it moved on large rubber tires, and was towed
-in and out by tractor, rather than carrying its own power plant.
-
-A portable mast was also developed for the Navy blimps, with a special
-car to haul it around. This mast could be sent to Parris Island or some
-point in New England, ahead of time, set up and used as a temporary base
-for radio calibrating or other missions.
-
-Navy ships basing at Lakehurst have operated for weeks at a time along
-the coast as far north as Bath, Maine, and as far south as the
-Carolinas, with a portable mast as headquarters.
-
-Utilization of the mast principle by non-rigid airships not only greatly
-increased their radius of operation, and cut down landing crews, but
-increased the number of operating days per month.
-
-Pilots of early airplanes used to go out on the airport, hold up a
-handkerchief, and if it fluttered, conclude it was too windy to fly. So
-early airship pilots, with anemometers on the roof of the hangar and at
-points over the field, judged it too risky to take the ships out if the
-wind was higher than four or five miles an hour, and then only if it was
-down-hangar in direction.
-
-Modern airships lose few flying days because it is too windy to go out.
-Under war conditions, when risks must be taken, which need not be taken
-for passenger or training flights, very few days would be wasted if
-there is military necessity for it.
-
-Navy non-rigids miss few rendezvous with the fleet in exercises out of
-Lakehurst, regardless of the weather outside.
-
-If the portable mast revolutionized airship operations over land,
-experiments started by the Navy in 1938-39, largely under the direction
-of Lt. C. S. Rounds, promise to be just as important in over-water
-operations. These showed that the airship could pick up ballast from the
-ocean, could get fuel from a passing ship, could change crews at sea.
-
-Ballast is important to a vehicle which growing continuously lighter as
-it uses up fuel, must still be kept in equilibrium. Transoceanic
-Zeppelins, using hydrogen, had to fly high enough to “blow off” the
-surplus gas once or twice during a trip to compensate for the ship
-growing lighter. But hydrogen was cheap, and could be manufactured as
-needed. American ships could not afford to waste helium, which was a
-natural resource. Army and Navy engineers had worked on this, and
-equipment developed for the Akron and Macon to condense the gases from
-the burned fuel was able to recover more than 100 pounds of water
-ballast for every 100 pounds of fuel used.
-
-The blimps didn’t use these since they ordinarily would not be out for
-more than a day at a time, still a ready source of ballast would make it
-unnecessary to valve helium on long flights.
-
-Ironically enough a whole ocean full of ballast lay below seagoing
-airships, but no practical method had been devised to take the sea water
-aboard until the Navy tackled the problem in 1938.
-
-That problem may be visualized in the obvious difficulty of maintaining
-physical contact between an airship and a surface ship. The two move in
-different media, one influenced mostly by the waves, the other mostly by
-the wind. The surface ship is moving up and down, the airship subject to
-gusts which might break the contact or thrust it violently against the
-masts or superstructure of the surface ship. Servicing has been done
-under favorable circumstances, but could not be relied on as standard
-procedure.
-
-The solution reached was this. The pilot swings his ship down to within
-100 or 150 feet of the water, lowers a hose with a small bronze scoop,
-not much wider than the hose, so as to lessen the drag.
-
-Twenty-five feet up from the scoop is a streamlined cylinder, blimp
-shaped, carrying a small electric pump. This cylinder, nicknamed the
-“fish”, has tail fins to keep it from spinning, and skims along the
-surface or jumps out like a porpoise, but the scoop is far enough behind
-and heavy enough to trail easily beneath the surface, stays directly in
-the ship’s wake, continues without interruption to pick up ballast for
-the airship above.
-
-The whole gear weighs slightly more than 100 pounds, can pick up water
-at cruising speed, can function in rough water or smooth. The Navy J-4,
-chiefly used in these experiments, normally consumes 500 pounds of fuel
-in five hours of flying at cruising speed. It was able to pick up that
-much water ballast in seven minutes.
-
-The next step was to enable an airship to obtain fuel from a tanker or
-other ship without physical contact or advance arrangements—even from a
-passing merchantman. The pilot asks by radio or voice whether the
-surface ship can spare some gasoline, and on an affirmative answer,
-lowers or drops on his deck two rubberized fabric spheres connected to
-each other by 14 feet of rope—also a note of instructions. The smaller
-sphere is an ordinary air-filled buoy, the larger, about three feet in
-diameter when filled, is the fuel bag. The surface ship fills the fuel
-bag, then drops both bags overboard, being careful only that they do not
-get tangled up. Then the airship flies over the two bags, drops a hook
-between them, hauls away, pumps the gasoline into its tanks.
-
-The third device permits an airship to anchor in the open sea near a
-surface ship to transfer crews or take on fuel and supplies. The anchor
-is a cone-shaped rubberized fabric bag, ten feet long, with a diameter
-of 2½ feet at the top. It is lowered 50 feet below the airship by two
-cables connected with each other by rungs to form a ladder. Half of the
-cables’ length is made up of heavy exerciser cord to dampen the effect
-of wave movements. On top the cone is a wire mesh cover which allows the
-water to pass through, and is strong enough to act as a platform,
-supporting a man.
-
-As the cone fills up the airship drops ballast till its “mooring mast”
-is half submerged. The principle of the drag rope comes into play—if the
-airship starts to rise it finds itself lifting an increasingly heavier
-load, counteracting the rising tendency. If it starts to settle down
-toward the water, the load is correspondingly lessened and the ship
-grows lighter. The result is that the airship is held highly stable,
-even in a rough sea. The surface ship then sends a small boat alongside
-and dispatches the relief crew members or supplies, them up and down the
-ladder, or uses a winch, the platform atop the anchor serving as the
-operating base. This system also permits the moving of a sick passenger
-ashore, or the rescue of a man overboard.
-
-When the airship is ready to leave its anchorage, the cone is tipped by
-a line attached to the bottom, spilling the water, and hauled aboard.
-The servicing ship need carry no special equipment. The weight of cone
-and ladder is negligible.
-
-By being able to pick up ballast and borrow fuel from a passing ship,
-(neither airship nor surface ship need slow down for the fuel exchange
-if going in the same direction) the airship greatly increases its radius
-of operations.
-
-The advantage of being able to change crews at sea may not be quite as
-clear. This, however, grows out of the fact that today’s non-rigid
-airship has greater endurance than the crew which flies it. An
-anti-submarine, anti-mine patrol calls for constant alertness. Reduction
-of vibration and noise, the use of closed cars instead of open cockpits
-has lessened fatigue, enabling men to remain on duty over longer periods
-than before. But obviously there are limits.
-
-The Navy is conservative in estimating how long its new “K” ships may
-stay out without refueling. Weather and the nature of the mission will
-have some bearing on that, but if we assume a cruise of 48, 60 or even
-72 hours which might be done under favorable conditions and idling the
-motors, we still cannot expect a crew of men to remain vigilant and
-alert for that length of time.
-
-Extra men for relief watches can be carried only at the expense of the
-fuel load. However, if a fresh crew could be sent aboard every 12 hours
-from a nearby surface ship, along with fuel, ballast and supplies, the
-blimps might operate for extended periods.
-
-No blimps have done this. The fleet might see no need for them to go out
-for long periods. However, the possibility has been established, and
-might be useful in the emergencies of war, or accident. While the
-primary usefulness of the blimp lies in the coastal waters, it can go to
-sea if needed—and stay out—can be used in convoy work or as a listening
-post.
-
-Other improvements were uncovered during the experiments. A sea anchor
-or drogue was devised to enable the airship to “lay to” for extended
-periods, without consuming fuel, in case it wishes to use its listening
-devices against submarines, make repairs or for other purposes. Plans
-have been worked out for landing on the water in quiet bays in calm
-weather, utilizing flotation gear, or a three-point mooring to ordinary
-mud anchors—facilitating servicing from nearby Coast Guard stations.
-
-Perhaps a significant thing about these experiments is that the
-principles seem applicable as well to rigid airships. The ability to
-pick up ballast in flight may well eliminate the necessity for
-ballast-recovery devices, with a substantial saving in cost, and an
-impressive saving in weight.
-
-By eliminating the heavy condensers, and translating that weight-saving
-into fuel, it is estimated that the range of a ship of the Los Angeles
-size could be increased by 20 percent and ships of the Akron-Macon size
-by 15 percent, in the last case amounting to 1,250 miles of additional
-cruising radius.
-
-A trans-oceanic passenger airship could start out with virtually no
-water ballast at all except a minimum amount for maneuvering, use its
-fuel supply as ballast and pick up sea water as needed. This could be
-done at 500 feet elevation, at the rate of 80 gallons a minute, using a
-30 horsepower motor, could be done in half an hour a day. The ship need
-not slow down materially while doing this.
-
-Application of this principle to military airships of the rigid type
-might be still more significant. The chief use for the rigid airship in
-war would seem to be as a high speed airplane carrier, whose planes
-would increase many fold its own reconnaissance range, and would be
-expected also to do the major part of what fighting became necessary in
-case of enemy contact. The airship itself in that situation would put
-more dependence on its speed of retreat and its ability to seek cover in
-clouds as the submarine does beneath the surface, than on its own
-machine guns and cannons.
-
-One thing brought urgently home to us in the first weeks of the present
-war is that oceans are wide, and that the movements of even a huge enemy
-fleet are difficult to discover in those endless expanses of water.
-
-Large military airships of five or ten million cubic feet helium
-capacity might prove exceedingly useful, if they were able to operate
-away from their base for weeks or even months at a time, and they might
-be able to do this by utilizing devices similar to those developed for
-smaller non-rigids, resting on the sea in calm waters, mooring to
-anchored masts they could lower into the water, picking up fuel from
-tankers, getting supplies from neighboring ships—in addition to what was
-carried to them from the fleet by their own planes.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VII
-                    Adventures of the Goodyear Fleet
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airships flying in formation]
-
-One of the lesser romances at least of aeronautics is the story of the
-Goodyear airship fleet.
-
-There is thrill and adventure in the narrative, daring and
-resourcefulness, hazards faced by men who believed in their
-craft—chances which were usually won. So this chapter might well be
-dedicated to Airship Captain Charles Brannigan and Balloon Pilot Walter
-Morton.
-
-Morton was an old timer, who had flown balloons with Tom Baldwin, in the
-far corners of the country. Between times he worked in the Goodyear
-balloon room, a practical mechanic who could always make things work,
-the salt-of-the-earth workman whom every foreman swore by, the aide
-every pilot wanted alongside. Steady, self-effacing, courageous, with an
-instinct for the right thing to do in emergency, Morton feared but one
-thing. That was lightning.
-
-He had flown many times through lightning storms prior to the helium
-era, beneath a bag filled with inflammable gas, but he didn’t like it.
-He knew its swift striking power.
-
-“I could almost see the Old Fellow standing there throwing those darts
-at us,” said Morton one afternoon in 1928, as he scanned the skies
-before taking off in a balloon race out of Pittsburgh. “One would flash
-past and miss, and he would say ‘I’ll get you next time,’ and there
-would come another. And you can’t dodge in a balloon.”
-
-The Old Fellow scored a direct hit that afternoon. Morton was flying
-with Van Orman, Gordon Bennett Cup winner. The uncertain weather of the
-afternoon had resolved itself less than an hour after the take-off, and
-eight balloons were being tossed as a juggler tosses weights, a thousand
-feet high, 10,000 feet, caught and tossed aloft again just before they
-touched the ground. Morton’s balloon was hit at 12,000 feet, caught
-fire, alternatively fell like a plumb bob or parachuted in the net,
-landed without too much of a shock. Van Orman, unconscious, sustained a
-broken ankle. Morton had been instantly killed.
-
-But aerologists learned things that afternoon about the force of
-vertical movements of the air. The balloons gave a perfect track of what
-went on. One balloon was falling so fast that sacks of ballast thrown
-overboard lagged behind it, while a hundred yards away another balloon
-was shooting upward at similar speed.
-
-We still know less than we should about the movements of the air, this
-new world into which the Aeronautic Age is moving. The Pittsburgh
-tragedy may save many lives, avoid other tragedies.
-
-The Brannigan story is shorter, no less dramatic. High-spirited, keen, a
-captain whose ship and crew must always be shipshape, Brannigan had come
-to Goodyear from the Army—where he had already distinguished himself by
-making repairs in mid air to the semi-rigid Roma, ripped by a splintered
-propeller—saving a comrade as an incident to the job—had quickly won his
-captaincy at Goodyear, was one of its best flyers.
-
-At Kansas City one afternoon in 1931 a Kansas twister headed for the
-airport. Seeing the weather uncertain Brannigan had stopped passenger
-flying, put his ship on the mast. Now he ordered his mechanic to get off
-and cut the ship loose. Once aloft, with helium gas, he was not afraid
-of any storm that blew. But before the ship could clear the mast, the
-storm had struck, with full fury. The anchors holding the mast pulled
-out of the ground and the ship, with the mast attached, was hurled into
-the nearest hangar, ripping one motor off. That was Brannigan’s cue to
-jump. The door had been propped open for a photographer’s camera. But he
-had one motor left, the bag was undamaged, the mast had fallen clear. He
-wouldn’t give up his ship as long as there was a chance to save it.
-
-    [Illustration: Reunion in Akron—The ships comprising the Goodyear
-    fleet, could tell stirring stories of battles with the elements
-    waged in many states.]
-
-    [Illustration: Some of these pilots flew airships in the first war,
-    others came in later from the technical schools—many now are flying
-    airships for the Navy.]
-
-    [Illustration: From this pocket handkerchief size airport, off the
-    Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, Goodyear ships carried
-    thousands of passengers, from all over America.]
-
-    [Illustration: The Mayflower landed on the deck of the SS Bremen,
-    took off passenger P. W. Litchfield.]
-
-    [Illustration: The Enterprise lands to rescue the crew of an
-    ice-locked steamer in Chesapeake Bay.]
-
-However the storm was not to be denied, and before he could get
-altitude, the wind threw the ship into a nest of high-tension wires, set
-it afire. Brannigan climbed out, walked to a nearby automobile,
-transferred to a second car enroute to the hospital after a
-collision—and died the next day from third-degree burns.
-
-He called Furculow, his co-pilot, just before the end, told him to see
-that the men in the crew were taken care of, that they were not
-penalized for the loss of the ship. Furculow, now flying airships for
-the Navy, is not the only man in Goodyear who will not forget Charley
-Brannigan. It is on such men that the traditions of the service are
-built. Any cause for which men give their lives cannot be held lightly.
-
-The Goodyear Company had built a few airships of its own prior to the
-1925 Pilgrim, when helium became available. Best known of these was the
-“Pony Blimp” which operated out of Los Angeles from 1919 to 1923, flew
-passengers to Catalina, worked for the movies in Arizona and Wyoming.
-
-But the real beginning came with the Pilgrim, the larger Puritan and
-still larger Defender, as the Goodyear fleet came into existence in
-1928-29.
-
-Early pilots had no specific instructions except to take the ships out
-and fly them—fly them hard, find out all they could about them, see what
-weaknesses and shortcomings there were and how to improve them. It was
-another test fleet, repeating the history of the automobile.
-
-The pilots were supposed not to get hurt, but they were to fly in all
-kinds of weather they felt it safe to fly in. They might lose a few
-ships, but were expected to be able to walk away from them, not to get
-in any trouble they couldn’t get out of. They had an advantage over Army
-and Navy fliers in having a free hand as to where they might go. They
-were expected to make mistakes but should learn from them.
-
-Such instructions, largely unwritten, acted as a challenge to the
-pilots, a high-spirited and courageous group. Starting with a few men
-who had flown airships in the World War, or helped build them in the
-balloon room and the machine shop, they added some technical school
-graduates in 1929, and others as needed.
-
-Their adventures started after they left Akron. Operating from bases
-built or leased over the country, they would cover every state east of
-the Mississippi in a few years. They looked for hard things to do—or
-unusual things which would interest the public in airships. They landed
-on the roofs of buildings in Akron and in Washington—though a prudent
-Department of Commerce would later rule against that; they picked up
-mail from lines dropped on decks of incoming ships, and from small boats
-alongside; they fished for sharks and barracuda, hunted for whales; they
-picked up a bundle of newspapers from the Hearst building downtown, and
-lowered them to Al Smith on the top deck of the Empire State building;
-picked up another batch from The Toronto Star offices, delivered them at
-the Canadian Exposition grounds; they covered boat races, football and
-baseball games, the International Yacht Races, carrying press
-photographers, newsreel men and radio announcers; they went to the Mardi
-Gras, to the Carnival of States, the Cotton Carnival, Expositions at
-Chicago, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco and New York, to county fairs,
-plowing and corn-husking contests. They covered fires in New York,
-chased outlaws and reported forest fires in the high Sierras; they made
-traffic studies in New York and Washington, studies in bird life in
-Florida; they picked up stranded fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, took
-Mr. Litchfield off the after deck of the SS Bremen in New York harbor;
-they surveyed canal projects; patrolled the Mississippi during flood
-time to rescue families from raging waters, to report to the engineers
-where the levees were weakening; they carried food and supplies to a
-boat ice-bound in Chesapeake Bay; they circled a thousand country school
-houses, dropped greetings by parachute to hundreds of cities.
-
-One of their spectacular feats was the rescue of an airplane crew in
-Florida in 1933. Two pilots flying to Miami from Tampa for the Air Races
-had made a forced landing in the Everglades. Searching airplanes located
-the ship, but it was far from any highway, inaccessible by boat or on
-foot, the men without food and tormented by mosquitos, and with
-apparently no way of ever getting out unless a road could be built in to
-them. But a blimp found it easy, because it alone of all craft could
-stand virtually still in the air.
-
-    [Illustration: Few important cities east of the Mississippi have
-    missed seeing a Goodyear blimp by now, not to speak of those in the
-    Southwest, the Pacific coast. Trips have been made also to Cuba,
-    Canada and Mexico. More than 400,000 passengers have been carried,
-    without even the scratch of a finger.]
-
-                  SUMMARY
-        TOTALS UP TO JANUARY 1, 1942
-  FLIGHTS                            151,810
-  HOURS                               92,966
-  PASSENGERS                         405,526
-  MILES                            4,183,470
-
-              FLIGHTS BETWEEN:
-  AKRON  - FLORIDA                        49
-    ”    - DALLAS                          6
-    ”    - CHICAGO                        12
-    ”    - TORONTO                        14
-    ”    - LAKEHURST                      18
-    ”    - WASHINGTON                     57
-    ”    - NEW YORK                       42
-
-Pilot Wilson flew to the spot, cut his motors, drifted down to 50 feet,
-directed the refugees to catch the trail ropes, then as the airship
-settled took them aboard, dropped sand bags to lighten ship, flew
-home—came back later with salvage parties to recover motors and other
-parts.
-
-All these exploits were incidental to the job of learning about airships
-and airship weather—the tricks of winds and rain and storms. And they
-did learn. A hangar had been built in the woods at Grosse Ile, Detroit,
-with a lane of trees left standing so as to extend the line of the
-building—this under the assumption that the trees would protect the
-airships while entering or leaving. The British, under stress of war
-conditions had done this, used woods as windbreaks for landings, even
-for the assembly of airships at times.
-
-But the wind has a trick of spilling over, like a waterfall, when it
-strikes an obstruction. Early pilots were expert balloonists, and might
-have remembered their experience in riding over mountainous
-country—observed how the wind would carry them almost into a cliff, but
-just before reaching it would pick the great bag gently up, carry it
-over the top, drop it on the far side, almost to the bottom of the next
-valley—but not quite, pick it up and carry on—a graphic chart of the air
-flow in broken terrain.
-
-But in the first weeks of operation at Detroit, a cross-hangar wind,
-spilling over the windbreak, twice pushed an airship gently but firmly
-into the trees on the far side. The trees were cut down, and the study
-of eddies and gusts hastened the development of a mobile mooring mast
-which would hold the ship steady in turbulent areas.
-
-The Goodyear pilots learned to fly unworried through fog. As early as
-1920, Hockensmith, flying the “Pony Blimp” from Los Angeles to Catalina
-Island, got lost when his compass failed in a fog so dense he could
-hardly see the nose of the ship. Flying low and slowly, barely off the
-water, he presently spied a dark shape ahead, came on a U. S. submarine,
-with decks awash, and an officer on lookout in the conning tower. He
-landed on his pontoons, taxied alongside, borrowed a compass, went on to
-his destination.
-
-The conviction that except within its hangar the ship was safest in the
-air, grew out of many battles with wind and storm. Brannigan, flying the
-Vigilant at Washington, was caught in a storm which broke up an
-aeronautic show, wrecked several planes on the ground, sent the rest
-scattering for shelter. Piling extra cans of gasoline aboard, Brannigan
-cut his ship loose, headed into the wind, a wind so high that at times
-he found himself pushed backward at full throttle, hovered for an hour
-and a half over the capital, waiting the storm out, then flew 150 miles
-down the bay to Langley field and put up for the night.
-
-On another occasion at Winston Salem, with his ship on the mast,
-Brannigan was caught in a sleet storm, found his ship bowed down and
-being crushed by the weight of ice on its back. Getting extra men from
-the city fire department, he braced his control surfaces with poles,
-beat off the ice on the bag as high as he could reach with branches,
-built oil smudge fires alongside to melt the ice, took off all possible
-equipment, to lighten ship, kept his craft headed into the wind, fought
-the storm successfully—and in the morning as the sun came out and the
-ice melted, flew on to Florida.
-
-Boettner, starting south in 1930 in the larger Defender attempting a
-non-stop flight to Miami, ran into ice and snow in the Tennessee
-mountains. An oil line froze. His mechanic climbed out on the outriggers
-and made emergency repairs in flight, but not before the ship had lost
-most of its oil. Reaching Knoxville airport by morning, he dropped a
-note, lowered a line, hauled up additional oil, refilled the tanks, went
-on to the Gadsden hangar to complete repairs.
-
-No Goodyear blimp has ever been damaged by storms while in the air,
-though a bit of resourcefulness was needed from time to time. For that
-matter, inquiry does not disclose any cases of a non-rigid airship being
-damaged by storm while in flight.
-
-Two Goodyear blimps were in the path of the 1938 hurricane, which,
-heading for Florida from the Caribbean, changed its course erratically
-and moved up the coast, shot across New England. Lange, with the
-Enterprise, was at New Brunswick, N.J., 50 miles off the direct course
-of the hurricane. He put his ship on the mast, held it there during
-winds which rose as high as 73 miles per hour. He put extra men on the
-handling lines, doubled the number of screw stakes which held the mast,
-used the bus, with its motor wide open, as further re-enforcement. The
-storm raged furiously at the ship for hours but couldn’t budge it and
-when the hurricane passed on, everything was intact.
-
-Boettner, with the Puritan at Springfield, Mass., was almost directly at
-the axis of the storm. He made the same gallant fight as Lange, but
-against winds which roared to 100 miles per hour in gusts, uprooted
-100-year-old trees, tugged at a sheet-iron hangar roof, flapping it up
-and down, finally ripped it loose, sailed it like a child’s kite across
-the airport and out of sight.
-
-At the peak of the storm the steel chains attaching the mast cables to
-the screw stakes failed on the windward side, thrusting the mast into
-the side of the ship, cutting a hole in the fabric. Boettner pulled out
-the rip panel, deflating the ship to prevent further damage and when the
-storm passed rolled up the bag, loaded it and the control car aboard a
-truck, shipped it into Akron where a new bag was attached. The Puritan
-was back at work within a week.
-
-No wonder Goodyear pilots came to have great faith in the staunchness of
-their craft, and their ability to get out of trouble.
-
-Fuel exhaustion didn’t bother the blimp. Fickes found that out early, at
-Wingfoot Lake, when a leak developed in his tank and emptied it. Free
-ballooning his ship he floated over a farm house, asked them to call the
-office, waited aloft till a truck came out with additional fuel.
-
-Boettner had a similar difficulty while returning from Canada in the
-Defender. Persistent headwinds cut down his fuel and when he reached the
-American shore around midnight it was a question whether he could go on
-as far as Akron. Picking up U. S. Highway Five as being heavily
-traveled, he swung low over an adjoining field, slowed down so that his
-mechanic could drop off, flag a passing car and go into town for gas. By
-the time the aide returned a number of cars had parked alongside.
-Driving into the field, with headlights full on they formed a half
-circle, and the drivers caught the lines, held the ship till the fuel
-could be delivered, and Boettner proceeded on to Wingfoot Lake.
-
-Mishaps there were of course, in all these years, but few were serious.
-Lange snagged a lone dead tree in the fog over the Alabama mountains and
-Smith side-swiped another while flying over a pass in Tennessee. The
-ship settled easily to the ground in each instance, and farmers came in
-with stone boats, carried the car and bag to town for repairs.
-
-Brannigan, returning at night from Syracuse, ran short of gasoline,
-directed his ground crew to land him in an open field ahead. The ship
-nosed down, his aide directing the men with his flashlight. But just at
-this juncture the top of the flashlight fell off into the propeller, was
-whipped into the bag like a bullet, started a leak which was not
-discovered till next day.
-
-Most ships in the Goodyear fleet have been fired on by thoughtless
-hunters. Once a bullet went through a ship a few inches back of the
-pilot. One marksman was arrested and sent to jail in Florida. Pilot
-Trotter had a curious experience in Oklahoma in 1935, while on his way
-to the Dallas fair. The ship had been on the mast for three days waiting
-for weather. On the fourth morning, finding the ship rather sluggish,
-Trotter looked around. A glass window from the cabin gives a view of the
-interior of the bag and as Trotter looked he saw light blinking from 14
-bullet holes—through which gas had been pouring for three days!
-
-The nearest hangar where repairs could be made and helium secured was at
-Scott Field, near St. Louis, 400 miles away. By this time the ship had
-barely enough lift for the pilot and 100 gallons of gas, not enough for
-the co-pilot. So Trotter flew alone to St. Louis, landing so heavy that
-the ship had almost to be carried into the hangar, made his repairs and
-was back in Oklahoma the next day.
-
-Sewell had the experience of seeing a propeller fly off while heading
-down the bay from San Francisco, saw it careen wildly down, flew on to
-the next airport on one motor, mounted his spare.
-
-Always the pilots were calling for more speed, removing or streamlining
-whatever sources of resistance they could, picking the time for
-cross-country flights when conditions were favorable. They flew from
-Akron to Washington and New York frequently at 60 miles per hour. The
-Reliance did even better in a trip north in 1939.
-
-Starting home after its winter in Florida, the ship was held up in
-Jacksonville—by tire trouble of all things. The distance an airship can
-make in a day is limited by the distance the bus can travel, since the
-ground crew must be on hand at night to land the ship. And by now the
-bus, with its radio equipment, masts and the like had reached the point
-where only the special Goodyear YKL tires would sustain the 14,000
-pounds of weight comfortably. There was a shortage of YKL’s when they
-started and three standard tires had failed on the run up from Miami.
-Neither Jacksonville nor Atlanta branch had YKL’s in that size and to
-get them from Akron would entail a day’s delay.
-
-Meanwhile the ship was tugging on the mast, with a strong south wind,
-anxious to get under way. The pilots held a conference. Maybe, utilizing
-the tail wind, they could make it non-stop all the way to Washington,
-700 miles north and have Lange’s crew land them. If they ran short of
-gas they could stop at Ft. Bragg, N. C., a convenient half-way point.
-The Army had a motorized observation balloon there, and was always
-willing to lend a hand to fellow airshippers. It was Sheppard’s turn to
-take the controls. He sent a wire to Ft. Bragg.
-
-“If I run short of fuel, I’ll circle the field as a signal. Could you
-land my ship, lend me enough gas to get on to Washington?” The answer
-came back promptly, in the affirmative, and the ship left at midnight.
-
-Roaring across the Carolinas at mile a minute speed the Reliance sighted
-Ft. Bragg before daylight, with plenty of gas left. An entire company
-was lined up ready to land the ship. Sheppard flew low, cut his motors,
-thanked them, flew on for Hoover Airport, arriving before noon. He
-averaged 66 miles per hour over the 700 mile trip, and landed with
-enough gasoline to have gone on to New York.
-
-By utilizing helping winds, throttling his motors to cruising speed,
-Sheppard had effected most economical use of his fuel supply.
-
-Fickes used the same technique more strikingly in the delivery flight of
-the larger Navy K-5 in 1941, when he flew in to Lakehurst from Wingfoot
-Lake at 100 miles per hour speed, again demonstrating that greater
-cruising radius than that for which a ship was designed may be effected,
-whenever it is possible to pick departure times that are most favorable.
-
-    [Illustration: Ships like these, off New York City’s great harbor,
-    might afford warning of the approach of enemy submarines, or the
-    laying of mines to endanger its shipping.]
-
-    [Illustration: Operating from a base across in Jersey, the blimps
-    became a familiar sight around New York City during the World’s
-    Fair.]
-
-    [Illustration: While throughout the middle west, the long afternoon
-    shadows marked the arrival in one city after another of strange
-    visitors from the sky.]
-
-Other improvements in construction or operating technique grew out of
-the fleet’s experiences in flying in all weathers. A trip made by the
-Defender in 1930 from Miami across to Havana brought home the usefulness
-of the radio. The insurance underwriters insisted on a two-way radio
-being installed, along with pontoons on the ship, as safety precautions.
-Neither radio nor pontoons were needed during the crossing, but the
-pilots sensed the desirability of being able to communicate with their
-home station and their airport objective. Shortly after a short wave
-frequency was granted to the ships, one of the early ones in aircraft,
-and two-way sets were later installed on every ship, on the ground-crew
-buses and at Akron.
-
-This permitted the making of daily weather maps, extended the airships’
-radius of action. Pilots would set out with more assurance, knowing that
-they would be quickly advised of foul weather ahead, could change their
-course, give appropriate instructions to the men on the ground, land
-whenever it seemed desirable.
-
-In the end the airships were all doing instrument flying, riding the
-radio beams like the passenger airplanes, got their landing and take-off
-instructions from the radio control towers at the airports.
-
-The fleet proved an ideal testing vehicle for the expeditionary mast.
-But progress moved carefully, a step at a time. As late as 1930 an air
-dock was built alongside the company’s plant at Gadsden, Ala., for use
-as an operating base in the middle south. It was thought necessary as a
-half way point for ships headed for Florida. After the high mast came in
-however, the Gadsden dock came to be used only for warehousing, and no
-airship has been inside it in four years.
-
-In 1932 the Volunteer started in from Los Angeles for Akron, making the
-first successful trip of any non-rigid airship over the Continental
-Divide. The Volunteer was due for helium purification and a new bag. No
-helium facilities were available closer than Akron. Rather than deflate
-the ship and send it by train, Pilot Smith decided to fly in. He laid
-out a route via El Paso, San Antonio, and Scott Field, so that he could
-get shelter, if necessary, at army hangars at those points. He berthed
-at El Paso just after a 100-mile-an-hour storm had passed over, stayed
-three days at Kelly Field, found it unnecessary to stop over night at
-Scott. Even so, because of persistent head winds he had had to spend ten
-nights in the open, setting up his low mast with screw stakes on the
-open prairie.
-
-Mooring out procedure had improved by the time that Sewell made the same
-trip five years later, so he made only courtesy stops at the three army
-camps, was on his own.
-
-A mishap at Louisville gave impetus to the development of the high mast.
-The retractible low mast mounted on top of the bus was attached to the
-bag about half way between the car and nose of the ship, convenient to
-get at, the system being referred to as “belly-mooring.” The low mast
-was light, could be set up quickly and easily, would hold securely
-against a straight pull of considerable force. However, it was not as
-effective in the case of a wind shift, or gusts which rolled the ship on
-its side. A higher mast, with the ship anchored at the nose, was free to
-swing in all directions. Every one realized this, but it was only after
-Crum’s ship was caught and twisted by a gust at Louisville, punching a
-hole in the bag, that the change was made.
-
-The high mast, built in sections, anchored by guy wires to stakes
-screwed in the ground, was more bulky, took longer to set up, but would
-hold the ship indefinitely once it was in place.
-
-Thereafter both masts were carried in cross-country trips, the
-convenient low mast being used for overnight stops in good weather, the
-high mast for more extended operations, or when the weather looked
-threatening.
-
-The ground-crew bus was in evolution during this period. Built
-originally to carry merely crew, spare parts and supplies it added a
-radio room, navigation quarters, and carried the two masts. A scout car
-cruises ahead to make overnight arrangements, a trailer follows, with
-its own electric plant and expeditionary equipment, including a spot
-light to play on the ship at night. Duties of airship personnel grew
-more specialized and complex.
-
-Members of the ground crew acted as radio technicians, meteorologists,
-mechanics, riggers. They comprised a colorful group, recruited from all
-parts of the country. Sailors from New Bedford, fruit growers from
-Florida, farm boys from Ohio, ranchers from the San Joaquin valley, a
-mechanic from a Chicago airport, a policeman from the Cleveland fair,
-all dropped their work and followed the airships. The personnel list was
-a history of every place an airship had operated.
-
-The work wasn’t easy, involved long hours in the cold and rain when
-storms threatened, picking up mail from their families on the fly in
-cross-country operations, moving their households from north to south
-and north again. But the ground-crew men stuck, most of them having ten
-years’ service and more. On cross-country trips a crew of 14, including
-pilots, is adequate.
-
-The pilot personnel too formed an interesting group. Jack Boettner,
-chief pilot, veteran of the group, with probably more airship hours than
-any man in the world, certainly in non-rigid airships, had played
-all-American football at Washington and Jefferson, been instructor at
-Wingfoot Lake through the first war, was working in Goodyear’s
-aeronautical sales when the fleet got under way.
-
-As expansion started in 1927 Smith came in from the aero workshop, would
-remain second in flight hours only to Boettner. Fickes from Akron
-University, left the Efficiency Dept. to sign up, set up one of the
-first outside bases, at New Bedford, flew the Mayflower when it picked
-up Mr. Litchfield from an ocean liner, later became manager of all
-airship operations. O’Neil from the workshop came on too, in that year,
-became chief mechanic.
-
-When a base was set up at Los Angeles, Lange, a New Englander who had
-left Boston University to fly airships in the first war, later flying
-out of Panama, joined up, was sent to California, later took charge of
-the Washington base. Sewell, a Kansan with a similar record, having left
-the state university to fly blimps in coastal patrol in 1918 came in,
-captained a ship at New York, followed Lange at Los Angeles.
-
-Further expansion came in 1929, when the Puritan, Mayflower, Vigilant
-and Volunteer and Defender were added to the fleet. Now came Wilson,
-Purdue footballer, Furculow from West Point and Mt. Union, Hobensack
-from West Virginia U, Rieker and Crum from Ohio State, the last named
-becoming engineer officer of the group.
-
-Other practical men came in, from the balloon room and aero
-shops—Sheppard a Virginian, who later flew all over New England, the
-Middle West and Texas; Massick, Crosier and Munro; Blair, Army sergeant
-from Scott Field, came to Goodyear after the semi-rigid RS-1 was
-finished.
-
-Stacy, another New Englander, left the class room at Massachusetts Tech
-to sign up. Dixon, born in a lighthouse on Nantucket Island, left a
-billet as junior officer on a South American liner to fly land ships
-instead. Trotter, from the Naval Academy, was in engineering work in
-Florida when a blimp flew over. Lueders came in via the ground crew at
-Los Angeles.
-
-Many of the Goodyear pilots were commissioned as Reserve officers in the
-Navy, and Fickes, Boettner, Lange, Sewell, Wilson, Trotter and Furculow
-each took a year’s active duty with the Navy at Lakehurst with rigid
-ships. More than a score of trips were made by Goodyear pilots across
-the ocean as student officers aboard the Graf Zeppelin and the
-Hindenburg, getting post-graduate training.
-
-The breaking up of the pilot organization began as early as 1940, when
-with war clouds appearing in the East, Trotter, Rieker and Furculow
-volunteered for active duty with the Navy. By the middle of 1941, Stacy,
-Smith, Lueders and Dixon had followed them into uniform, were flying
-Navy airships at Lakehurst.
-
-To fill their places and also furnish material for the already expanding
-airship Navy, a training class of 19 men was started in late 1940 at
-Akron and Los Angeles. A six-months’ ground school preceded flight
-training—which started with seven balloon flights.
-
-The training course evolved there was one which grew naturally out of
-such a situation. Airship piloting had changed from the “seat of the
-pants” flying of the first war, when veteran Jack Boettner would turn
-out pilots in six weeks. The ships had become more complex as
-improvements were made. Helium gas was being used. Navigation by radio
-and compass was quite different from the “concrete compass flying” of
-1916, when pilots followed highways or railroad tracks to keep on
-course. Instrument flying had come in, and blind flying was part of
-every student’s training, in a closed control car, operating by
-instrument only. The modern airship pilot had to know his radio beams
-and the rules of Civil Aeronautics Authority, be able to ride the beam
-into the airport. In these various details the Goodyear pilots,
-long-seasoned, had perfected themselves through years of operation, were
-competent to pass on their secrets to the youngsters coming in.
-
-The student pilot spent his first half dozen hours trying only to keep
-the ship at constant altitude, not caring where he was going. Then he
-would fly a given course, follow a zigzag rail fence, or a winding road,
-not worrying about his altitude. Lesson three was to combine the two,
-fly at constant altitude over a set course. And after enough hours at
-this, he’d try to circle a pylon, keeping a specified distance away,
-while the wind pushed the ship in one direction, then another—now flying
-up wind, now down, now cross-wind, now quartering, making such changes
-in course to allow for wind and drift as to maintain a perfect
-circle—and trying finally to achieve the supreme art of the airshipper,
-which is to get the feel of the controls and the weather so that he can
-anticipate drift and sharp drops and rises, move his controls a split
-second ahead of time, stay on course and altitude.
-
-Airship students got no exemption from Civil Aeronautics Authority by
-reason of the fact that blimps land more slowly than bombers, took the
-same physical examination, including eyesight. The training course
-worked out with the government followed closely that for
-heavier-than-air pilots, with such changes only as were made necessary
-by the fact that in one case a static lift was utilized chiefly, and in
-the other case dynamic lift. There was plenty of need for the students
-by the time they finished their training.
-
-Over the 16 years during which the fleet operations were carried on ship
-sizes settled down to 123,000 cu. ft. as a compromise between the 51,000
-cu. ft. Pilgrim and the 164,000 cu. ft. Defender. This size ship could
-carry six passengers with pilot and aide, was easy to handle with a
-small crew, had adequate cruising radius for the job at hand.
-
-Later ships, the Enterprise, Ranger, Resolute, Reliance and Rainbow,
-carried on the tradition of honoring the defenders of America’s cup in
-international racing.
-
-While an airplane can land anywhere on an open field, the airship needed
-at least a minimum of terminal facilities. Many groups co-operated at
-the outset. St. Petersburg, Florida built a hangar; Miami towed a
-war-time Navy shed up from Key West; Col. E. H. R. Green built one on
-his New Bedford estate for use in connection with radio studies being
-made by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company built its own
-at Gadsden, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and New York, calling them
-air docks rather than hangars.
-
-Unused Army and Navy hangars were borrowed in the early years at
-Aberdeen, Md., and briefly at Cape May, N. J., Pensacola, Arcadia, Cal.
-and Chatham, Mass., with Lakehurst, Langley Field, Scott Field and
-Sunnyvale, Cal., handy as ports of call.
-
-More and more, however, the fleet grew independent of ground aid, became
-increasingly self-reliant through the use of its masting equipment.
-
-The Goodyear fleet wrote a remarkable safety record in the 16 years.
-Accidents to airship personnel could be counted on the fingers of one
-hand, and in the case of the public, 400,000 passengers had been carried
-up to 1942, for a total of 4,000,000 miles without a scratch of anyone’s
-finger.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VIII
-                      Results of Fleet Operations
-
-
-    [Illustration: Moored airship and flying airship]
-
-Goodyear airships made some contribution during the 16 years of fleet
-operations, to flight and ground handling technique. They also
-contributed to men’s knowledge about weather. For wherever it is flying,
-an airship, by the very nature of the craft, is continually registering
-the effects at that point of certain components of weather. And the
-ships covered a considerable part of the country fairly thoroughly.
-
-The nature and movements of air currents can be studied only
-incompletely from the ground, for conditions there are merely the result
-of forces aloft. Only two vehicles leave the ground and use the air as
-highways. Of these the airship is vastly more responsive to changes in
-temperatures and barometric pressure than the airplane, because of the
-lifting gas in its envelope, and somewhat more responsive to changes in
-wind directions and velocities, because of its greater displacement of
-air.
-
-Goodyear airships have traveled widely, have seen at first-hand the
-effects of rain and snow, fog and sleet, wind and whirlwind, thunderhead
-and lightning storm. More important they have been spectators at the
-unseen battle waged endlessly between cold fronts and warm ones across
-the great central plains, continued with renewed vindictiveness through
-mountain ranges and valleys.
-
-The information brought by these voyagers has not been without value to
-the men in the airport control towers, who are studying weather
-phenomena in the effort to make flying safe.
-
-A whole new science of weather interpretation has come in with air
-transport, and the U. S. Weather Bureau has other duties than advising
-farmers about planting and harvesting crops. It may be merely
-coincidence that when a new chief had to be selected for the Weather
-Bureau a few years ago an airship pilot was selected—Commander F. W.
-Reichelderfer of the Navy, who had long studied the movement of air
-masses and their effect on flight.
-
-Army and Navy ships put in more actual flying days per month than
-Goodyear ships, when on coastal patrol, because once out at sea the
-service ships were out for all day—and an airship, by picking its time,
-and using its mast, can always get out and get back.
-
-Goodyear pilots had a different sort of job. They were operating over
-land, flying 100 passengers a day, at 10 to 15 minute intervals, in one
-town after another. They might suspend operations when ceilings were
-low, or winds high, or gusty, not because they couldn’t fly under those
-circumstances, but because flights would be less agreeable, and might be
-hazardous for their passengers. However, the ships themselves, having no
-shelter at hand, had to stay out and take it. Their job was to interest
-the people of America in lighter-than-air, and they had to go wherever
-people were, regardless of what flying weather might intervene.
-
-So between Navy, Army and Goodyear airships operating over a period of
-years, it was fairly well demonstrated that there is very little
-unflyable weather for lighter-than-air craft. That is a conclusion of no
-small importance.
-
-Winds of gale force may make it prudent for the airship to stay in the
-hangar or on the mast, and conditions of zero ceiling, zero visibility,
-which ground other aircraft, would make operations hazardous, especially
-over mountainous country, but even the most adverse weather conditions
-would hardly keep the airship at home if an enemy was at large. Any time
-submarines are operating the airship can be available to seek them out.
-
-Another result emerging from the fact of fleet operations was that
-flying men and construction men, working together, became a closely knit
-group. Engineers learned to fly ships, and flyers took their turn in the
-shops. In building airships for the Navy, at the speed demanded by war
-conditions, the control cars were built in the shop and the envelopes
-cut out and fitted and cemented together in the balloon room. But
-operating men, flyers and ground crew men, mechanics and riggers and
-maintenance men took over from there, put the ships together—assembled
-them, tested them out, delivered them to the Navy.
-
-    [Illustration: Lessons in streamlining gained from building and
-    flying blimps became useful when barrage balloons came into the
-    picture as a new defense weapon.]
-
-    [Illustration: The mooring mast made the blimps expeditionary craft,
-    eliminated the need for large ground crews, permitted more flying
-    days per month, increased safety.]
-
-    [Illustration: Floating Navy blimps and barrage balloons, with their
-    curious star-fish tails, give the service dock something of the
-    appearance of a giant aquarium.]
-
-    [Illustration: Principal use for the rigid airship in wartime is as
-    an airplane carrier, with half a dozen planes to extend its
-    reconnaissance range and determine the enemy’s position.]
-
-It was this co-ordination between men in green eye shades, working over
-the drafting board and wind-tanned pilots, studying gray skies and
-phosphorescent control boards, which enabled the organization to meet
-the war emergency of large scale production of non-rigid airships.
-
-There was another by-product result arising from the fact that the
-company, even in the doldrum days, when there were few orders for ships,
-had kept its engineers at work on research and its ships flying on
-experimental missions. It all happened suddenly, a colorful circumstance
-not often found in the sober humdrum of the business world.
-
-A great plane manufacturer, having more defense work than its crowded
-shops could handle, looked around for some company with experience in
-the fabrication of light metal, to whom it could farm out some of the
-details.
-
-Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, the aeronautic subsidiary, was asked to
-build tail surfaces for Martin bombers. A curious thing happened. Men
-whose work had been primarily with airships, rather than airplanes
-(omitting the quite different field of airplane tires, wheels, and
-brakes) found themselves on familiar ground when they swung over to
-heavier-than-air construction.
-
-Here was the same problem of getting maximum strength with minimum
-weight, of selection and treatment of light alloys, of intricate stress
-calculations, and a hundred ingenious devices to measure those stresses,
-enabling designers to turn out a scientifically designed structure. The
-background was there—not to mention their experience and studies in
-streamlined design—to reduce resistance, get maximum performance from
-power plants.
-
-The difference was that in the case of the airship savings in weight
-mount fast, because of size. The importance of light weight and high
-strength had come home to airship designers years before.
-
-Their experience was directly applicable to the new field. Other orders
-came in, from Curtiss, Consolidated, Grumman, and soon the huge plant
-was humming with the production of parts for fighters and bombers.
-
-Then a four-company arrangement was set up by the government to expand
-airplane production still further, and after that an order for complete
-planes. The original plant was now jam-packed with lathes and drills,
-jigs and presses, and three huge new plants were built alongside and
-across the road, and Goodyear Aircraft Corporation found itself with
-thousands of men, building not only airships, but airplanes and airplane
-parts as well.
-
-Every large company took on new tasks in defense, but in this case
-Goodyear was able to move quickly, and give unexpected support to the
-airplane program by reason of its long research in a different field.
-This result, it is true, grew chiefly out of research in rigid airships,
-rather than non-rigids, but both played a part in another
-instance—barrage balloons.
-
-England was using them, might ask this country to supply some. The
-American government too might have use for them. So, long before there
-was even any hint of orders, Mr. Litchfield threw a new problem to the
-engineers at Goodyear Aircraft and the operating men at Wingfoot
-Lake—the job of designing an efficient barrage balloon. They were not to
-make Chinese copies of foreign balloons, but draw on their experience in
-lighter-than-air and see if principles and technique established there
-could not be applied to design balloons which would ride with maximum
-stability in gusty and unstable air. Men went to work, designing,
-building, flying, observing, rejecting, altering, improving, week after
-week, month after month, until several satisfactory types were evolved.
-One of these was capable of flying at 15,000 feet, twice the usual
-height. Orders began to come in, and the little group of men and girls
-in the balloon room quickly grew into a large organization. The
-department outgrew its quarters, took over room after room, expanded to
-subsidiary plants outside Akron.
-
-One instrument developed illustrates how the airship men were able to
-utilize past experience in a new project.
-
-Mounted alongside the winch on the ground, it gave exact information, as
-often as was wanted, as to what the barrage balloon was doing, a mile or
-three miles up.
-
-This assembly included a moving picture camera, which continuously, or
-at fixed intervals, or at any instant desired, by means of radio
-control, would photograph recording dials and show these things: wind
-velocity at the balloon, tension on cable, gas pressure inside the
-balloon, temperature of confined gas, temperature and humidity of the
-air surrounding the balloon, angle of attack at which the balloon faced
-the wind, both fore and aft and from side to side, also a clock, which
-showed the time the readings were recorded.
-
-These pictures, when developed gave the engineers the data from which
-they could modify designs and arrive at a type of balloon which would
-ride most easily aloft, avoid undue tugging and surging on the
-cable—incidentally permitting smaller gauge and weight cable to be used
-for a given height with ample safety margin.
-
-Perhaps the largest single result, however, growing out of the fleet
-operations was that it had created manufacturing facilities, ships and
-personnel on which the Navy could draw, as fully as it wanted, in
-emergency, and with little more delay than the time it took for a man to
-change his uniform.
-
-Boettner, Sewell, Blair, Hobensack and Hill followed the others into the
-service. Hobensack’s ground crew in California signed up with him in a
-body, and men from other ground crews, expert in rigging, in motors,
-radio, in mooring out and maintenance joined up. In the end only Fickes
-and Crum were left at Akron to build the new ships, and Sheppard,
-Crosier and Massic to test-fly them, then ferry them to their
-destinations.
-
-The student pilots at Wingfoot Lake had finished their training just in
-time. About half of them went immediately into the Navy, were
-commissioned and sent to the various bases, the others remained at Akron
-as replacements to the other pilots, in testing and delivery flights, or
-on key posts in airship construction.
-
-The experience accumulated by the blimp pilots under varying weather
-conditions over the country proved useful to the Navy, particularly in
-the expeditionary operations which coastal patrol would demand. It was
-useful as well in helping train navy aviation cadets for the growing
-airship fleet. Five of the pilots, Sewell, Boettner, Rieker, Stacy and
-Smith had reached the rank of lieutenant commander by the end of 1942,
-and Lange, full commander, had become commanding officer of a new Navy
-station on the west coast. Two of the public relations men, Lieutenants
-Petrie and Schetter, old airship troupers, followed the fliers into
-uniform.
-
-The airship service suffered its first casualty in 1942 when Lt.
-Trotter, gallant and resourceful pilot of balloons and ships, was killed
-in a collision, in which Lt. Comdr. Rounds also lost his life.
-
-The Goodyear fleet passed out of existence with the war. The ships being
-the same size as the Navy training ships, it was a simple matter to
-change them over, paint the new name on their broad sides.
-
-Facilities for ship construction became useful also in the new war. An
-airship hangar is unlike any other structure in the world. It must be
-broad and high and free of supporting girders. There were two large
-airship docks at Akron, half a dozen smaller ones over the country. At
-hand, too, was equipment for helium purification and storage, along with
-radio and weather gear, mobile mooring masts and other specialized
-equipment which only lighter-than-air uses. There was the balloon room,
-too, with a wealth of experience dating back to the first World War, and
-which with new jobs like building barrage balloons, rubber rafts and
-assault boats grew to large dimension.
-
-Wingfoot Lake was more than doubled in size, and the large airship dock,
-occupied at first by heavier-than-air production, had to be changed back
-later for airship assembly, to meet the Navy’s mounting demands for
-ships. The bases at Washington and Los Angeles were converted to other
-aeronautic uses; the two-ship dock at Chicago and the one at New York
-were torn down and moved to Akron to provide additional space for ship
-assembly.
-
-And so the fact that the company had maintained an airship fleet for a
-number of years had the result that in emergency when the Navy needed
-ships and men to fly them, Goodyear was ready. All of which was not
-foreseen when Mrs. Litchfield pulled a cord to release a flock of
-pigeons and christen the pioneer ship Pilgrim, at a pasture-airport
-outside Akron in 1925.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IX
-                       Vulnerability of Airships
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airship and escort warship]
-
-Mention airships and most people will immediately raise the question of
-vulnerability.
-
-Large, slow moving, a tempting target, airships could be shot out of the
-sky by ship or shore guns, or by hostile airplane fire, it is argued,
-almost as easily as a dinner guest touching his cigaret to a toy
-balloon.
-
-And this is probably true, with reservations, if enemy ships or
-anti-aircraft batteries or planes were around. But the airship,
-non-rigid, has no more business in such areas than a British airplane
-carrier would have to drop anchor in Hamburg harbor.
-
-It was because of the imminence of attack from sea or shore or air that
-neither England nor Germany used airships in the present war,
-particularly since they would have to use the inflammable hydrogen gas.
-It was because such attack on American airships from any of these three
-sources was much less likely—and that we have helium gas, which does not
-burn—that this country is using them.
-
-Their chief field of operations is not off the enemy’s coasts but our
-own, along that broad ribbon of waters used by our coastwise shipping,
-an area roughly marked in the Atlantic by the 100 fathom curve, the
-favorite fishing grounds of enemy submarines. Thousands of miles of blue
-water, not the narrow lanes of the North Sea or British Channel are
-between them and the shore guns of an enemy.
-
-An enemy fleet, though likelihood of this seems remote, might penetrate
-those coast waters in attempted invasion, attack the blimps with
-anti-aircraft fire. But such an enemy, arriving in force, would have
-either to knock out our Atlantic fleet, or slip past it in surprise
-attempt. In the remote later contingency, the information relayed back
-by airship radio that the enemy was moving in would be worth losing
-airships or any other craft, to get.
-
-The third hypothesis, attack by airplane, is also conceivable. But if
-long-ranging enemy planes were able to get that close to our shores
-they’d have more important business in hand than wasting time and powder
-on a helium bubble bobbing in the air, 10,000 feet below—which in any
-event would already have radioed the news ashore.
-
-In the fairly remote contingency that the airplane did choose to attack
-the blimp, it would find the position of that moving target, flying at
-an indeterminate distance below, much more difficult to calculate than a
-fixed target ashore, no easy thing to drop bombs on.
-
-If it swung down close, it might riddle the bag with machine gun bullets
-but without necessarily sinking it—as witness the case of Trotter’s ship
-in Oklahoma leaking gas for 72 hours from 14 gaping holes and still able
-to fly 400 miles for repairs. The plane would have almost to cut the
-blimp in two with a spray of bullets to destroy it—if it chose to use
-its precious far-borne ammunition in such fashion—and would find it
-better to attack from below, on the chance of a lucky hit into the
-airship structure or controls, or one which disabled its crew. But in
-that event the airship, also armed, shooting it out from its more stable
-gun platform above would have as good a chance as the plane.
-
-The airship is vulnerable—as are all other military craft—but used as
-the Navy proposes to use airships, it may be said to have an acceptable
-degree of vulnerability, in view of its potential usefulness in its
-special field—defense against submarine attack on convoys or coastwise
-shipping.
-
-The airship’s advantages have been pointed out, but may be repeated.
-These grow out of its speed range, from zero to a maximum of 65 knots or
-so. Its slow speed, as compared to the airplane has the compensation
-that it does not have to circle around to maintain altitude, can keep
-any suspect object under continuous observation. Its high speed enables
-it to reach a given point much sooner than the fastest surface scout.
-
-    [Illustration: Barrage balloons—spiders who spin out webs of steel
-    as they ascend—but these spiders are out to catch fliers, not flies,
-    enemy fliers who threaten our democracy.]
-
-    [Illustration: Modern armies towing a few of these pocket sized
-    barrage balloons along, might not be too much concerned over attacks
-    by strafing airplanes.]
-
-    [Illustration: This Strata Sentinel will fly at 15,000 feet, twice
-    the height of other barrage balloons. By that time the lobes will be
-    completely filled out by expanding pressure of the lifting gas.]
-
-    [Illustration: This airship, silhouetted against the afternoon sun
-    might be pacing a peaceful cruiser race through the surf off Long
-    Beach, on the Southern California coast. Or it might be leading
-    units of the mosquito fleet to sea off Cape Cod, to hold an enemy
-    U-boat in check till ships of heavier armament could arrive.]
-
-    [Illustration: Helium-inflated, fast, long ranged, the modern K-type
-    Navy patrol ship is a far cry from the primitive airships of World
-    War I. They are armed with bombs and machine guns.]
-
-    [Illustration: In brilliant sunshine, or overcast, in fog or rain or
-    snow, the blimps take off from their bases day after day, on guard
-    against any enemy who may invade the coastal waters. A faint smoke
-    screen, miles distant over the endless waters, may turn out to be a
-    peaceful merchantman—or a vessel with grimmer purpose, seeking the
-    advantage of surprise attack.]
-
-    [Illustration: Airship over cargo ship]
-
-The detection of a submarine even on the surface is largely a matter of
-looking in the right direction at the right time. The open windows on
-all sides of the airship, without obstruction by wings give it special
-value in this field.
-
-A submarine submerged is still harder to find as its tell-tale feather
-is not easy to spot from a speeding plane or from the crow’s nest of a
-surface craft.
-
-A non-rigid airship throttling down to the speed of its prey, and having
-the altitude of the airplane, has a much better chance of sighting the
-submarine, before it can launch its torpedoes.
-
-Taking off in fog, flying in low visibility, compelled to fly close to
-the water, these factors do not worry the airship or handicap its
-usefulness overmuch, and might under given conditions prove extremely
-useful.
-
-The airship appears to have some advantage too in the length of time it
-may remain on station, ranging from 30 hours at high speed to
-undetermined days at low. Indeed its endurance is not so much a matter
-of fuel capacity as of the ability of crews to stand long watches
-without relief.
-
-There might be emergencies where airship scouts were wanted on
-continuous duty over a considerable period. Commander Roands’
-experiments point out interesting possibilities in this respect, through
-the transfer of fuel and supplies from a surface ship, and the taking on
-of fresh crews.
-
-This generally was the case men saw for the airship up to 1941, as
-having potential usefulness, in the event of war, against attack by sea.
-
-Then came Pearl Harbor, and America’s entrance into a new war. German
-U-boats, larger, faster, more deadly, moved swiftly in to attack, as if
-waiting for the signal. The Japs made reconnaissance raids along the
-West Coast.
-
-“Wolf packs” of submarines in new under-water tactics stalked convoys,
-picked off stragglers. More than 600 coast-wise ships, merchantmen from
-the Caribbean and South America, and tankers from the Gulf, were sunk in
-the first year of war. The loss of tankers brought serious complications
-ashore, the rationing of gas along the eastern seaboard to conserve
-supply for military purposes. Despite a quickly expanding program of
-ship construction merchantmen were being sunk faster than they could be
-built.
-
-The Navy’s sea-frontier defense moved to meet the attack. Non-rigid
-airships were assigned a place in that program, wherever they could be
-utilized and with what ships were on hand, and new airship construction
-was rushed.
-
-Under authorization from Congress, a program of airship and base
-construction, together with helium procurement, was accelerated, and by
-the end of the year, stations were in commission or being built at key
-points along both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico.
-
-Akron expanded its facilities many fold for the building of new
-airships, which were flown to the various bases with increasing
-frequency during the year. Large classes of officers, aviation cadets
-and enlisted men went into intensified training at Lakehurst and Moffett
-Field, preparing themselves to man the ships as fast as they were
-delivered.
-
-The blimps which have been available to the sea-frontier forces have
-rendered valuable service in patrol and escort missions. Their exact
-record of performance, including number of submarine sinkings, obviously
-cannot now be published.
-
-On sighting a submarine, or finding indication of its presence, the
-tactical doctrine might call either for attack, or to stand by,
-summoning airplanes and surface craft in for the kill, keeping the enemy
-under unsuspected surveillance the while, and saving the blimp’s own
-depth bombs for another action.
-
-The airship is capable of carrying on patrol and escort missions day
-after day under a wide range of weather conditions, going for months at
-some stations, even in the winter, without missing a day.
-
-Though no detailed summary of airship activities is possible now, it is
-no secret that, just as in the last war, the submarines avoided attack
-upon convoys where airships were on guard. The German high command
-tacitly admitted that this was one type that the U-boats did not want to
-meet, an enemy immune to its torpedoes, whose presence the sub’s
-under-water detectors did not reveal, and which might appear overhead
-without warning. Admiral Doenitz, commanding the German submarine force,
-testified in a press interview to their respect for our blimps.
-
-The battle against the submarines will be long and difficult, and ships
-will still go down and men will be lost, but the chase will be
-relentless as long as the menace exists. Airships, non-rigid, have taken
-their place in that phase of America’s war effort.
-
-
-
-
-                               References
-
-
-Little is available in the way of bibliography on lighter-than-aircraft,
-their history and characteristics. Among the best works dealing with
-this subject are Captain C. E. Rosendahl’s, “What About the Airship?”
-(Scribner’s), and “Up Ship” (Dodd Mead); Captain Ernst Lehmann’s
-“Zeppelin” (Longman’s) and Captain J. A. Sinclair’s “Airships in Peace
-and War” (Rich & Cowan, London).
-
-Copies of “The Story of the Airship (Non-Rigid),” may be procured
-through The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. at Akron, Ohio; or at Los
-Angeles, or branch offices.
-
-
-
-
-                                 Index
-
-
-                                   A
-  Alcock (and Brown) Atlantic Crossing, 16.
-
-
-                                    B
-  Ballast recovery, 40 et seq.
-  Bases, airship, world war, 14;
-      peacetime, 58, 59, 64, 65.
-  Baldwin, Major Tom, 25, 45.
-  Bennett, James Gordon, races won by Goodyear pilots, 13;
-      by Westover, 30;
-      Van Orman, 46.
-  Barrage Balloons, 63, illust. opp. 62, 63, 68.
-  Blimp, origin of name, 25.
-  Blanchard, Jean Pierre, channel crossing, 22.
-  Boettner, Jack, pilot, 51, 52, 58, 65.
-  Boyd, Lt., 19-20.
-  Brannigan, Charles, photograph opp. vi;
-      pilot, 45, 46, 50, 51.
-
-
-                                    C
-  C-5, illust. opp. 14, 22;
-      Atlantic crossing, 15, 16.
-  Charles, J. A. C., first hydrogen balloon, 22;
-      drag rope, 23.
-  Chatham, U-boat attack, 14.
-  Consolidated, planes, 63.
-  Curtiss planes, early flights, 27;
-      Goodyear part in construction, 62.
-  Crum, H. W., pilot, 56, 57.
-
-
-                                    D
-  Defender, 47;
-      at Havana, 55.
-  De Rozier, 22.
-  Drag rope, developed by Charles, 23;
-      use at sea, 42;
-      with mast, at sea, 70.
-
-
-                                    E
-  Eckener, Hugo, 31, 37.
-
-
-                                    F
-  Fickes, Karl, pilot, 52;
-      record flight of K-5, 54, 57, 58, 65.
-  Finger patch, illust. opp. 14, 35.
-  Franklin, Benj., observations on aeronautics, 22.
-  Fulton, Captain Garland, 37.
-  Furculow, Pilot, 57, 58.
-
-
-                                    G
-  Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, 62, 63.
-  Greene, Col. E. H. R., dock at New Bedford, 60.
-  Grosse Ile, hangar, 50.
-  Grumman, planes, 63.
-
-
-                                    H
-  Hawker (and Greene) Atlantic Crossing, 16.
-  Helium, characteristics, 24, 33;
-      discovery of, 34.
-  Hockensmith, pilot, 50.
-  Hydrogen, first use in balloon, 22;
-      characteristics, 24, 33.
-
-
-                                    I
-  Iron Horse, 37, 40.
-
-
-                                    J
-  Jutland, battle, 10.
-
-
-                                    K
-  Kenworthy, Commander J. L., 17.
-
-
-                                    L
-  Lange, Karl, pilot, 51, 52, 57, 58, 66.
-  Lawrence, Lt. John, pilot, 15.
-  Lindbergh, flight, effect of, 31.
-  Litchfield, P. W., first air meet, 27;
-      starts blimp fleet, 30;
-      mast experiments, 38.
-  Little, Lt., pilot, 15.
-  Los Angeles, airship, illust. opp. 23;
-      why built, 29;
-      mast studies, 36, 44.
-
-
-                                    M
-  Macon, USS, size, 25.
-  Martin, planes, 63.
-  Mast, mooring, 36 et seq.;
-      illust. opp. 38.
-  Mills, Commander, G. H., 8, 17.
-  Minnesota, damaged by mine, 2.
-  Moffett, Admiral, W. A., photograph opp. iii;
-      report on value of airships, 12, 37.
-  Montgolfiers, first balloon flight, 21.
-  Morton, Walter, pilot, 45.
-
-
-                                    N
-  NC-4, Atlantic flight, 16;
-      illust. opp. 22.
-  Norge, airship, 25.
-
-
-                                    P
-  Parsevals, airships, 25.
-  Peck, Commander S. E., C-5 flight, 15.
-  Pilgrim, airship, 26, 31, 33, 66;
-      launching, 66.
-  Pony Blimp, airship, 47, 50.
-  Preston, R. A. D., pilot, 13, 15.
-
-
-                                    R
-  R-34, Atlantic Crossing, 15, 16;
-      size, 25.
-  Radio, first use of, 55.
-  Reichelderfer, Commander F. W., chief U. S. Weather Bureau, 62.
-  Rieker, John, pilot, 58, 65.
-  Roma, Italian-built airship, 35.
-  Rosendahl, Captain, C. E., photograph opp. vi, 17, 37.
-  Rounds, Lt. C. S., ballast pick-up, 40, 66.
-  RS-1, army airship, 25, 30.
-  Rubber, use of synthetics, 35.
-
-
-                                    S
-  San Diego, USS, sunk by mine, 2.
-  Santos Dumont, illust. opp. 22;
-      first flights, 27.
-  Settle, Commander T. G. W., photograph opp. vi, 38.
-  Sewell, A. T., pilot, 56, 57, 58, 65.
-  Shenandoah, USS, 29.
-  Sheppard, S. H., pilot, 54, 57.
-  Smith, Alfred E., 36, 48.
-  Smith, Verne, pilot, 57, 58.
-
-
-                                    T
-  TC-14, airship, 17, 19.
-  Trotter, F. A., pilot, bullet holes in ship, 53, 58, 66.
-
-
-                                    U
-  Upson, R. H., pilot, 13.
-
-
-                                    V
-  Van Orman, W. T., balloon pilot, 46.
-  Volunteer, airship, 39;
-      cross country trip, 55;
-      masting out, 39.
-
-
-                                    W
-  Westover, General, 30.
-  Wilson, R. D., pilot, Everglades rescue, 48, 57.
-  Wright brothers, first flight, 21.
-
-
-
-
-                               Footnotes
-
-
-[1]See U.S. Navy Publication, “German Submarine Activities on the
-    Atlantic Coast of the United States and Canada,” 1920, also the
-    book, “German Subs in Yankee Waters”—Henry J. James, 1940.
-
-
-
-
-                          Transcriber’s Notes
-
-
-—Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
-  domain in the country of publication.
-
-—Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
-  dialect unchanged.
-
-—In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the HTML
-  version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid), by Hugh Allen
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF THE AIRSHIP (NON-RIGID) ***
-
-***** This file should be named 51547-0.txt or 51547-0.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/5/4/51547/
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan, Paul Hutcheson
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
-States without permission and without paying copyright
-royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
-  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-
-Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
diff --git a/old/51547-0.zip b/old/51547-0.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index b471b70..0000000
--- a/old/51547-0.zip
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-8.txt b/old/51547-8.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index d6af1f3..0000000
--- a/old/51547-8.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3624 +0,0 @@
-Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid), by Hugh Allen
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid)
-       A Study of One of America's Lesser Known Defense Weapons
-
-Author: Hugh Allen
-
-Release Date: March 25, 2016 [EBook #51547]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF THE AIRSHIP (NON-RIGID) ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan, Paul Hutcheson
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-                              The Story of
-                              THE AIRSHIP
-                              (NON-RIGID)
-
-
-       _A Study of One of America's Lesser Known Defense Weapons_
-
-                             BY HUGH ALLEN
-
-    [Illustration: Airship in flight]
-
-                           AKRON, OHIO, 1943
-
-    [Illustration: ADMIRAL W. A. MOFFETT
-    To whom this book is dedicated]
-
-                     FIRST PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1942
-                    SECOND PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1943
-                     THIRD PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1943
-
-                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
-    THE LAKESIDE PRESS, R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY, CHICAGO AND
-                        CRAWFORDSVILLE, INDIANA
-
-
-
-
-                               Dedication
-
-
-To _Admiral William A. Moffett, and the men his leadership inspired--to
-Landsdowne, McCord and Berry--to Calnan and Dugan and other able
-juniors, to Maxfield and Hoyt, Hancock and Lawrence of an earlier
-decade--to the Army's Hawthorne Gray, and as well to England's Scott,
-France's de Grenadin, Germany's Lehmann and Goodyear's Brannigan and
-Morton--names taken from lighter-than-air's brief but distinguished
-casualty list--of men who believed in airships and accepted gallantly
-the penalty which progress eternally exacts from men--this book is
-dedicated._
-
-_Not forgetting the living men, the Navy's Rosendahl, Fulton, Mills,
-Settle; Goodyear's Litchfield and Arnstein, and hundreds of others who
-have carried on with unshaken faith, in the face of great setbacks._
-
-_Much of devotion and courage, of scientific research and engineering
-achievement has gone into this enterprise--and much has been proved.
-Today, airships of the non-rigid type are taking on a new responsibility
-to the nation. If they succeed, they may well bring back the great rigid
-airships, to act as long range scouts against enemy raid or surprise
-fleet movement, as fast moving bases and refueling points for fighting
-airplanes far at sea--and as factors in world commerce in days to come._
-
-_It is this impulse which is driving forward the men who believe in
-airships--that the sacrifices and efforts of Admiral Moffett and the
-rest shall not have gone in vain._
-
-    [Illustration: E. J. THOMAS
-    President of the Goodyear Company]
-
-    [Illustration: CAPTAIN C. E. ROSENDAHL, U.S.N.
-    He never gave up his ships]
-
-    [Illustration: COMMANDER T. G. W. SETTLE, U.S.N.
-    He explored the Stratosphere]
-
-    [Illustration: CHARLES BRANNIGAN
-    His courage still inspires airship men]
-
-    [Illustration: P. W. LITCHFIELD
-    An industrial leader, chairman of the Goodyear board, who has
-    believed for 30 years that airships would prove useful to his
-    country in peace or war]
-
-
-
-
-Foreword
-
-
-High admirals of the American fleet faced in 1940 the gravest
-responsibility in the National Defense the Navy had ever known. Wherever
-they turned, north, east, south, west, perils lurked. If they swung
-their binoculars toward Iceland, toward the Caribbean, toward Singapore,
-Alaska, or the Canal, everywhere waited potential threats against our
-American way of life, which they must meet with ships and men, with guns
-and stout hearts. This was not merely national defense, perhaps not even
-hemisphere defense, it was World War.
-
-Surveying their gigantic task, and moving swiftly to meet it, they found
-a place in their program for half forgotten craft, long over-shadowed by
-other arms of the fleet, the non-rigid airship, sometimes called a
-dirigible, but more often a "blimp."
-
-Couldn't the airship be used as a watchdog along the coast, against
-enemy submarines, in discovering enemy mines--relieve for sterner tasks
-the destroyers and other craft now wallowing their innards out in those
-restless shallow waters? Great Britain and France had used airships
-effectively in this service over the English Channel during the last
-war.
-
-The areas within their patrol range, a hundred or 200 miles out to sea,
-within the 100 fathom curve, was a vital one. There steamship lanes
-converge, great harbors lie, coastwise merchantmen cruise, there is the
-greatest concentration of military and commercial shipping.
-
-With depth bombs and machine guns the blimps might strike a stout blow
-of their own, even if they weren't rated as combat craft. At least they
-could sound the alarm, call out reinforcements from swift moving
-shore-based craft, keep the intruder under surveillance. After all the
-main thing was to find the submarines in those endless miles of water.
-And in this field the very slowness of the airship, as compared to the
-airplane, would be an advantage, permit a more thorough search of the
-ocean's surface, while its speed as compared to any man-of-war, would
-enable it to cover more ground within a given 24 hours.
-
-So on the Navy's recommendation Congress in 1940 approved the building
-of the airship fleet up to substantial proportions, together with bases
-from which they might operate along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
-That program is now being put into effect and the Goodyear company which
-had built most of the airships used in the first World War, began again
-to build ships.
-
-The story of the great rigid airships, the Los Angeles, the Akron, Macon
-and Graf Zeppelin is fairly well known. That of the smaller non-rigids
-is less familiar. The larger airships still hold vital commercial and
-military promise for the future. However, this book will confine itself
-to the non-rigid airship, with only enough reference to the larger ships
-to round out the picture.
-
-Every new vehicle of combat or transport has had to fight its way to
-acceptance against misunderstanding and lack of understanding.
-Steamships had to prove themselves against sailing ships. Submarines had
-an uphill battle to establish themselves. The airplane was long on
-probation, and now the airship is on trial.
-
-This book will tell something about these ships, cite what is claimed
-for them and what has been reasonably proved they can do, see what
-progress has been made in performance, and point out what may be
-expected from them hereafter--not avoiding the moot question of
-vulnerability.
-
-Lighter-than-air is older by a century than the heavier-than-air branch
-of aeronautics. Its history is marked by long research and experiment
-and continued progress. Like every pioneering development it has had its
-setbacks. But the sincerity of the effort and solid accomplishment made,
-entitles the project to thoughtful consideration.
-
-
-
-
-                                Contents
-
-
-  Dedication                                                            v
-  Foreword                                                            vii
-  I. German Submarines in American Waters                               1
-      A little known story from the first World War.
-  II. British Airships in the First World War                           9
-      The use of non-rigid airships in Europe in 1914-18--as
-      convoys, and as scouts against mines and U-boats.
-  III. American Airships in Two Wars                                   13
-      Activities in first war, though building of ships, training
-      of men and erecting of bases had to be done after war broke
-      out.
-  IV. The Beginnings of Flight                                         21
-      Difference between airships and airplanes--classes of
-      airships--progress, from Montgolfiers to Santos Dumont to
-      1914.
-  V. Effect on Aeronautics of Post-War Reaction                        28
-      Blimps overshadowed by Zeppelins and airplanes--only rigid
-      airships had anything like continuing program, and they
-      because of possible commercial value--effect on public
-      opinion of Lindbergh flight and first arrival of the Graf
-      Zeppelin.
-  VI. Airship Improvements Between Wars                                32
-      Helium gas--structural changes--development of mooring
-      mast--Navy experiments in picking up water ballast from the
-      ocean.
-  VII. Adventures of the Goodyear Fleet                                45
-      Reason for starting--adventures--familiarize country with
-      airships--safety record--evolution of masting technique.
-  VIII. Results of Fleet Operations                                    61
-      Weather information--effect on flying and ground handling
-      practice--on ship design--created bases, ships and
-      construction plants which might prove useful in emergency.
-  IX. Vulnerability of Airships                                        67
-  References                                                           72
-  Index                                                                73
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I
-                  German Submarines in American Waters
-
-
-    [Illustration: Submarine]
-
-In the last six months of the first World War Germany sent six
-submarines to America at intervals starting in April, to lay mines along
-our shipping lanes, attack merchantmen, drive the fishing fleet ashore,
-try to force this country to call back part of its European fleet for
-home defense--and in any case to give America, geographically aloof from
-the war, a taste of what war was like.
-
-These activities were overshadowed at the time by graver events, or
-hidden by military secrecy. Few people even today know that ships were
-sunk and men killed by German U-boats within sight of our coast.[1]
-
-It was in no sense an all-out effort. Only a handful of submarines were
-used. The attack was launched late in the war, in fact one of the six
-didn't even reach American waters, was called back by news of the
-Armistice. Submarines of that day had a cruising range of some three
-months, could spend only three weeks in our coastal waters, used the
-rest of the time getting over and back.
-
-But in those few weeks these six submarines destroyed exactly 100 ships,
-of all sizes, types and registry, killed 435 people. Most of the ships
-were peaceful unarmed merchantmen, coastwise ships from the West Indies
-and South America, tankers from Galveston, fishing ships heading back
-from the Grand Banks, supply ships carrying guns and war materials to
-England, a few stragglers from convoys.
-
-The subs' biggest catch was the USS San Diego, a cruiser, sunk by mine
-off Fire Island, just outside New York harbor, July 19, 1918, with 1,180
-officers and men aboard. Only six lives, fortunately, were lost. The
-battleship Minnesota, escorted by a destroyer, struck a mine off Fenwick
-shoals light ship, early in the morning of September 29, but made
-temporary repairs and limped back into Philadelphia Navy Yard 18 hours
-later. A fragment of the mine was found imbedded in her frame work.
-
-    [Illustration: Reproduced from U.S. Navy map showing track of
-    submarines operating in American waters during last few months of
-    first World War.]
-
-Mines were laid at strategic points. One field, with its mines 500 to
-1,000 yards apart was laid off Cape Hatteras, one at the mouth of
-Chesapeake Bay, one across Delaware Bay, two in between these key
-inlets, another off Barnegat, and the last off Fire Island. Some of the
-mines drifted ashore, others were found and destroyed--the last ones not
-till the following January. But mines accounted for six of the ships
-lost.
-
-One of the submarines, the U-117, built as a mine layer, planted 46 of
-the 58 mines laid along our shores; four others were merchant subs of
-the Deutschland type, including the Deutschland itself, which had twice
-previously visited this country on ostensibly friendly missions.
-
-Though the subs encountered a few victims on the way over or back, most
-of the ships were destroyed in the shallower waters within 200 miles of
-the American and Canadian coast. The fishing was better close in.
-
-Naval Intelligence knew, through Admiral Sims' office in London, just
-when each submarine left Kiel, what its probable destination was, and
-its approximate arrival date. The Navy could not broadcast this
-information, lest U-boat captains learn they were expected, but took
-appropriate defense measures. Even so, each submarine traveled directly
-to its destination, carried out its mission.
-
-U-boats operated almost with immunity from Newfoundland to the Virginia
-capes. Twice American men of war passed over submerging craft so close
-as almost to ram them. The U-151 worked at cutting cables for three
-days, near enough to New York City that the crew could see the lights of
-Broadway at night. The U-115, lying off the Virginia capes, came to the
-surface one afternoon just in time for its periscope to disclose a
-cruiser, two destroyers and a Navy tug a mile away, peacefully returning
-from routine target practice, entirely unaware that the U-boat was
-lurking in the vicinity.
-
-The submarines got a poor press that summer, not only for reasons of
-military secrecy, but because more stirring news held the attention of
-the public. The AEF was beginning to see action in France.
-
-Still headlines flashed occasionally as censorship was raised, or
-survivors brought in stories. From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin
-during this period:
-
-"Hun U-boats Raid New Jersey coast--Schooner Edward H. Cole Attacked by
-two Submarines, Destroyed--Two Attacked Off New England--Atlantic Ports
-Closed"--and the story, under New York date line: "Germany has carried
-her unrestricted submarine warfare to this side of the ocean--at least
-five vessels sunk--submarine chasers ordered out from Cape May--Coast
-Guard stations on special lookout--marine insurance companies announce
-sharp increase in rates."
-
-News Flash--"Wireless report from passenger steamer Carolina says she is
-under attack"--The Carolina is sunk, 300 survivors are landed at
-Barnegat Bay, 19 at Lewes Del., 30 at Atlantic City, others picked up in
-open boats.
-
-    [Illustration: On this map of actual ship sinkings and mine layings
-    in 1918 is superimposed a sketch of the area which a handful of
-    modern patrol blimps might cover.]
-
-Then: "Navy mine sweepers sent out to destroy mines and floating
-torpedoes which had missed target--tanker Herbert L. Pratt strikes mine
-in shallow water on maiden voyage--War Department asks Congress for
-$10,000,000 to set up balloon and plane stations along the coast to
-combat sub menace--British steamer Harpathian torpedoed off Virginia
-capes--American vessel, name withheld, puts back to 'an Atlantic port'
-after being chased by U-boat."
-
-The record continues: "San Diego sunk by mine--tug and four barges
-sunk--British freighter attacked--sub sends landing crew on board lumber
-schooner off Maine coast, set her afire--Steamer Merak sunk off
-Hatteras--tanker torpedoed off Barnegat Bay, beaches blanketed with
-oil--Norwegian steamer Vinland--British steamer Peniston and Swedish
-steamer Sydland off Nantucket--nine U. S. fishing vessels off
-Massachusetts coast--British tanker Mirlo--U.S. Schooner Dorothy
-Barrett--tanker Frederick R. Kellogg" and so on and on.
-
-Events of the time and since have swept these happenings out of the
-minds of most Americans--even if they knew of it at the time. But
-somewhere, half forgotten in Naval files, is an official report,
-painstakingly compiled after the war, from ship logs, from stories by
-merchant captains and crews, even by officers of surrendered German
-submarines, to make up as complete a record as possible of one of the
-amazing operations of the war--and one whose magnitude, in territory
-covered and damage done, few suspected, even within the Navy, at the
-time.
-
-Only two subs had so much as a brush with American ships. The transport
-von Steuben, former German liner, proceeding to the rescue of men in
-life boats from a merchant ship, dropped depth bombs which the U-boat
-escaped by diving to 83 meters, lying low till the enemy had gone.
-
-Closer call had the U-140, largest and most modern of the fleet, which
-after sinking several ships off Diamond Shoals, including the light ship
-itself, almost caught a tartar when the Brazilian passenger liner,
-Uberabe, zigzagging furiously to escape, sent out S.O.S. messages which
-brought four U.S. destroyers hurrying to the rescue. Nearest was the USS
-Stringham, which proceeding under full speed, using the Uberabe as a
-screen, charged on the U-boat, dropped 15 depth charges when the U-boat
-dived, timed to explode at different levels.
-
-    [Illustration: Training exercises with U. S. submarines have taught
-    airship captains much about the habits, movements and
-    characteristics of the underseas craft. (U. S. Navy photo).]
-
-    [Illustration: The year before America got into the last war the
-    German submarine U-51 sank a half dozen merchant ships off Nantucket
-    Island then proceeded into Newport. (U. S. Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: Navy airships in practice patrols identify, as to
-    class and nationality, all surface ships in their area, learn to
-    recognize the silhouette of a submarine from afar. (U. S. Navy
-    photo)]
-
-The U-boat captain, one of the best in the German navy, drove his craft
-at a sharp angle to 400 feet. One charge exploding underneath the sub
-turned it stern upward till it stood almost perpendicular. He managed to
-level out finally at 415 feet, lay there as long as he dared, finally
-reached the surface. His ship was so badly crippled it had to abandon
-its mission and set out for home--though it sunk a couple more ships in
-the mid-Atlantic on the way back.
-
-The only U-boat casualty was the U-156 which after getting 34 victims in
-American waters, getting eight in one day, was itself sunk by mines--but
-off Faroe Island as it was almost home.
-
-This then is the story of submarine operations in U. S. waters in
-1918--a half hearted effort of short duration started late in the
-day--but which destroyed 100 ships, totalling 200,000 tons, most of them
-close to our shores.
-
-No one could doubt but that in the event of another war submarines would
-be used again, and in more vigorous fashion. The American fleet might
-easily keep major enemy ships at a safe distance, and bombing attack
-from any part of Europe or over the Pacific would have little military
-value. But certainly submarines would find their way past the screen of
-Navy craft, bob up off American harbors, again to lay mines in the path
-of coastwise steamers, deliver hit-and-run attack by torpedo and gunfire
-at American craft.
-
-We could be equally sure that these ugly motorized sharks, churning the
-muddy sub-surface waters, would not be satisfied to attack merchantmen
-only, would be looking for bigger prey.
-
-On the map showing the operations of German submarines in 1918 let us
-superimpose, as an example, the patrol area which two blimps, basing at
-Boston, Lakehurst, Cape May and Norfolk might effectively cover in a 12
-hour period.
-
-A patrol area of 2,000 square miles per ship is conservative. It assumes
-the ship flying at no faster than 35 knots, having visibility of five
-miles in all directions. As a matter of fact, allowing a little more
-than 40 knots speed--and the airship cruises considerably faster than
-that--we might say that a modern blimp could patrol an area 10 miles
-wide and 500 miles long in the 12 hours, or an area of 5,000 square
-miles. But by criss-crossing back and forth in accordance with a
-progressive plan, an area of 2,000 square miles could be made reasonably
-secure--except under extremely adverse conditions of visibility.
-
-Laying these patrol areas down over the map of submarine operations of
-1918 it is apparent that such patrols would cover much of the territory
-where ship sinkings were achieved, cover all of the areas where mines
-were laid.
-
-With blimps operating from such bases, in addition to the patrols being
-executed by other naval craft, we might conclude that no submarine could
-venture within 100 miles of the American coast during daylight hours
-without considerable risk of detection, and that blimps should be able
-to make contribution to the safety of coastwise shipping and harbor
-cities.
-
-The patrol areas assigned to the blimps would have their flanks exposed,
-but airship patrol would be co-ordinated with that of airplanes and
-surface craft, guarding the areas farther out.
-
-That this conclusion is reasonable is indicated by the fact that from
-1939 on, Lakehurst Naval Air Station, under command of Commander G. H.
-Mills had been doing just this, patroling areas all the way from
-Nantucket to Cape Hatteras.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER II
-                   British Airships in the First War
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airship over water]
-
-Germany entered the first World War with high expectations as to one,
-perhaps two of its new weapons of war. Its submarines might offset
-Britain's superiority at sea, and certainly the Zeppelins, which had
-proved themselves in four years of commercial flying, would be able to
-cross the English Channel and carry the war to the island which had seen
-no invasion since William the Conqueror.
-
-No nation except Germany had Zeppelins. And as the German people began
-to feel the pinch of the blockade, cutting their life line of food and
-supplies, they brought increasing public pressure on High Command to use
-these weapons to punish England.
-
-Later commentators have speculated as to whether, if Germany had held
-its fire, waited till it could assemble an overpowering force of
-Zeppelins and submarines and stage a joint attack, it might not have
-been able to force a quick decision.
-
-But the Zeppelins were sent over a few at a time, as fast as they could
-be built, and England was given time to devise defenses. These were
-chiefly higher altitude airplanes, farther ranging anti-aircraft guns,
-sky piercing searchlights, which combined to force the invaders to fly
-continuously higher as the war wore on, as high as 25,000 feet at times,
-with corresponding sacrifice of bombing accuracy. And when machine guns,
-synchronized with the propellers, were mounted in airplane cockpits, and
-began to spit inflammable bullets into the hydrogen filled bags and send
-them down in flames, the duel took on more even terms.
-
-Less spectacularly the Zeppelins were used on a wide scale as
-reconnaissance and scouting craft, which flying fast and far were given
-credit on more than one occasion for saving German Naval squadrons from
-being cut off by superior Allied forces, were acknowledged even by the
-British to have played an important part in the Battle of Jutland.
-
-It is a little hard to realize today that whatever air battles were
-waged over water in the last war were conducted chiefly by
-lighter-than-air craft. Planes staged spectacular battles along the
-Allied lines in France, but lack of range and carrying capacity forced
-them to leave sea battles to the airship. As a measure of that
-situation, the great hangars at Friedrichshafen, spawning ground of the
-Zeppelins, one of the outstanding targets in all Europe if England were
-to draw the dirigible's fangs, lay hardly more than a hundred miles from
-the French borders, but even that distance was too great for effective
-attack.
-
-While these greater events were taking place, British airships, smaller
-in size, less spectacular, were playing no small part in repelling
-Germany's other threat, the submarine.
-
-
-                   Blimps Used to Search for U-Boats
-
-Navy opinion around the world was skeptical at the beginning of the War
-as to whether submarines would ever be practical. There were mechanical
-troubles, accidents, usually costly. Even Germany, prior to 1914, used
-to send an escort of warships along to convoy its subs to their
-station--then send out for them afterward to bring them home again.
-
-But the war was only a few weeks old when the captain of the U-9,
-cruising down the Dutch coast, discovered that his gyro compass was off,
-and when he got his bearings saw that he was 50 miles off course. He
-wasted no breath, however, on many-syllabled German swear words, for off
-on his southern horizon were the masts of three British ships. He dived,
-came up alongside, and in 30 minutes, single handed, with well directed
-torpedoes, had sunk in turn HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy.
-
-The morning of September 22, 1914, marked the beginning of a new era in
-Naval warfare. The warring nations grew furiously busy building their
-own U-boats and devising defenses against the enemy's. Among these
-defenses was the non-rigid airship.
-
-These two vehicles, so widely different, have much in common. If we may
-be technical for a minute we may say that the airship and the submarine
-are both buoyant bodies, completely immersed and floating in a
-medium--air and water respectively--of changing pressures, that each
-uses dual sets of steering gear and rudders to control direction and
-altitude. And further, that the airship in 1941 faces the same division
-of opinion as the submarine faced in 1914, as to whether, particularly
-with rigid airships, it will ever be widely used and accepted.
-
-In any event in 1914 there was an urgent and immediate job to be done.
-
-Indicator nets and high explosive mines might give some protection to
-harbors, might be stretched across steamship lanes and planted around
-the hiding places of the submarines, if those could be discovered. But
-troop ships and munition ships and food ships must be dispatched without
-interruption across the tricky waters of the English Channel to France,
-and for this purpose convoy escorts were devised, with camouflaged
-warships zigzagging alongside, while high aloft in lookout stations men
-with binoculars strained their eyes, searching the waters, ahead,
-astern, alongside, their search lingering long over every bit of
-floating wreckage--and there was a lot of it--to make sure it was not a
-periscope.
-
-These lookouts aboard ship quickly had a new ally in the air. As the
-submarine menace grew, binoculars began to flash too from the fuselages
-of bobbing blimps overhead. At a few hundred or perhaps a thousand feet
-elevation they could see deep below the surface, and quickly learned to
-recognize at considerable distance the tell-tale trail of bubbles or
-feathered waters or smear of oil which denoted the enemy's presence,
-might even pick out the shadowy form of the submerged craft itself.
-
-The value of the airship in convoy was that it could fly slowly, could
-throttle down its motors and march in step with its charges, cruise
-ahead, alongside, behind. The very speed of its sister craft, the
-airplane, handicapped its use in this field.
-
-This characteristic of the blimp was even more useful in hunting U-boat
-nests. The blimp could head into the wind, with its motors barely
-turning over, hover for hours at zero speed over suspect areas. It could
-fly at low altitudes, follow even slender clues. Seagulls following a
-periscope sometimes gave highly useful information. An orange crate
-moving against the tide attracted the attention of one alert pilot, for
-the crate concealed a periscope, and the blimp dropped
-bombs--successfully.
-
-When a blimp discovered a submarine, it would give chase. With its 50
-knots of reserve speed it was faster than any warship, much faster than
-the poky wartime submarine, which could do only 10 or 12 knots on the
-surface, much less than half that when submerged. If it was lucky the
-airship might drop a bomb alongside before the sub got away.
-
-And run for cover the submarine always did. It wanted no argument with a
-ship which could see it under water, could out-run it, and might plunk a
-bomb alongside before its presence was even suspected.
-
-Airships did get their subs during the war. The records, always
-incomplete in the case of submarines, whose casualties were invisible,
-show that British blimps sighted 49 U-boats, led to the destruction of
-27. But their greater usefulness lay in the fact that their mere
-presence sent the underseas craft scuttling for submerged safety.
-
-Between June, 1917, and the end of the war British blimps flew 1,500,000
-miles, nearly as many as the Zeppelins. A French Commission made an
-exhaustive study of dirigible operations after the war, and the late
-Rear Admiral W. A. Moffett quoted from its reports in summarizing
-lighter-than-air lessons taken from the war, when he told the Naval
-Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives that "as far as they
-could learn, no steamer was ever molested by submarines when escorted by
-a non-rigid airship."
-
-France and Italy had long coast lines, used the blimps extensively along
-the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, but England found
-still greater use for them because it was an island. So blimp scouts
-played a singularly useful role from Land's End to the Orkneys, stood
-watch at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, the Solway, the Humber, and
-the Thames.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III
-                     American Airships in Two Wars
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airship and hangar]
-
-Compared to British and French airships, American dirigibles made a less
-impressive record during the first war.
-
-This for the reasons that there were few enemy activities in our waters
-until the very end, and that there were few American airships to oppose
-them. Virtually the entire airship organization had to be created after
-we got into the war.
-
-Naval attach�s abroad had been watching blimp operations over the
-English channel, and on the basis of rather meager information which
-they furnished, Navy designers were working on plans, when the Secretary
-of the Navy, in February 1917, 60 days before the declaration of war,
-ordered 16 blimps started at once.
-
-Nine of these were to be built by Goodyear which had at least given some
-study to the principles, had built a few balloons, one of which, flown
-by its engineers out of Paris, had won the James Gordon Bennett Cup
-Race.
-
-No one in this country, however, knew much about building airships, and
-less about flying them after they were built. Operating bases would have
-to be built and the very construction plants as well. The first Goodyear
-airship under the Navy order was completed before the airship dock
-(hangar) at Wingfoot Lake was ready, and the ship had to be erected in
-Chicago and flown in.
-
-The engineers who built it, Upson and Preston, made their first airship
-flight in delivering the ship to Akron, using theoretical principles
-applied in the international balloon race the year before, to make up
-for their lack of practical experience.
-
-Those first ships were small, slow, lacked range, uncovered many
-shortcomings. Flight training was done under adverse circumstances. Men
-had to teach themselves to fly airships, then teach others to fly them.
-
-The pilots were chiefly engineering students from the colleges, with a
-sprinkling of Navy officers. They had to take their advanced training
-abroad at British and French bases, because there were no facilities
-here, and in fact did most of their flying abroad. By the end of the war
-American pilots were manning three British airship bases and had taken
-over practically all the French operations, including the large base at
-Paimboeuf, across the Loire from St. Nazaire, on the French coast.
-
-So the war was well along before American bases were set up and manned.
-These were at Chatham, Mass., at Montauk and Rockaway, N. Y., at Cape
-May, Norfolk and Key West. Like the airplane patrols the blimps saw
-little action, though they had an advantage in that they could stay out
-all day, while the short range planes of 1917-18 had to come back every
-few hours to refuel.
-
-A patrol airship at Chatham, Mass. missed its chance in that it was
-adrift at sea with engine trouble when the German U-156 slipped into the
-harbor at nearby Orleans and wiped out some fishing boats--though it
-might have done no better than the first plane which reached the scene,
-whose few bombs did not explode.
-
-The blimp patrols, however, uncovered one other type of activity. More
-than once they spotted suspicious looking craft emerging under cover of
-fog, from remote coves and inlets along the Long Island coast, fishing
-boats and barges with improvised power plant and curious looking
-paraphernalia on deck. Keeping the stranger in sight the blimp summoned
-armored craft from shore which sent boarding crews on, found mines
-destined for the New York steamship lanes.
-
-A more important result of the blimp operations was the improvements in
-design which were found, particularly in the "C" type ship, brought out
-in 1918, of which 20 were built. They had much better performance in
-range, power, could make 60 miles speed, were faster than any airships
-except the Zeppelins. Navy officers and crews came to have high respect
-for them.
-
-    [Illustration: Here's the gallant C-5, which with a bit of luck
-    would have been the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic. (U. S.
-    Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: Wingfoot Lake, Akron, was a busy place during the
-    first war, as the spawning ground of scores of blimps, hundreds of
-    training and observation balloons.]
-
-    [Illustration: "Finger patches" of rope ends raveled out and
-    cemented to the outside of the bag were used in 1918 to support the
-    weight of the gondola--an improvised airplane fuselage.]
-
-    [Illustration: During most of the period between World wars the Navy
-    had only a few J-type ships, but used them effectively in training
-    and experimental work. (U. S. Navy photo)]
-
-Which led to one of the interesting aeronautic adventure stories of the
-period. It happened just after the Armistice.
-
-Men had come out of the war with imaginations afire over the
-possibilities of aircraft. One challenge lay open--the Atlantic--no one
-had flown it.
-
-In the breathing spell brought by the Armistice, the British were
-preparing their new Zeppelin R-34 for the crossing; two English planes
-were being shipped to Newfoundland to try to fly back; the U. S. Navy
-had a seaplane crossing in prospect. There was even a German plan. A new
-Zeppelin had just been finished at Friedrichshafen when the Armistice
-was signed, and the crew planned to fly it to America as a
-demonstration--but authorities got wind of it and blocked the venture.
-
-But of all the Atlantic crossings about which men were dreaming in early
-1919, none is more interesting than the one projected for the little
-blimps.
-
-The C-5, newest of the non-rigid airships built for the Navy, was
-stationed at Montauk, and there one night a group of officers sat
-intensively studying charts and weather maps. St. John's, Newfoundland,
-1,400 miles away, would be the first leg of the trip. It was easily
-within the cruising radius of the ship, particularly if they got helping
-winds, which they should if the time was carefully picked. From there to
-Ireland was another 1850 miles, also within range with the prevailing
-westerly winds.
-
-Permission was asked from Washington, and the Navy flashed back its
-approval and its blessing, assigned five experienced officers to the
-project: Lieut. Comdr. Coil, Lieuts. Lawrence, Little, Preston, and
-Peck. The USS Chicago was sent ahead to St. John's to stand by and give
-any help needed.
-
-Shortly after sunrise on May 15, 1919, motors were warmed up and the
-ship shoved off from the tip of Long Island with six men aboard headed
-for Newfoundland. At 7 o'clock the next morning they circled over the
-deck of the _Chicago_, dropped their handling lines to the waiting
-ground crew on a rocky point at St. John's. The first leg had been made
-in a little more than 24 hours, at an average speed of nearly 60 miles
-per hour.
-
-The morning was clear and comparatively calm. Coil and Lawrence went
-aboard the _Chicago_ to catch a little sleep before the final hop over
-the ocean. The others saw to re-fueling the C-5, stowing provisions
-aboard, topping off a bit of hydrogen from the cylinders alongside.
-Mechanics swarmed over the motors. All was well.
-
-But about 10 o'clock gusts began to sweep down from Hudson's Bay,
-dragging the ground crew over the rocks. There were no mooring masts in
-those days. A modern mast would have saved the ship. More sailors were
-put on the lines and word sent to Coil and Lawrence. If the ground crew
-could hold the ship till the pilots could get aboard and cut loose, the
-storm would give them a flying start over the Atlantic.
-
-But the wind blew steadily stronger as the commander was hurrying
-ashore. It reached gale force, hurricane force, 40 knots, 60 knots in
-gusts, varying in direction crazily around a 60-degree arc. It picked
-the ship up and slammed it down, damaging the fuselage, breaking a
-propeller. Little and Peck climbed aboard to pull the rip panel and let
-the gas out. After the storm passed, they could cement the panel back
-in, reinflate the bag and go on.
-
-But the fates were against them. The cord leading to the rip panel
-broke. Desperately, the two men started climbing up the suspension
-cables to the gas bag with knives, planning to rip the panel out by
-hand. But a tremendous gust caught the ship, lifted it up. Seeing the
-danger to the crew, Peck shouted to them to let go, and he and Little
-dropped over the side. Little broke an ankle.
-
-The ship surged upward, crewless, set off like another "Flying Dutchman"
-across the Atlantic, was never seen again.
-
-Just three days later Hawker and Grieve set out from St. John's, landed
-in the ocean. Alcock and Brown cut loose their landing gear a month
-later and landed in Ireland. One of the three Navy seaplanes, the NC-4,
-reached Europe on May 31 and the British dirigible R-34 set out on July
-2 for its successful round trip to Mitchel Field.
-
-But for a trick of fate and the lack of equipment available today, a
-blimp would have been first to get across.
-
-Many things happened in the airship field between the two wars, but most
-of them affected non-rigid airships only indirectly, as the Navy was
-primarily concerned with the larger rigids.
-
-The loss of the Hindenburg by hydrogen fire (which American helium would
-have prevented), coming on the heels of tragic setbacks in this country
-was enough to dismay anyone except Commander C. E. Rosendahl and his
-stouthearted associates at Lakehurst Naval Air Station.
-
-They didn't give up. Setbacks were inevitable to progress. Count
-Zeppelin had built and lost five rigid airships prior to 1909, but he
-went on to build ships which were flown successfully in war and peace.
-If the Germans, using hydrogen, could do this, Americans, with helium,
-should not find it impossible, Lakehurst reasoned. And if they had no
-rigid airships to fly and no immediate likelihood of getting any they
-would use blimps.
-
-The Navy was more familiar than the public with what the British and
-French airships had accomplished in the first war. Studying, as all Navy
-officers were doing in that period, the various possibilities of attack
-and defense, in case the war then threatening Europe should sweep across
-the Atlantic, they came to the conclusion that the coast line of America
-was no more remote from German submarines in 1938 than the coast of
-England was in 1914.
-
-The airplane had improved vastly in speed, range, and striking power,
-and their very multiplicity had ruled out the blimps over the English
-channel, even if helium was available, but those conclusions did not
-hold along the American coast.
-
-The heroic part played by Allied blimps was a part of the legend of the
-airship service. Nothing new developed in war had subtracted anything
-from the ability of American airships to do in this war what British
-non-rigids had done in the last. Commander J. L. Kenworthy and after him
-Commander G. H. Mills as commanding officer at Lakehurst turned to
-non-rigids.
-
-Under Mills was instituted, quietly, unostentatiously, with what ships
-he had, a series of practice patrols to determine the usefulness of
-airships in this field, to discover and perfect technique, and to train
-officers and men.
-
-Lakehurst had a curious conglomeration of airships to start with. There
-were two J ships of immediate post-war type, with open cockpits, 210,000
-cubic feet capacity; two TC ships, inherited from the Army, of more
-modern design, and larger size; the ZMC2, an experimental job built to
-study the use of a metal cover, and about to be scrapped after nine
-years of existence; the L-1, the same size as the Goodyear ships,
-123,000 cubic feet, the first modern training ship, which would be
-joined later by the L-2 and L-3; the G-1, a larger trainer of Goodyear
-Defender size, useful for group instruction, and the 320,000 cubic foot
-K-1, which had been built for experiments in the use of fuel gas. Only
-the K-2, prototype of the 416,000 cubic foot patrol ships later ordered
-could be called a modern airship, though the Army dirigibles also had
-good cruising radius.
-
-Yet with this curious assortment of airships of various sizes, types and
-ages, the Navy carried on practice patrols covering the areas between
-Montauk and the Virginia Capes, flying day after day, built an
-impressive accumulation of flight data, missed very few days on account
-of weather, made it a point not to miss a rendezvous with the surface
-fleet. More than any one thing it was this demonstration, over an
-18-month period, which led to the revival of an airship program in this
-country, the ordering of ships and land bases.
-
-Let us see what a blimp patrol is like. The airship can fly up to 65
-knots or better, but this is no speed flight. The motors are throttled
-down to 40 knots, so that the crew may see clearly, take its time, study
-the moving surface underneath, scrutinize every trace of oil smear on
-the surface, alert for the tell-tale "feather" of the submarine's wake,
-air bubbles, a phosphorescent glow at night, for even a bit of debris
-which might conceal a periscope.
-
-A school of whales, a lone hammerhead shark on the surface or submerged
-stirs the interest of the patrol, offers a tempting live target for the
-bombs,--light charges with little more powder than a shot gun shell
-uses. Now a ship records a direct hit on a shark's back 500 feet below.
-He shakes his head, dives to escape this unseen enemy aloft. The airship
-gives chase, follows the moving shadow below, so strikingly resembling a
-submarine, finds the practice useful.
-
-Of the crew of eight, everyone on the airship is on watch, with an
-observation tower open on all sides, without interference of wings, as
-in the airplane. Compared with surface craft, the airship can patrol
-more area in a dawn to dusk patrol because of its speed and its wide
-range of unbroken observation.
-
-The submarine is more efficient in relatively shallow depths, but
-airships have spotted the silhouetted shadow of U-boats in clear water
-as deep as 70 feet below the surface. The submarine will attempt to
-maneuver within a mile of its target to launch its torpedoes
-effectively. But even at a mile away the ten inches of periscope which
-projects above the surface is difficult for other craft to
-detect,--either for a cruiser at sea level, or an airplane, flying at
-relatively high speed, a threat either may miss.
-
-Airship crews are at action stations even during peace time, on the
-alert against the appearance of strange craft. They identify each
-passing ship through binoculars, by voice or radio, taking no chances
-that attack without warning by a seeming peaceful ship might not be a
-declaration of war. As many as 40 or 50 ships may be encountered and
-identified in a day's patrol. The airships are off at sun-up, back at
-sundown, unless on more extended reconnaissance, move quietly into the
-big dock.
-
-Patrol is tedious work. Occasionally there is a break in the routine.
-Lt. Boyd has been assigned command of the big TC-14 for the next day's
-patrol. He is up late studying the curious tracks he is to follow in
-coordination with the other airships. At midnight however the radio
-brings startling word. An airplane leaving Norfolk with a crew of ten
-for Newport, is reported missing. Nearby destroyers, airplanes,
-airships, are ordered out as a searching party. The TC-14, having the
-longest cruising radius, 52 hours without refueling, is sent off at
-once, with a senior officer, Lt. Trotter, in charge. Men's lives may be
-at stake.
-
-By daylight, the TC-14 has flown over the entire northern half of the
-plane's track and back, watching intently for distress signals or flares
-or any sign of the distressed plane. Three miles north of Hog Island
-light outside Norfolk, the ship encounters fog extending clear to the
-water. Search of this area is hopeless and the ship scouts the edges,
-waits for the fog to burn off. At noon as it lifts, pieces of wreckage
-are spotted at the very area which it had hidden, and which the TC-14
-had flown over five hours earlier.
-
-The airship cruised around, hoping that some bit of wreckage might
-support a survivor, finally returned to its station after 20 hours,
-during which time it had covered 1,000 miles, intensively in parallel
-courses 20 miles wide. Had the luckless plane or any of its crew been
-able to send up flares anywhere within an area of 20,000 square miles of
-water, the airship could have come up alongside and effected a rescue in
-a matter of minutes.
-
-In the meantime, Lt. Boyd, originally assigned to TC-14, was up at dawn
-only to learn of the change in plans. He was assigned to pilot the
-smaller G-1 trainer to New London, keep a sharp look-out enroute for the
-missing plane, then work with the destroyers on torpedo exercises. The
-G-1 had no galley aboard and in the rush the matter of food for an
-18-hour cruise was somehow overlooked, and Boyd and his crew set off
-with only a couple of sardine sandwiches apiece and a pot of coffee,
-which quickly grew cold.
-
-Late in the afternoon, seeing his crew growing hungrier and
-hungrier,--for airshipping is excellent for the appetite,--Boyd had an
-idea. He radioed the Destroyer Division Commander: "After last torpedo
-recovered, would you be able to furnish us with some hot coffee and a
-loaf of bread, if we lower a container on a 200-foot line across your
-after deck?"
-
-Never in naval history had an airship borrowed chow from a surface
-craft. But the answer came promptly. "Affirmative. Do you wish cream and
-sugar?"
-
-There was nothing in the books giving the procedure for borrowing a meal
-from the air, but the crew rigged up a line from a target sleeve reel,
-fastened a hook with a quick release at the end, attached a monkey
-wrench to weight it down, stood by for the word to come alongside.
-
-Then while the crews of three destroyers watched, the G-1 swung slowly
-over the destroyer's deck. One sailor caught the line held it while a
-second filled the coffee pot, and a third attached a load of sandwiches.
-Then the airship sailors hauled away, radioed their thanks, set off for
-the 200 mile trip back to Lakehurst, while hundreds of sailors below
-waved their white caps and cheered, a little inter-ship courtesy between
-sky and sea which all hands will long remember.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IV
-                        The Beginnings of Flight
-
-
-    [Illustration: Hot-air balloon]
-
-In the spring of 1783, as the American Revolution was nearing a
-successful conclusion, two brothers named Montgolfier sitting before a
-fire at a little town in France found themselves wondering why smoke
-went up into the air.
-
-That was just as foolish as Newton wondering why an apple, detached from
-the tree, fell down. Smoke had always gone up and apples had always come
-down. That was all there was to it.
-
-But when men wonder momentous events may be in the making. In these
-instances epochal discoveries resulted: the law of gravitation and the
-possibility of human flight.
-
-The legends of Icarus and the narrative of Darius Green are symbols of
-the long ambition of earth-bound men, even before the days of recorded
-history, to leave the earth and soar into the air. The Montgolfiers had
-found the key.
-
-But a hundred years would pass before the discovery would be put to use.
-It was in 1903 that another pair of brothers, the Wrights, made their
-first flight from Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina. The first Zeppelin
-took off from the shores of Lake Constance in 1900.
-
-The Montgolfiers wasted no time testing out their conclusion that smoke
-rose because it was lighter than the air. They built a great paper bag
-35 feet high, hung a brazier of burning charcoal under it, and off it
-went. Annonnay is a small town but the story of that miracle spread far
-and wide. The Academy of Science invited them to the capital to repeat
-the experiment.
-
-But while they were building a new bag a French physicist, Prof. J. A.
-C. Charles, stole a march on them. He knew that hydrogen was also
-lighter than air, so constructed a bag of silk, inflated it with
-hydrogen, sent it aloft before the Montgolfiers were ready.
-
-Still the countrymen were not to lose their hour of glory. Merely to
-repeat what had already been done was not enough. Their balloon was to
-be flown from the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, before the king
-and court and all the great folk of Paris, with half the people of the
-city craning their necks to watch it pass over. So they loaded aboard a
-basket containing a sheep, a duck and a rooster, and these three became
-aircraft's first passengers.
-
-When the U. S. Army Air Corps years later sought an appropriate insignia
-for its lighter-than-air division, it could think of nothing more
-fitting than a design which included a rooster, a duck and a sheep.
-
-Everyone was ready for the next step. A French judge had the solution.
-He offered the choice to several prisoners awaiting execution--a balloon
-flight or the guillotine. Two volunteered, felt they had at least a
-chance with the balloon, whereas the guillotine was distressingly final.
-They had nothing to lose. That word rang through Paris. A young gallant
-named De Rozier objected.
-
-"The chance might succeed," he said. "The honor of being the first man
-to fly should not go to a convict, but to a gentleman of France. I offer
-my life."
-
-Even the king protested at this needless risk, but De Rozier took off
-the following month, flew half way over Paris, landed safely. This
-happened on Nov. 21, 1783.
-
-Among the witnesses to these experiments was Benjamin Franklin, the
-American ambassador, himself a scientist of no small renown. He
-predicted great things for aeronautics.
-
-"But of what use is a balloon?" asked a practical-minded friend.
-
-"Of what use," replied the American, "is a baby?"
-
-A little later, on January 7, 1785, Jean Pierre Francois Blanchard, a
-Frenchman, and Dr. John Jeffries, an American, practicing medicine in
-England, inflated a balloon, took off from the cliffs of Dover at one
-o'clock in the afternoon, arrived safely in Calais three hours later.
-
-    [Illustration: Santos Dumont startled Paris in 1910, when he let an
-    American girl fly one of his airships over the city. To descend she
-    threw her weight forward, to climb she moved back a step.]
-
-    [Illustration: A dramatic meeting of two rivals for the honor of
-    making the first Atlantic crossing. The Navy's NC flying boats and
-    the non-rigid C-5, photographed shortly before their take-off.]
-
-    [Illustration: Blimps too may use masts aboard surface ships as
-    anchorage point on long cruises, as the U.S.S. Los Angeles
-    successfully demonstrated when moored to the U.S.S. Patoka. (U. S.
-    Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: The Army's TC-7 demonstrates the first airplane
-    pick-up at Dayton. Army pilots found that at flying speed the plane
-    weighed nothing, was sustained by dynamic forces. (U. S. Army
-    photo)]
-
-Flight was here, though it would be a long time becoming practical. Dr.
-Charles and many others contributed, even at that early day. Knowing
-that hydrogen expanded as the air pressure grew less, at higher
-altitudes, Charles devised a valve at the top of the balloon, so that
-the surplus gas could be released, not burst the balloon. He devised a
-net from which the basket could be suspended, distributing its load over
-the entire bag.
-
-The drag rope was evolved, an ingenious device to stabilize the
-balloon's flight in unstable air. If the balloon tended to rise it would
-have to carry the entire weight of the rope. If it grew sluggish and
-drifted low, it had less weight to carry, as much of the rope now lay on
-the ground. These ballooning principles, early found, are still in use.
-But the "dirigible" balloon, or airship must wait for light weight,
-dependable motors, despite the hundreds of ingenious experiments made by
-men over a full century.
-
-Since this is an airship story, we should first make clear the
-difference between the airship and the airplane.
-
-The French hit on an apt phrase to distinguish them, dividing aircraft
-into those which are lighter than the air, such as airships, and those
-which are heavier than the air, like airplanes.
-
-Airships are literally lighter than air. So are all free balloons, used
-for training and racing, and all anchored balloons, such as the
-observation balloon widely used in the last war and the barrage balloons
-of the present war.
-
-The airship goes up and stays up because the buoyancy given by its
-lifting gas makes it actually lighter than the air it displaces, and
-even with the load of motors, fuel, equipment and passengers, must still
-use ballast to hold it in equilibrium.
-
-The airplane, on the other hand, is heavier than the air. Even the
-lightest plane can stay up only if it is moving fast enough to get a
-lifting effect from the movement of air along the wings, similar to that
-which makes a kite stay up. A kite may be flown in calm weather only if
-the one who holds the cord keeps running. On a windy day, the kite may
-be anchored on the ground, and the movement of the wind alone will have
-sufficient lifting effect. So powerful are these air forces that a plane
-weighing 20 tons may climb to an altitude of 10,000 feet if its speed is
-great enough, and its area of wing surface broad enough to produce this
-kiting effect.
-
-But an airplane can remain aloft only as long as it is moving faster
-than a certain minimum speed. Cut the motors, or even throttle down
-below this stalling speed, and the plane will start earthward.
-
-The airship needs its motors only to propel it forward. It can cut its
-speed, even stop its engines, and nothing happens. It retains its
-buoyancy, continues to float. The airplane's lift is dynamic, that of
-the airship is static.
-
-The airship has some dynamic lift, also, because its horizontal fins or
-rudders, and the body of the airship have some kiting effect in flight.
-The blimp pilot, starting on a long trip, will fill up his tanks with
-all the fuel the ship can lift statically, then take on another 2,000
-pounds, taxi across the airport till he gets flying speed and so get
-under way with many more miles added to his cruising speed.
-
-This dynamic lift however, while useful in certain operations is still
-incidental. Primarily the airship gets its lift from the fact that the
-gas in the envelope is much lighter than the air.
-
-Hydrogen is only one-fifteenth the weight of air, helium, the
-non-inflammable American gas, is a little heavier, about one-seventh.
-The practical lift is 68 pounds to the thousand cubic feet of hydrogen,
-63 pounds in the case of helium.
-
-Lighter-than-air ships are of three classes, rigid, semi-rigid and
-non-rigid. The rigid airship has a complete metal skeleton, which gives
-the ship strength and shape. Into the metal frame of the rigid airship
-are built quarters, shops, communication ways, even engine rooms in the
-case of the Akron and Macon, with only the control car, fins, and
-propellers projecting outside the symmetrical hull. The lifting gas is
-carried in a dozen or more separate gas cells, nested within the bays of
-the ship.
-
-The non-rigid airship has no such internal support. The bag keeps its
-taut shape only from the gas and air pressure maintained within. Release
-the gas and the bag becomes merely a flabby mass of fabric on the hangar
-floor. Ship crews do not live in the balloon section, but in the control
-car below.
-
-The British, apt at nicknames, differentiated between the two types of
-airships by calling them "rigid" and "limp" types, and since an early
-"Type B" was widely used in the first World War, quickly contracted "B,
-limp" into the handier word "Blimp."
-
-The third type, semi-rigid, has a metal keel extending the length of the
-ship, to which control surfaces and the car are attached, and with a
-metal cone to stiffen the bow section.
-
-The rigid ship is of German origin. Developed by Count Zeppelin, retired
-army officer, and largely used by that nation during the war of 1914-18,
-it was taken up after the war started, by the British and Americans, and
-to a small extent later by France and Italy.
-
-Non-rigid ships were widely used by the British and French, to a less
-extent by Italy and United States.
-
-The intermediate semi-rigid was largely Italian and French in war use,
-though United States bought one ship after the war from the Italians,
-built one itself. The Germans also built smaller Parseval semi-rigids.
-
-The rigid airships are the largest, the non-rigids smallest. The rigid
-has to be large to hold enough gas to lift its metal frame along with
-the load of fuel, oil, crew, supplies, passengers and cargo. The blimps
-can be much smaller.
-
-The Army's first airship, built by Major Tom Baldwin, old time
-balloonist, had 19,500 cubic feet capacity. Goodyear's pioneer helium
-ship "Pilgrim" had 51,000 cubic feet. These contrast with the seven
-million feet capacity of the Hindenburg, and the ten million cubic feet
-of ships projected for the future.
-
-The following table will show the range of sizes:
-
-  Rigid Airships:  Hindenburg (German)               7,070,000 cubic feet
-                   Akron-Macon (U. S.)               6,500,000 cubic feet
-                   R-100, 101 (British)              5,000,000 cubic feet
-                   Graf Zeppelin (German)            3,700,000 cubic feet
-                   Los Angeles (U. S.)               2,500,000 cubic feet
-                   R-34 (British)                    2,000,000 cubic feet
-  Semi-Rigids:     Norge (Italian)                     670,000 cubic feet
-                   RS-1 (U. S.)                        719,000 cubic feet
-  Non-Rigids:      Navy K type (Patrol)                416,000 cubic feet
-                   Navy G type (Advanced Training)     180,000 cubic feet
-                   Navy L type (Trainer)               123,000 cubic feet
-                   Goodyear (Passenger)                123,000 cubic feet
-                   Pilgrim (Goodyear)                   51,000 cubic feet
-
-The Akron and Macon were 785 feet in length, the K type non-rigid, 250
-feet long, the Navy "L's" 150 feet long.
-
-Let's cut back now to the Montgolfiers. Progress was disappointingly
-slow. The simple balloon would only go up and down, and in the direction
-of the wind. Before it could be practical, men must be able to drive it
-wherever they liked, make it dirigible, or directable.
-
-Ingenious men, Meusnier, Giffard, Tissandier, Renard, Krebs, many others
-worked over that problem through the entire nineteenth century. They
-devised ballonets or air compartments to keep the pressure up. They
-built airships of cylinder shape, spindle shape, torpedo shape, airships
-shaped like a cigar, like a string bean, like a whale. But the stumbling
-block remained, the need of an efficient power plant.
-
-The steam engine was dependable, but once you had installed firebox,
-boiler and cord wood aboard, there was little if any lift remaining for
-crew or cargo. Giffard in 1852 built an ingenious small engine using
-steam but it still weighed 100 pounds per horsepower, drove the ship at
-a speed of only three miles an hour. Automobile engines today weigh as
-little as six pounds per horsepower, modern airplane engines one pound
-per horsepower.
-
-Man experimented with feather-bladed oars, with a screw propeller,
-turned by hand, using a crew of eight men. Haenlein, German, built a
-motor that would use the lifting gas from the ship--coal gas or
-hydrogen. Rennard in 1884 built an electric motor, taking power from a
-storage battery.
-
-But real progress would have to wait for the discovery of petroleum in
-Pennsylvania and the invention of the internal combustion engine. When
-the gasoline engine came in, in the 90's, the dirigible builders saw the
-long sought key to their problem.
-
-While Count Zeppelin was experimenting with his big ships in Germany,
-Lebaudy, Juliot, Clement Bayard in France and most conspicuously the
-young Brazilian, Santos Dumont, were working with the smaller
-dirigibles. Santos Dumont built 14 airships in the first decade of the
-century, brought the attention of the world to this project. He won a
-100,000 franc prize in 1901 for flying across Paris to circle Eiffel
-Tower and return to his starting point--and gave the money to the Paris
-poor.
-
-The Wright Brothers made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, in 1903,
-opening a different field of experiment. France pushed both lines of
-research. After Santos Dumont's dirigible flight, Bleriot started from
-the little town of Toury in an airplane, flew to the next town and back,
-a distance of 17 miles, making only two en route stops,--and the town
-erected a monument to him.
-
-In 1909, Bleriot flew a plane across the English Channel and in the
-following year the airship Clement Bayard II duplicated the feat,
-carrying a crew of seven, made the 242 miles to London in six hours.
-
-The year 1910 was a momentous one for all aircraft, with France as the
-world center. Bleriot and Farman, Frenchmen, Latham, British, the
-Wrights and Curtiss, Americans, broke records almost daily at a big meet
-in August that year, while at longer range the French and English
-dirigibles and the Parsevals of Germany, and still more important the
-great Zeppelins at Lake Constance droned the news of a new epoch.
-
-A young American engineer, P. W. Litchfield, attended the Paris meet,
-saw these wonders, made notes. He stopped in Scotland on his way back,
-bought a machine for spreading rubber on fabric, hired the two men
-tending it (those men, Ferguson and Aikman, were still at their posts in
-Akron thirty odd years later), hired two young technical graduates on
-his return, tied in the fortunes of his struggling company with what he
-believed was a coming industry.
-
-The next five years would see the nations of the world bending their
-efforts toward perfecting these vehicles of flight,--little realizing
-they were building a combat weapon which would revolutionize warfare.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V
-               Effect on Aeronautics of Post-War Reaction
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airship and escort planes]
-
-Development of non-rigid airships slowed down after the impetus of the
-war had spent itself, as was the case in aeronautics generally and in
-all defense efforts.
-
-With the Armistice of November, 1918, the world was through with war.
-Men relaxed and reaction set in. There would not be another major war in
-a hundred years. Well-meaning people everywhere grasped at the straw of
-universal peace, of negotiated settlement of difficulties between
-nations, of disarmament of military forces to the point of being little
-more than an international police force. Germany, the trouble-maker, had
-been disarmed and handcuffed, would make no more trouble. The world,
-breathing freely after four years, wanted only to be left alone.
-
-Today with major countries striving feverishly to build guns and navies,
-it is hard to believe that na�ve nations were scrapping ships only a few
-years ago and pledging themselves to limit future building. No one in
-the immediate post-war era could believe that men must prepare for
-another war, an all-out war more terrible and ruthless than men had
-known,--one which would send flame-spitting machines down from the air
-and through woods and fields, against which conventional foot soldiers
-would be as helpless as if they carried bows and arrows. Wishing only to
-live at peace with other nations, we could conceive no need to make
-defense preparation against frightfulness.
-
-Congress was divided between "big navy men" and "little navy men," and
-generals and admirals who brought in programs for expansion or even
-reasonable maintenance were shouted down. The public was in no mood to
-listen.
-
-If the usefulness of the Army and Navy was discounted during this
-period, more so was the rising new Air Force. Few were interested in
-airplanes, and these chiefly wartime pilots, who sought to keep aviation
-alive, made a precarious living flying wartime "Jennies" and "Standards"
-out of cow pastures, carrying passengers at a dollar a head, or how much
-have you. The word "haywire" came into the language, as they made
-open-air repairs to wings and fuselage with baling wire.
-
-Lighter-than-air had no Rickenbackers or Richthofens to point to, but
-got some advantage during this period from the activities of the
-Shenandoah, completed in 1923, and the Los Angeles, delivered in 1924.
-These ships could not be regarded as military craft, carried no arms.
-The Shenandoah was experimental, based on a 1916 design. The Los Angeles
-was technically a commercial ship, with passenger accommodations built
-in, could be used only for training.
-
-This grew out of the fact that the Allies planned to order the Zeppelin
-works at Friedrichshafen torn down but had held up the order long enough
-for it to turn out one more ship. This last ship would be given to
-United States in lieu of the Zeppelin this country would have received
-from Germany, if the airship crews, like those of the surface fleet, had
-not scuttled their craft after the Armistice, to keep them from falling
-into enemy hands. The Allies stipulated that the Los Angeles should
-carry no armament. It took a specific waiver from them for the ship to
-take part several years later in fleet maneuvers.
-
-Other airship activities in this country were at a minimum. The blimps,
-little heard of in this country during War I, remained in the
-background. A joint board of the two services gave the Navy
-responsibility for developing rigid airships, the Army to take
-non-rigids and semi-rigids. The Navy maintained a few post-war blimps
-for training, had little funds except for maintenance.
-
-The Army, having Wright Field to do its engineering and experimental
-work, fared somewhat better, carried on a training and something of a
-development program. It built bases at Scott Field, Ill., and Langley
-Field, Va., ordered one or two non-rigid ships a year, purchased a
-semi-rigid ship from Italy, ordered another, the RS-1, from Goodyear,
-operated it successfully.
-
-The Army's non-rigids, however, were overshadowed by the Navy's rigids
-and even more by its own airplanes, with the result finally that the
-Chief of the Air Corps, Major General O. O. Westover, a believer in
-lighter-than-air, an airship as well as airplane pilot, and a former
-winner of the James Gordon Bennett cup in international balloon racing,
-told Congress bluntly that there was no point in dragging along, that
-unless funds were appropriated for a real airship program the Army might
-as well close up shop. And this step Congress, in the end, took, and the
-Army blimps and equipment were transferred to the Navy, and the
-experimental program started by the one service was carried on by the
-other.
-
-The rigid ships were in more favorable position because they seemed to
-have commercial possibilities, and it was the long-range policy of the
-government to aid transportation. Government support to commercial
-airships could be justified under the policy by which the government
-gave land grants to the railways, built highways for the automobile,
-deepened harbors and built lighthouses for the steamships, laid out
-airports for planes, gave airmail contracts to keep the U. S. merchant
-flag floating on the high seas and air routes open over land.
-
-On this theory Navy airships, even though semi-military, got some
-support during the reaction period, because they might blaze a trail
-later for commercial lines--which, with ships and crews and terminals,
-would be available in emergency as a secondary line of defense, like the
-merchant marine.
-
-The little non-rigid blimps remained the neglected Cinderellas of
-post-war days.
-
-The Goodyear Company at Akron, which had built 1000 balloons of all
-types and 100 airships during and after the war, stepped into the
-picture during this period with a modest program of its own. The first
-of the Goodyear fleet, the pioneer, helium-inflated Pilgrim, now in the
-Smithsonian Institute, was built in 1925.
-
-    [Illustration: The Atlantic crossing of the Graf Zeppelin in 1928
-    and its round-the-world flight in the following year gave new
-    stimulus to all aeronautics. With a relatively tiny Goodyear blimp
-    as escort, the Graf lands at Los Angeles after crossing the
-    Pacific.]
-
-    [Illustration: At Lakehurst the Graf tries out the "Iron Horse," the
-    U.S. Navy's mobile mooring mast, finds it highly useful, utilized
-    masting equipment thereafter to compile an unusual record for
-    regularity of departures, even under highly unfavorable weather
-    conditions. (U. S. Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: The U.S.S. Akron, first result growing out of renewed
-    interest in aeronautics after the reaction period, goes on the mast
-    inside the Goodyear air dock, prior to leaving for her trial
-    flights.]
-
-    [Illustration: No large ground crews are needed with the mobile
-    mast. Even the mighty Akron swings around easily at anchorage, heads
-    into the wind like a weather vane, its control car resting on the
-    ground.]
-
-In building this ship, Mr. Litchfield and his company indicated their
-belief in the value of big airships for trans-oceanic travel, for which
-the blimps would provide inexpensive training for pilots, and experience
-in operating under varying weather conditions.
-
-The Pilgrim, the Puritan, the Vigilant, the Mayflower and the rest of
-the Goodyear fleet which followed--named after cup defenders in
-international yacht racing--would also uncover during the course of
-day-after-day operations, improvements in ships and operating technique,
-which would be available to its customers, the Army and Navy.
-
-In building its own ships, Goodyear was following the tradition of
-American industry, which does not sit back and merely build goods to
-order, but has sought by developing better goods to anticipate and
-stimulate customer demand. In the automobile industry, for example,
-self-starters, closed cars, steel bodies, balloon tires, streamlining,
-and the rest were initiated by industry to increase public acceptance
-and further popularize the automobile. By building its own airships and
-flying them, Goodyear hoped to expand the market for military and
-commercial airships.
-
-The doldrum period, which made progress difficult, came to an end with
-dramatic suddenness. In the year 1927 a youthful pilot flew an airplane,
-alone, across the Atlantic ocean, and in the following year a
-middle-aged scientist made a round trip from Europe to America by
-airship, with 24 people aboard. The imagination of America and the world
-took fire. Aeronautics started anew.
-
-Perhaps no events in years have appealed so fully to the public
-consciousness or had such dynamic effects. Almost from the day of
-Lindbergh's flight and the Graf Zeppelin's arrival at Lakehurst,
-aeronautical engineers found themselves with money to spend in research
-and machinery. Airports unrolled across the carpet of America, night
-lighting came in, pilots became business men, appropriations were rushed
-through Congress, state assemblies, and city councils, and aeronautics
-became Big Business almost over night. The period of inaction and of
-reaction was over.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER VI
-                   Airship Improvements Between Wars
-
-
-    [Illustration: Docked airship]
-
-The wartime airship was a cigar-shaped gas bag with an airplane cockpit,
-open to the weather, slung below. The contrast between it and the sleek,
-fast, streamlined Navy airship of today is almost as striking as that
-between wartime planes and automobiles and modern ones.
-
-Many improvements have been made, even though the airship has not had
-the experience of building thousands of units, as the automobile and
-airplane have had, or ample funds for research and experiment. Less than
-150 non-rigid airships have been built all told since 1914.
-
-The "B" type blimp, chiefly used in the World War, contained 80,000
-cubic feet of hydrogen, though some British and French non-rigids were
-built in larger sizes, and the United States Navy "C" ships, toward the
-end of the war, had 200,000 cubic feet of lifting gas. These compare
-with the 416,000 cubic feet of helium in the new Navy "K" ships. Speed,
-under the pressure of war needs moved up from 47 miles in the "B" to
-close to 60 in the "C," but is around 80 in today's "K" ships.
-
-Wartime ships carried three to five men and a day's fuel. Today's carry
-eight or ten, enough pilots, radio men, navigators, riggers and
-mechanics for two full watches, though normally everyone is on duty
-during patrols. The "B" was good for perhaps 900 miles, the "K" for well
-over twice that distance.
-
-Wartime ships had to keep the control car well away from the bag to
-prevent sparks from igniting the hydrogen gas. A windshield was the
-pilot's only protection from the elements. Modern ships, using
-non-inflammable helium, have closed cars, streamlined into the bag,
-ample room for navigation and radio, sleeping and eating quarters, even
-a photographic dark room, can be heated and noise-proofed.
-
-Early airships were pulled down and held by a large ground crew, a
-pneumatic bumper bag on the car cushioning its landing. Today's ships
-land on a swiveled wheel, roll up to a mast--or taxi off across the
-airport like an airplane and take off.
-
-These, however, are merely flight factors. More important is it that the
-wartime blimp was to a large extent hangar-bound. It could go no further
-from its base than it could safely return before its fuel was exhausted.
-
-Today's ships are expeditionary craft, can go almost anywhere, stay as
-long as they want. They are no longer land-bound, can be refueled and
-reserviced at sea. They are much safer, rank high in this respect among
-all carriers whether on land, sea or in the air.
-
-Three independent lines of study contributed to these results, those of
-the Army, Navy and Goodyear, each free to follow its own ideas, to
-observe results found by the others, adopt them, use them as starting
-points for further developments, or discard them.
-
-The improvements were achieved in a relatively short period. The army
-started in after the war and carried on a continuing program till 1932.
-The Navy, absorbed in its rigid airships, did not get into non-rigids
-till the early 1930's. Goodyear built the Pilgrim in 1925 but its
-development program really began with the blimp fleet in 1929.
-
-Noteworthy improvement was found during this period in materials,
-structure, design, engines and radio communication, with outstanding
-advances along three major lines.
-
-First was increased safety, permitted by helium gas. Wartime airships
-used hydrogen because it was all they had, had to develop what
-protection they could against fire through construction devices and
-operating technique. Hydrogen was not only inflammable, but under
-certain conditions explosive. World War pilots had to fly their hydrogen
-ships through thunder and lightning storms, dodge inflammatory bullets
-if they could. Zeppelin sailors wore felt shoes, with no nails to create
-a spark, used frogs for buttons, had to guard against static.
-
-It was a fortunate thing for the airship world when a gas was found in
-1907 in Dexter, Kansas, which would not burn. Curious scientists, asking
-why, found it was helium, a gas previously identified (in 1869) only in
-the rays of the sun. Helium gas is inert, refusing to combine with any
-other element, does not deteriorate metal or fabric. It was not much
-heavier than hydrogen, the lightest of all gases, so proved a welcome
-gift to lighter-than-air.
-
-For some reason, not explained except on the theory that Providence
-takes special interest in America, helium has been found in quantity
-only in this country. It is a component, present to the extent of two or
-three percent in certain natural gas, though ranging as high as eight or
-ten percent in favored areas. It can be separated by compression and
-liquefaction from the natural gas,--which is that much improved by the
-removal of the non-inflammable content.
-
-The world's chief known supply of helium lies in certain sections of
-Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Utah. More important, United States is the
-only country having great pipe lines, can distribute natural gas from
-Texas to cities as far away as Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago.
-Without such a market operators would have to separate and release the
-95% of natural gas to get the 5% of helium, and costs would be still
-higher.
-
-Helium is perhaps the most useful of the few natural monopolies given to
-this country.
-
-It was only toward the end of the World War, however, that Army
-engineers worked out a process of separating helium from natural gas. A
-plant was built at Fort Worth and the first cylinders of helium had
-reached New Orleans ready for shipment to France to inflate observation
-balloons when the Armistice was signed.
-
-Army, Navy and Bureau of Mine engineers worked thereafter to increase
-production and cut costs, but as late as 1925 Will Rogers called
-attention to the fact that the Navy had not been able to get enough
-helium to supply both the Shenandoah and the Los Angeles at the same
-time. If one was using the helium the other had to stay home. Two ships,
-and only one set of helium, he commented.
-
-The use of helium cut the casualty list on the Shenandoah, would have
-saved the Hindenburg. Non-rigid airships have had no fire or explosive
-accidents since helium came into use as the lifting gas.
-
-It was the loss by a hydrogen fire of the Italian-built Roma, after it
-struck a high tension line at Langley Field in February, 1922, which
-fixed the policy of "helium only" for U. S. Army and Navy airships. The
-Army's C-7 was the first airship to use helium. In building the Pilgrim
-in 1925, Goodyear followed the same policy--even though it had to pay
-$125 a thousand cubic feet for helium while it could have obtained
-hydrogen for $5 per thousand.
-
-Further improvements and increasing volume of production brought the
-cost down in time from $125 to less than $20, and helium expense became
-relatively unimportant in providing safety for Goodyear's airship
-operations.
-
-Important too during this period was the Army's development of tank cars
-for transporting helium. A large item of helium expense was freight, the
-cost of hauling 130 pound metal containers which held 170 to 200 cu. ft.
-of the gas. It took 250 such containers to inflate Goodyear's smallest
-ship, the Pilgrim. The tank cars hold 200,000 cu. ft. of gas, almost
-enough to inflate two Goodyear airships.
-
-Experiments with specially woven fabric and the use of synthetic rubber
-cut down the losses resulting from diffusion, and where formerly it was
-necessary to remove the helium and purify it every six months, diffusion
-losses were cut to one or two per cent a month, with purification needed
-only every other year.
-
-In addition to increasing safety, helium permitted improvements in
-airship design. The wartime craft had its control cars suspended by
-cables from finger patches cemented to the outside of the bag. But with
-helium ships the car could be built into the bag, attached by an
-internal catenary suspension system to the top of the gas section. Each
-exposed suspension cable, no matter how small, creates parasitic
-resistance from the air, so that the removal of yards of steel and rope
-had the result of increasing the speed of the ship with the same
-horsepower.
-
-The second set of major improvements centers around the mooring mast.
-The mooring mast idea was not new. The British had built the first ones
-during the World War for its large rigid ships, found that a ship
-attached to it would swing easily, like a weather vane, continuing to
-point into the wind, and that a well streamlined ship would hold
-securely even in winds of great velocity.
-
-When Alfred E. Smith ordered a mooring mast built on top the Empire
-State building, it was with the assurance from his engineers that even
-with the tugging of the 150-ton Graf Zeppelin, the strain would be
-little more than the normal push of the wind against the building
-itself, that the added stresses would be negligible.
-
-The Germans had had little occasion to use mooring masts.
-Friedrichshafen, where most of the Zeppelins were built, lay in a
-natural bowl, well protected from the winds, and ships could take off
-and land, be walked in or out of the hangar with little risk from the
-weather.
-
-Lakehurst, on the other hand, lay in an exposed position, in the path of
-coast-wise storms, a frequent battle-ground between onshore winds from
-the ocean and storms breaking over the mountains from the west. A study
-made later to determine bases for projected American passenger
-operations showed that of weather conditions prevailing between Boston
-and the Virginia Cape, those at Lakehurst were almost the most
-unfavorable.
-
-    [Illustration: Four stages in the evolution of the mooring mast. At
-    the outset large ground crews held the ship on the ground.]
-
-    [Illustration: Then a stub mast was placed atop a truck, to hold the
-    ship on the ground, maneuver it in or out of the dock.]
-
-    [Illustration: A high mast, made in sections, can be erected
-    anywhere, anchored by guy wires, holds the airship securely against
-    winds of gale force.]
-
-    [Illustration: The little brother of the "Iron Horse", which will
-    receive the largest of the new Navy blimps, maneuver them on the
-    field.]
-
-People knew little about airship operating when the Navy base was moved
-from Pensacola to Lakehurst on a waste site in the Jersey pine lands
-which the Army no longer needed after the war as a proving ground for
-its artillery.
-
-This defect proved an advantage. The Navy was forced by the very nature
-of things to concentrate on a problem which had been no problem to
-Doctor Eckener and his associates. At the urging of Admiral Moffett,
-Commander Garland Fulton, Lieutenant Commander C. E. Rosendahl and
-others, Navy engineers built a high mast, 180 feet tall, following
-British practice, with a service elevator inside, then tackled the
-problem of keeping the ship on even keel against up and down gusts.
-Since the wind does not come out of the ground, a low mast was
-suggested, half the height of the ship, so that when anchored the ship
-would all but rest on the ground. The Navy was working on this when an
-incident happened to strengthen the argument.
-
-The co-incidence of a wind shift, and rising temperatures one afternoon
-as the Los Angeles was resting comfortably at anchorage, started the
-tail rising, and it continued to rise till it reached almost 90 degrees.
-Then the ship turned gently on its swivel, and descended easily on the
-other side, with no more damage than some broken china in the galley.
-Still a 700-foot airship has no business doing head-stands, so the low
-mast development was rushed through. It proved successful.
-
-The next step was to make the low mast mobile, so that it could not only
-hold the ship on the ground but take it in and out of the hangar. First
-of these was Lakehurst's famous "iron horse," a giant motor-driven
-tripod, which rolled out on the airport, hauling incoming ships into the
-hangar, took advantage of daylight calms to take ships out into the
-field ahead of time so as to be ready to leave on schedule.
-
-On the Graf Zeppelin's trip around the world in 1929, hangars were
-available for fueling stops at Lakehurst, Friedrichshafen, and curiously
-enough in Japan, a German shed turned over to the Nipponese after the
-1918 Armistice, having been re-erected at Tokio. There was none however
-on the American West Coast to house the ship after its long trip across
-the Pacific. So the Navy, under direction of Lieutenant Commander T. G.
-W. Settle, hauled a mast up to Los Angeles from San Diego (it had been
-erected there for the Shenandoah's flight around the rim of the country
-in 1923) anchored it with guy wires. It served the purpose perfectly.
-
-The Germans, skeptical at first, became convinced of the value of the
-mast, themselves erected masts at Frankfort, and Seville, at Pernambuco
-and Rio de Janiero, used them as terminals.
-
-Once the masting technique had been worked out, the Graf Zeppelin and
-the Hindenburg, in the years 1930-6, made a record of regularity which
-no other vehicle of transportation has approached. They took off at
-times over the ocean for Europe when all other aircraft in the area was
-grounded, when the fog hid the entire top half of the ship, and the ship
-disappeared into the fog within a few seconds after the "Up Ship" signal
-was given. What few delays appear on the record were due to waiting for
-connecting airplanes to arrive with the latest European mail for the
-Americas.
-
-So far the use of masts had been entirely a matter for the large rigid
-airships. The Army did the first development work on high and low masts
-for its smaller ships at Scott Field, as well as a landing wheel for
-them to ride on. A situation at Akron started experimentation along a
-different line. At Goodyear's Wingfoot Lake Field, Mr. Litchfield
-frowned over the expense of having a considerable crew on hand to land
-and launch the blimps, with little to do after the ship was in the air.
-To an Army or Navy post, with plenty of men in training, this surplus of
-men was no difficulty, but any private corporation operating passenger
-airship lines would find the expense burdensome.
-
-    [Illustration: The Navy L-2, one of the first ships under the
-    expanded program, lands at Wingfoot Lake, Akron, is walked to the
-    mooring mast.]
-
-    [Illustration: Close-up view of engine and cowling, and swiveled
-    landing wheel.]
-
-    [Illustration: With a drogue or sea anchor to hold the airship
-    steady, supplies or personnel may be taken aboard at sea. (U. S.
-    Navy photo)]
-
-    [Illustration: A newly-hatched airship breaks its shell at Akron,
-    will try its wings then join the Navy.]
-
-He put the question to his men in 1930, offering cash prizes for the
-best solution. Out of many ideas, one clear-cut line of progress
-appeared. This was to make the ground crew truck a maneuvering base,
-with a mast on top, which could be folded down when not in use. The
-truck then could not only hold the ship on the ground, but guide it in
-and out of the hangar with more security than by using a large number of
-men. Extra wheels mounted on outriggers kept the truck from being turned
-over by side gusts. In succeeding years the ground crew truck became a
-traveling mooring point which could follow the ship across country, give
-it anchorage when night fell, and at the same time act as a traveling
-supply depot, machine shop, radio cabin, and crew quarters.
-
-A portable mast, built in sections, high enough for ships to mast at the
-nose, was the next step. It could be set up on an hour's notice,
-anchored by guy wires and screw stakes for more extended operations.
-Gradually the airship became independent of the hangar, came to use it
-only for overhaul and the purification of its helium gas. The blimp
-could be fueled and serviced completely in the open.
-
-Lacking a dock in San Francisco, at the time of the Exposition in 1939,
-the Goodyear blimp Volunteer moved up from Los Angeles, based on a mast
-for five months. The only time it sought shelter was when a splinter
-from the propeller pierced the bag, causing a leak. The ship flew 60
-miles down the bay to the Navy base at Sunnyvale, like a boy coming in
-from play to have a splinter removed from his finger, went back again,
-didn't even stay over night.
-
-In the winter of 1940-41 the "Reliance" which had been spending its
-winters in Miami, using a wartime Navy hangar which the city had moved
-up from Key West, found that building commandeered for defense work. So
-a mast was set up on the Causeway, and the ship operated with no other
-home than that for six months, saw no shelter from the time it left
-Wingfoot Lake in early December till it returned at the end of May.
-
-The Navy had a different problem as it moved into the non-rigid picture
-in the early 1930's. Its problem was only incidentally to operate away
-from its base at Lakehurst. Ships were getting larger in size, and masts
-were needed where they could be moored outdoors, or taken in and out of
-the hangar. The solution was a smaller replica of the rigid airship's
-"Iron Horse" except that it moved on large rubber tires, and was towed
-in and out by tractor, rather than carrying its own power plant.
-
-A portable mast was also developed for the Navy blimps, with a special
-car to haul it around. This mast could be sent to Parris Island or some
-point in New England, ahead of time, set up and used as a temporary base
-for radio calibrating or other missions.
-
-Navy ships basing at Lakehurst have operated for weeks at a time along
-the coast as far north as Bath, Maine, and as far south as the
-Carolinas, with a portable mast as headquarters.
-
-Utilization of the mast principle by non-rigid airships not only greatly
-increased their radius of operation, and cut down landing crews, but
-increased the number of operating days per month.
-
-Pilots of early airplanes used to go out on the airport, hold up a
-handkerchief, and if it fluttered, conclude it was too windy to fly. So
-early airship pilots, with anemometers on the roof of the hangar and at
-points over the field, judged it too risky to take the ships out if the
-wind was higher than four or five miles an hour, and then only if it was
-down-hangar in direction.
-
-Modern airships lose few flying days because it is too windy to go out.
-Under war conditions, when risks must be taken, which need not be taken
-for passenger or training flights, very few days would be wasted if
-there is military necessity for it.
-
-Navy non-rigids miss few rendezvous with the fleet in exercises out of
-Lakehurst, regardless of the weather outside.
-
-If the portable mast revolutionized airship operations over land,
-experiments started by the Navy in 1938-39, largely under the direction
-of Lt. C. S. Rounds, promise to be just as important in over-water
-operations. These showed that the airship could pick up ballast from the
-ocean, could get fuel from a passing ship, could change crews at sea.
-
-Ballast is important to a vehicle which growing continuously lighter as
-it uses up fuel, must still be kept in equilibrium. Transoceanic
-Zeppelins, using hydrogen, had to fly high enough to "blow off" the
-surplus gas once or twice during a trip to compensate for the ship
-growing lighter. But hydrogen was cheap, and could be manufactured as
-needed. American ships could not afford to waste helium, which was a
-natural resource. Army and Navy engineers had worked on this, and
-equipment developed for the Akron and Macon to condense the gases from
-the burned fuel was able to recover more than 100 pounds of water
-ballast for every 100 pounds of fuel used.
-
-The blimps didn't use these since they ordinarily would not be out for
-more than a day at a time, still a ready source of ballast would make it
-unnecessary to valve helium on long flights.
-
-Ironically enough a whole ocean full of ballast lay below seagoing
-airships, but no practical method had been devised to take the sea water
-aboard until the Navy tackled the problem in 1938.
-
-That problem may be visualized in the obvious difficulty of maintaining
-physical contact between an airship and a surface ship. The two move in
-different media, one influenced mostly by the waves, the other mostly by
-the wind. The surface ship is moving up and down, the airship subject to
-gusts which might break the contact or thrust it violently against the
-masts or superstructure of the surface ship. Servicing has been done
-under favorable circumstances, but could not be relied on as standard
-procedure.
-
-The solution reached was this. The pilot swings his ship down to within
-100 or 150 feet of the water, lowers a hose with a small bronze scoop,
-not much wider than the hose, so as to lessen the drag.
-
-Twenty-five feet up from the scoop is a streamlined cylinder, blimp
-shaped, carrying a small electric pump. This cylinder, nicknamed the
-"fish", has tail fins to keep it from spinning, and skims along the
-surface or jumps out like a porpoise, but the scoop is far enough behind
-and heavy enough to trail easily beneath the surface, stays directly in
-the ship's wake, continues without interruption to pick up ballast for
-the airship above.
-
-The whole gear weighs slightly more than 100 pounds, can pick up water
-at cruising speed, can function in rough water or smooth. The Navy J-4,
-chiefly used in these experiments, normally consumes 500 pounds of fuel
-in five hours of flying at cruising speed. It was able to pick up that
-much water ballast in seven minutes.
-
-The next step was to enable an airship to obtain fuel from a tanker or
-other ship without physical contact or advance arrangements--even from a
-passing merchantman. The pilot asks by radio or voice whether the
-surface ship can spare some gasoline, and on an affirmative answer,
-lowers or drops on his deck two rubberized fabric spheres connected to
-each other by 14 feet of rope--also a note of instructions. The smaller
-sphere is an ordinary air-filled buoy, the larger, about three feet in
-diameter when filled, is the fuel bag. The surface ship fills the fuel
-bag, then drops both bags overboard, being careful only that they do not
-get tangled up. Then the airship flies over the two bags, drops a hook
-between them, hauls away, pumps the gasoline into its tanks.
-
-The third device permits an airship to anchor in the open sea near a
-surface ship to transfer crews or take on fuel and supplies. The anchor
-is a cone-shaped rubberized fabric bag, ten feet long, with a diameter
-of 2-1/2 feet at the top. It is lowered 50 feet below the airship by two
-cables connected with each other by rungs to form a ladder. Half of the
-cables' length is made up of heavy exerciser cord to dampen the effect
-of wave movements. On top the cone is a wire mesh cover which allows the
-water to pass through, and is strong enough to act as a platform,
-supporting a man.
-
-As the cone fills up the airship drops ballast till its "mooring mast"
-is half submerged. The principle of the drag rope comes into play--if
-the airship starts to rise it finds itself lifting an increasingly
-heavier load, counteracting the rising tendency. If it starts to settle
-down toward the water, the load is correspondingly lessened and the ship
-grows lighter. The result is that the airship is held highly stable,
-even in a rough sea. The surface ship then sends a small boat alongside
-and dispatches the relief crew members or supplies, them up and down the
-ladder, or uses a winch, the platform atop the anchor serving as the
-operating base. This system also permits the moving of a sick passenger
-ashore, or the rescue of a man overboard.
-
-When the airship is ready to leave its anchorage, the cone is tipped by
-a line attached to the bottom, spilling the water, and hauled aboard.
-The servicing ship need carry no special equipment. The weight of cone
-and ladder is negligible.
-
-By being able to pick up ballast and borrow fuel from a passing ship,
-(neither airship nor surface ship need slow down for the fuel exchange
-if going in the same direction) the airship greatly increases its radius
-of operations.
-
-The advantage of being able to change crews at sea may not be quite as
-clear. This, however, grows out of the fact that today's non-rigid
-airship has greater endurance than the crew which flies it. An
-anti-submarine, anti-mine patrol calls for constant alertness. Reduction
-of vibration and noise, the use of closed cars instead of open cockpits
-has lessened fatigue, enabling men to remain on duty over longer periods
-than before. But obviously there are limits.
-
-The Navy is conservative in estimating how long its new "K" ships may
-stay out without refueling. Weather and the nature of the mission will
-have some bearing on that, but if we assume a cruise of 48, 60 or even
-72 hours which might be done under favorable conditions and idling the
-motors, we still cannot expect a crew of men to remain vigilant and
-alert for that length of time.
-
-Extra men for relief watches can be carried only at the expense of the
-fuel load. However, if a fresh crew could be sent aboard every 12 hours
-from a nearby surface ship, along with fuel, ballast and supplies, the
-blimps might operate for extended periods.
-
-No blimps have done this. The fleet might see no need for them to go out
-for long periods. However, the possibility has been established, and
-might be useful in the emergencies of war, or accident. While the
-primary usefulness of the blimp lies in the coastal waters, it can go to
-sea if needed--and stay out--can be used in convoy work or as a
-listening post.
-
-Other improvements were uncovered during the experiments. A sea anchor
-or drogue was devised to enable the airship to "lay to" for extended
-periods, without consuming fuel, in case it wishes to use its listening
-devices against submarines, make repairs or for other purposes. Plans
-have been worked out for landing on the water in quiet bays in calm
-weather, utilizing flotation gear, or a three-point mooring to ordinary
-mud anchors--facilitating servicing from nearby Coast Guard stations.
-
-Perhaps a significant thing about these experiments is that the
-principles seem applicable as well to rigid airships. The ability to
-pick up ballast in flight may well eliminate the necessity for
-ballast-recovery devices, with a substantial saving in cost, and an
-impressive saving in weight.
-
-By eliminating the heavy condensers, and translating that weight-saving
-into fuel, it is estimated that the range of a ship of the Los Angeles
-size could be increased by 20 percent and ships of the Akron-Macon size
-by 15 percent, in the last case amounting to 1,250 miles of additional
-cruising radius.
-
-A trans-oceanic passenger airship could start out with virtually no
-water ballast at all except a minimum amount for maneuvering, use its
-fuel supply as ballast and pick up sea water as needed. This could be
-done at 500 feet elevation, at the rate of 80 gallons a minute, using a
-30 horsepower motor, could be done in half an hour a day. The ship need
-not slow down materially while doing this.
-
-Application of this principle to military airships of the rigid type
-might be still more significant. The chief use for the rigid airship in
-war would seem to be as a high speed airplane carrier, whose planes
-would increase many fold its own reconnaissance range, and would be
-expected also to do the major part of what fighting became necessary in
-case of enemy contact. The airship itself in that situation would put
-more dependence on its speed of retreat and its ability to seek cover in
-clouds as the submarine does beneath the surface, than on its own
-machine guns and cannons.
-
-One thing brought urgently home to us in the first weeks of the present
-war is that oceans are wide, and that the movements of even a huge enemy
-fleet are difficult to discover in those endless expanses of water.
-
-Large military airships of five or ten million cubic feet helium
-capacity might prove exceedingly useful, if they were able to operate
-away from their base for weeks or even months at a time, and they might
-be able to do this by utilizing devices similar to those developed for
-smaller non-rigids, resting on the sea in calm waters, mooring to
-anchored masts they could lower into the water, picking up fuel from
-tankers, getting supplies from neighboring ships--in addition to what
-was carried to them from the fleet by their own planes.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VII
-                    Adventures of the Goodyear Fleet
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airships flying in formation]
-
-One of the lesser romances at least of aeronautics is the story of the
-Goodyear airship fleet.
-
-There is thrill and adventure in the narrative, daring and
-resourcefulness, hazards faced by men who believed in their
-craft--chances which were usually won. So this chapter might well be
-dedicated to Airship Captain Charles Brannigan and Balloon Pilot Walter
-Morton.
-
-Morton was an old timer, who had flown balloons with Tom Baldwin, in the
-far corners of the country. Between times he worked in the Goodyear
-balloon room, a practical mechanic who could always make things work,
-the salt-of-the-earth workman whom every foreman swore by, the aide
-every pilot wanted alongside. Steady, self-effacing, courageous, with an
-instinct for the right thing to do in emergency, Morton feared but one
-thing. That was lightning.
-
-He had flown many times through lightning storms prior to the helium
-era, beneath a bag filled with inflammable gas, but he didn't like it.
-He knew its swift striking power.
-
-"I could almost see the Old Fellow standing there throwing those darts
-at us," said Morton one afternoon in 1928, as he scanned the skies
-before taking off in a balloon race out of Pittsburgh. "One would flash
-past and miss, and he would say 'I'll get you next time,' and there
-would come another. And you can't dodge in a balloon."
-
-The Old Fellow scored a direct hit that afternoon. Morton was flying
-with Van Orman, Gordon Bennett Cup winner. The uncertain weather of the
-afternoon had resolved itself less than an hour after the take-off, and
-eight balloons were being tossed as a juggler tosses weights, a thousand
-feet high, 10,000 feet, caught and tossed aloft again just before they
-touched the ground. Morton's balloon was hit at 12,000 feet, caught
-fire, alternatively fell like a plumb bob or parachuted in the net,
-landed without too much of a shock. Van Orman, unconscious, sustained a
-broken ankle. Morton had been instantly killed.
-
-But aerologists learned things that afternoon about the force of
-vertical movements of the air. The balloons gave a perfect track of what
-went on. One balloon was falling so fast that sacks of ballast thrown
-overboard lagged behind it, while a hundred yards away another balloon
-was shooting upward at similar speed.
-
-We still know less than we should about the movements of the air, this
-new world into which the Aeronautic Age is moving. The Pittsburgh
-tragedy may save many lives, avoid other tragedies.
-
-The Brannigan story is shorter, no less dramatic. High-spirited, keen, a
-captain whose ship and crew must always be shipshape, Brannigan had come
-to Goodyear from the Army--where he had already distinguished himself by
-making repairs in mid air to the semi-rigid Roma, ripped by a splintered
-propeller--saving a comrade as an incident to the job--had quickly won
-his captaincy at Goodyear, was one of its best flyers.
-
-At Kansas City one afternoon in 1931 a Kansas twister headed for the
-airport. Seeing the weather uncertain Brannigan had stopped passenger
-flying, put his ship on the mast. Now he ordered his mechanic to get off
-and cut the ship loose. Once aloft, with helium gas, he was not afraid
-of any storm that blew. But before the ship could clear the mast, the
-storm had struck, with full fury. The anchors holding the mast pulled
-out of the ground and the ship, with the mast attached, was hurled into
-the nearest hangar, ripping one motor off. That was Brannigan's cue to
-jump. The door had been propped open for a photographer's camera. But he
-had one motor left, the bag was undamaged, the mast had fallen clear. He
-wouldn't give up his ship as long as there was a chance to save it.
-
-    [Illustration: Reunion in Akron--The ships comprising the Goodyear
-    fleet, could tell stirring stories of battles with the elements
-    waged in many states.]
-
-    [Illustration: Some of these pilots flew airships in the first war,
-    others came in later from the technical schools--many now are flying
-    airships for the Navy.]
-
-    [Illustration: From this pocket handkerchief size airport, off the
-    Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, Goodyear ships carried
-    thousands of passengers, from all over America.]
-
-    [Illustration: The Mayflower landed on the deck of the SS Bremen,
-    took off passenger P. W. Litchfield.]
-
-    [Illustration: The Enterprise lands to rescue the crew of an
-    ice-locked steamer in Chesapeake Bay.]
-
-However the storm was not to be denied, and before he could get
-altitude, the wind threw the ship into a nest of high-tension wires, set
-it afire. Brannigan climbed out, walked to a nearby automobile,
-transferred to a second car enroute to the hospital after a
-collision--and died the next day from third-degree burns.
-
-He called Furculow, his co-pilot, just before the end, told him to see
-that the men in the crew were taken care of, that they were not
-penalized for the loss of the ship. Furculow, now flying airships for
-the Navy, is not the only man in Goodyear who will not forget Charley
-Brannigan. It is on such men that the traditions of the service are
-built. Any cause for which men give their lives cannot be held lightly.
-
-The Goodyear Company had built a few airships of its own prior to the
-1925 Pilgrim, when helium became available. Best known of these was the
-"Pony Blimp" which operated out of Los Angeles from 1919 to 1923, flew
-passengers to Catalina, worked for the movies in Arizona and Wyoming.
-
-But the real beginning came with the Pilgrim, the larger Puritan and
-still larger Defender, as the Goodyear fleet came into existence in
-1928-29.
-
-Early pilots had no specific instructions except to take the ships out
-and fly them--fly them hard, find out all they could about them, see
-what weaknesses and shortcomings there were and how to improve them. It
-was another test fleet, repeating the history of the automobile.
-
-The pilots were supposed not to get hurt, but they were to fly in all
-kinds of weather they felt it safe to fly in. They might lose a few
-ships, but were expected to be able to walk away from them, not to get
-in any trouble they couldn't get out of. They had an advantage over Army
-and Navy fliers in having a free hand as to where they might go. They
-were expected to make mistakes but should learn from them.
-
-Such instructions, largely unwritten, acted as a challenge to the
-pilots, a high-spirited and courageous group. Starting with a few men
-who had flown airships in the World War, or helped build them in the
-balloon room and the machine shop, they added some technical school
-graduates in 1929, and others as needed.
-
-Their adventures started after they left Akron. Operating from bases
-built or leased over the country, they would cover every state east of
-the Mississippi in a few years. They looked for hard things to do--or
-unusual things which would interest the public in airships. They landed
-on the roofs of buildings in Akron and in Washington--though a prudent
-Department of Commerce would later rule against that; they picked up
-mail from lines dropped on decks of incoming ships, and from small boats
-alongside; they fished for sharks and barracuda, hunted for whales; they
-picked up a bundle of newspapers from the Hearst building downtown, and
-lowered them to Al Smith on the top deck of the Empire State building;
-picked up another batch from The Toronto Star offices, delivered them at
-the Canadian Exposition grounds; they covered boat races, football and
-baseball games, the International Yacht Races, carrying press
-photographers, newsreel men and radio announcers; they went to the Mardi
-Gras, to the Carnival of States, the Cotton Carnival, Expositions at
-Chicago, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco and New York, to county fairs,
-plowing and corn-husking contests. They covered fires in New York,
-chased outlaws and reported forest fires in the high Sierras; they made
-traffic studies in New York and Washington, studies in bird life in
-Florida; they picked up stranded fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, took
-Mr. Litchfield off the after deck of the SS Bremen in New York harbor;
-they surveyed canal projects; patrolled the Mississippi during flood
-time to rescue families from raging waters, to report to the engineers
-where the levees were weakening; they carried food and supplies to a
-boat ice-bound in Chesapeake Bay; they circled a thousand country school
-houses, dropped greetings by parachute to hundreds of cities.
-
-One of their spectacular feats was the rescue of an airplane crew in
-Florida in 1933. Two pilots flying to Miami from Tampa for the Air Races
-had made a forced landing in the Everglades. Searching airplanes located
-the ship, but it was far from any highway, inaccessible by boat or on
-foot, the men without food and tormented by mosquitos, and with
-apparently no way of ever getting out unless a road could be built in to
-them. But a blimp found it easy, because it alone of all craft could
-stand virtually still in the air.
-
-    [Illustration: Few important cities east of the Mississippi have
-    missed seeing a Goodyear blimp by now, not to speak of those in the
-    Southwest, the Pacific coast. Trips have been made also to Cuba,
-    Canada and Mexico. More than 400,000 passengers have been carried,
-    without even the scratch of a finger.]
-
-                  SUMMARY
-        TOTALS UP TO JANUARY 1, 1942
-  FLIGHTS                            151,810
-  HOURS                               92,966
-  PASSENGERS                         405,526
-  MILES                            4,183,470
-
-              FLIGHTS BETWEEN:
-  AKRON  - FLORIDA                        49
-    "    - DALLAS                          6
-    "    - CHICAGO                        12
-    "    - TORONTO                        14
-    "    - LAKEHURST                      18
-    "    - WASHINGTON                     57
-    "    - NEW YORK                       42
-
-Pilot Wilson flew to the spot, cut his motors, drifted down to 50 feet,
-directed the refugees to catch the trail ropes, then as the airship
-settled took them aboard, dropped sand bags to lighten ship, flew
-home--came back later with salvage parties to recover motors and other
-parts.
-
-All these exploits were incidental to the job of learning about airships
-and airship weather--the tricks of winds and rain and storms. And they
-did learn. A hangar had been built in the woods at Grosse Ile, Detroit,
-with a lane of trees left standing so as to extend the line of the
-building--this under the assumption that the trees would protect the
-airships while entering or leaving. The British, under stress of war
-conditions had done this, used woods as windbreaks for landings, even
-for the assembly of airships at times.
-
-But the wind has a trick of spilling over, like a waterfall, when it
-strikes an obstruction. Early pilots were expert balloonists, and might
-have remembered their experience in riding over mountainous
-country--observed how the wind would carry them almost into a cliff, but
-just before reaching it would pick the great bag gently up, carry it
-over the top, drop it on the far side, almost to the bottom of the next
-valley--but not quite, pick it up and carry on--a graphic chart of the
-air flow in broken terrain.
-
-But in the first weeks of operation at Detroit, a cross-hangar wind,
-spilling over the windbreak, twice pushed an airship gently but firmly
-into the trees on the far side. The trees were cut down, and the study
-of eddies and gusts hastened the development of a mobile mooring mast
-which would hold the ship steady in turbulent areas.
-
-The Goodyear pilots learned to fly unworried through fog. As early as
-1920, Hockensmith, flying the "Pony Blimp" from Los Angeles to Catalina
-Island, got lost when his compass failed in a fog so dense he could
-hardly see the nose of the ship. Flying low and slowly, barely off the
-water, he presently spied a dark shape ahead, came on a U. S. submarine,
-with decks awash, and an officer on lookout in the conning tower. He
-landed on his pontoons, taxied alongside, borrowed a compass, went on to
-his destination.
-
-The conviction that except within its hangar the ship was safest in the
-air, grew out of many battles with wind and storm. Brannigan, flying the
-Vigilant at Washington, was caught in a storm which broke up an
-aeronautic show, wrecked several planes on the ground, sent the rest
-scattering for shelter. Piling extra cans of gasoline aboard, Brannigan
-cut his ship loose, headed into the wind, a wind so high that at times
-he found himself pushed backward at full throttle, hovered for an hour
-and a half over the capital, waiting the storm out, then flew 150 miles
-down the bay to Langley field and put up for the night.
-
-On another occasion at Winston Salem, with his ship on the mast,
-Brannigan was caught in a sleet storm, found his ship bowed down and
-being crushed by the weight of ice on its back. Getting extra men from
-the city fire department, he braced his control surfaces with poles,
-beat off the ice on the bag as high as he could reach with branches,
-built oil smudge fires alongside to melt the ice, took off all possible
-equipment, to lighten ship, kept his craft headed into the wind, fought
-the storm successfully--and in the morning as the sun came out and the
-ice melted, flew on to Florida.
-
-Boettner, starting south in 1930 in the larger Defender attempting a
-non-stop flight to Miami, ran into ice and snow in the Tennessee
-mountains. An oil line froze. His mechanic climbed out on the outriggers
-and made emergency repairs in flight, but not before the ship had lost
-most of its oil. Reaching Knoxville airport by morning, he dropped a
-note, lowered a line, hauled up additional oil, refilled the tanks, went
-on to the Gadsden hangar to complete repairs.
-
-No Goodyear blimp has ever been damaged by storms while in the air,
-though a bit of resourcefulness was needed from time to time. For that
-matter, inquiry does not disclose any cases of a non-rigid airship being
-damaged by storm while in flight.
-
-Two Goodyear blimps were in the path of the 1938 hurricane, which,
-heading for Florida from the Caribbean, changed its course erratically
-and moved up the coast, shot across New England. Lange, with the
-Enterprise, was at New Brunswick, N.J., 50 miles off the direct course
-of the hurricane. He put his ship on the mast, held it there during
-winds which rose as high as 73 miles per hour. He put extra men on the
-handling lines, doubled the number of screw stakes which held the mast,
-used the bus, with its motor wide open, as further re-enforcement. The
-storm raged furiously at the ship for hours but couldn't budge it and
-when the hurricane passed on, everything was intact.
-
-Boettner, with the Puritan at Springfield, Mass., was almost directly at
-the axis of the storm. He made the same gallant fight as Lange, but
-against winds which roared to 100 miles per hour in gusts, uprooted
-100-year-old trees, tugged at a sheet-iron hangar roof, flapping it up
-and down, finally ripped it loose, sailed it like a child's kite across
-the airport and out of sight.
-
-At the peak of the storm the steel chains attaching the mast cables to
-the screw stakes failed on the windward side, thrusting the mast into
-the side of the ship, cutting a hole in the fabric. Boettner pulled out
-the rip panel, deflating the ship to prevent further damage and when the
-storm passed rolled up the bag, loaded it and the control car aboard a
-truck, shipped it into Akron where a new bag was attached. The Puritan
-was back at work within a week.
-
-No wonder Goodyear pilots came to have great faith in the staunchness of
-their craft, and their ability to get out of trouble.
-
-Fuel exhaustion didn't bother the blimp. Fickes found that out early, at
-Wingfoot Lake, when a leak developed in his tank and emptied it. Free
-ballooning his ship he floated over a farm house, asked them to call the
-office, waited aloft till a truck came out with additional fuel.
-
-Boettner had a similar difficulty while returning from Canada in the
-Defender. Persistent headwinds cut down his fuel and when he reached the
-American shore around midnight it was a question whether he could go on
-as far as Akron. Picking up U. S. Highway Five as being heavily
-traveled, he swung low over an adjoining field, slowed down so that his
-mechanic could drop off, flag a passing car and go into town for gas. By
-the time the aide returned a number of cars had parked alongside.
-Driving into the field, with headlights full on they formed a half
-circle, and the drivers caught the lines, held the ship till the fuel
-could be delivered, and Boettner proceeded on to Wingfoot Lake.
-
-Mishaps there were of course, in all these years, but few were serious.
-Lange snagged a lone dead tree in the fog over the Alabama mountains and
-Smith side-swiped another while flying over a pass in Tennessee. The
-ship settled easily to the ground in each instance, and farmers came in
-with stone boats, carried the car and bag to town for repairs.
-
-Brannigan, returning at night from Syracuse, ran short of gasoline,
-directed his ground crew to land him in an open field ahead. The ship
-nosed down, his aide directing the men with his flashlight. But just at
-this juncture the top of the flashlight fell off into the propeller, was
-whipped into the bag like a bullet, started a leak which was not
-discovered till next day.
-
-Most ships in the Goodyear fleet have been fired on by thoughtless
-hunters. Once a bullet went through a ship a few inches back of the
-pilot. One marksman was arrested and sent to jail in Florida. Pilot
-Trotter had a curious experience in Oklahoma in 1935, while on his way
-to the Dallas fair. The ship had been on the mast for three days waiting
-for weather. On the fourth morning, finding the ship rather sluggish,
-Trotter looked around. A glass window from the cabin gives a view of the
-interior of the bag and as Trotter looked he saw light blinking from 14
-bullet holes--through which gas had been pouring for three days!
-
-The nearest hangar where repairs could be made and helium secured was at
-Scott Field, near St. Louis, 400 miles away. By this time the ship had
-barely enough lift for the pilot and 100 gallons of gas, not enough for
-the co-pilot. So Trotter flew alone to St. Louis, landing so heavy that
-the ship had almost to be carried into the hangar, made his repairs and
-was back in Oklahoma the next day.
-
-Sewell had the experience of seeing a propeller fly off while heading
-down the bay from San Francisco, saw it careen wildly down, flew on to
-the next airport on one motor, mounted his spare.
-
-Always the pilots were calling for more speed, removing or streamlining
-whatever sources of resistance they could, picking the time for
-cross-country flights when conditions were favorable. They flew from
-Akron to Washington and New York frequently at 60 miles per hour. The
-Reliance did even better in a trip north in 1939.
-
-Starting home after its winter in Florida, the ship was held up in
-Jacksonville--by tire trouble of all things. The distance an airship can
-make in a day is limited by the distance the bus can travel, since the
-ground crew must be on hand at night to land the ship. And by now the
-bus, with its radio equipment, masts and the like had reached the point
-where only the special Goodyear YKL tires would sustain the 14,000
-pounds of weight comfortably. There was a shortage of YKL's when they
-started and three standard tires had failed on the run up from Miami.
-Neither Jacksonville nor Atlanta branch had YKL's in that size and to
-get them from Akron would entail a day's delay.
-
-Meanwhile the ship was tugging on the mast, with a strong south wind,
-anxious to get under way. The pilots held a conference. Maybe, utilizing
-the tail wind, they could make it non-stop all the way to Washington,
-700 miles north and have Lange's crew land them. If they ran short of
-gas they could stop at Ft. Bragg, N. C., a convenient half-way point.
-The Army had a motorized observation balloon there, and was always
-willing to lend a hand to fellow airshippers. It was Sheppard's turn to
-take the controls. He sent a wire to Ft. Bragg.
-
-"If I run short of fuel, I'll circle the field as a signal. Could you
-land my ship, lend me enough gas to get on to Washington?" The answer
-came back promptly, in the affirmative, and the ship left at midnight.
-
-Roaring across the Carolinas at mile a minute speed the Reliance sighted
-Ft. Bragg before daylight, with plenty of gas left. An entire company
-was lined up ready to land the ship. Sheppard flew low, cut his motors,
-thanked them, flew on for Hoover Airport, arriving before noon. He
-averaged 66 miles per hour over the 700 mile trip, and landed with
-enough gasoline to have gone on to New York.
-
-By utilizing helping winds, throttling his motors to cruising speed,
-Sheppard had effected most economical use of his fuel supply.
-
-Fickes used the same technique more strikingly in the delivery flight of
-the larger Navy K-5 in 1941, when he flew in to Lakehurst from Wingfoot
-Lake at 100 miles per hour speed, again demonstrating that greater
-cruising radius than that for which a ship was designed may be effected,
-whenever it is possible to pick departure times that are most favorable.
-
-    [Illustration: Ships like these, off New York City's great harbor,
-    might afford warning of the approach of enemy submarines, or the
-    laying of mines to endanger its shipping.]
-
-    [Illustration: Operating from a base across in Jersey, the blimps
-    became a familiar sight around New York City during the World's
-    Fair.]
-
-    [Illustration: While throughout the middle west, the long afternoon
-    shadows marked the arrival in one city after another of strange
-    visitors from the sky.]
-
-Other improvements in construction or operating technique grew out of
-the fleet's experiences in flying in all weathers. A trip made by the
-Defender in 1930 from Miami across to Havana brought home the usefulness
-of the radio. The insurance underwriters insisted on a two-way radio
-being installed, along with pontoons on the ship, as safety precautions.
-Neither radio nor pontoons were needed during the crossing, but the
-pilots sensed the desirability of being able to communicate with their
-home station and their airport objective. Shortly after a short wave
-frequency was granted to the ships, one of the early ones in aircraft,
-and two-way sets were later installed on every ship, on the ground-crew
-buses and at Akron.
-
-This permitted the making of daily weather maps, extended the airships'
-radius of action. Pilots would set out with more assurance, knowing that
-they would be quickly advised of foul weather ahead, could change their
-course, give appropriate instructions to the men on the ground, land
-whenever it seemed desirable.
-
-In the end the airships were all doing instrument flying, riding the
-radio beams like the passenger airplanes, got their landing and take-off
-instructions from the radio control towers at the airports.
-
-The fleet proved an ideal testing vehicle for the expeditionary mast.
-But progress moved carefully, a step at a time. As late as 1930 an air
-dock was built alongside the company's plant at Gadsden, Ala., for use
-as an operating base in the middle south. It was thought necessary as a
-half way point for ships headed for Florida. After the high mast came in
-however, the Gadsden dock came to be used only for warehousing, and no
-airship has been inside it in four years.
-
-In 1932 the Volunteer started in from Los Angeles for Akron, making the
-first successful trip of any non-rigid airship over the Continental
-Divide. The Volunteer was due for helium purification and a new bag. No
-helium facilities were available closer than Akron. Rather than deflate
-the ship and send it by train, Pilot Smith decided to fly in. He laid
-out a route via El Paso, San Antonio, and Scott Field, so that he could
-get shelter, if necessary, at army hangars at those points. He berthed
-at El Paso just after a 100-mile-an-hour storm had passed over, stayed
-three days at Kelly Field, found it unnecessary to stop over night at
-Scott. Even so, because of persistent head winds he had had to spend ten
-nights in the open, setting up his low mast with screw stakes on the
-open prairie.
-
-Mooring out procedure had improved by the time that Sewell made the same
-trip five years later, so he made only courtesy stops at the three army
-camps, was on his own.
-
-A mishap at Louisville gave impetus to the development of the high mast.
-The retractible low mast mounted on top of the bus was attached to the
-bag about half way between the car and nose of the ship, convenient to
-get at, the system being referred to as "belly-mooring." The low mast
-was light, could be set up quickly and easily, would hold securely
-against a straight pull of considerable force. However, it was not as
-effective in the case of a wind shift, or gusts which rolled the ship on
-its side. A higher mast, with the ship anchored at the nose, was free to
-swing in all directions. Every one realized this, but it was only after
-Crum's ship was caught and twisted by a gust at Louisville, punching a
-hole in the bag, that the change was made.
-
-The high mast, built in sections, anchored by guy wires to stakes
-screwed in the ground, was more bulky, took longer to set up, but would
-hold the ship indefinitely once it was in place.
-
-Thereafter both masts were carried in cross-country trips, the
-convenient low mast being used for overnight stops in good weather, the
-high mast for more extended operations, or when the weather looked
-threatening.
-
-The ground-crew bus was in evolution during this period. Built
-originally to carry merely crew, spare parts and supplies it added a
-radio room, navigation quarters, and carried the two masts. A scout car
-cruises ahead to make overnight arrangements, a trailer follows, with
-its own electric plant and expeditionary equipment, including a spot
-light to play on the ship at night. Duties of airship personnel grew
-more specialized and complex.
-
-Members of the ground crew acted as radio technicians, meteorologists,
-mechanics, riggers. They comprised a colorful group, recruited from all
-parts of the country. Sailors from New Bedford, fruit growers from
-Florida, farm boys from Ohio, ranchers from the San Joaquin valley, a
-mechanic from a Chicago airport, a policeman from the Cleveland fair,
-all dropped their work and followed the airships. The personnel list was
-a history of every place an airship had operated.
-
-The work wasn't easy, involved long hours in the cold and rain when
-storms threatened, picking up mail from their families on the fly in
-cross-country operations, moving their households from north to south
-and north again. But the ground-crew men stuck, most of them having ten
-years' service and more. On cross-country trips a crew of 14, including
-pilots, is adequate.
-
-The pilot personnel too formed an interesting group. Jack Boettner,
-chief pilot, veteran of the group, with probably more airship hours than
-any man in the world, certainly in non-rigid airships, had played
-all-American football at Washington and Jefferson, been instructor at
-Wingfoot Lake through the first war, was working in Goodyear's
-aeronautical sales when the fleet got under way.
-
-As expansion started in 1927 Smith came in from the aero workshop, would
-remain second in flight hours only to Boettner. Fickes from Akron
-University, left the Efficiency Dept. to sign up, set up one of the
-first outside bases, at New Bedford, flew the Mayflower when it picked
-up Mr. Litchfield from an ocean liner, later became manager of all
-airship operations. O'Neil from the workshop came on too, in that year,
-became chief mechanic.
-
-When a base was set up at Los Angeles, Lange, a New Englander who had
-left Boston University to fly airships in the first war, later flying
-out of Panama, joined up, was sent to California, later took charge of
-the Washington base. Sewell, a Kansan with a similar record, having left
-the state university to fly blimps in coastal patrol in 1918 came in,
-captained a ship at New York, followed Lange at Los Angeles.
-
-Further expansion came in 1929, when the Puritan, Mayflower, Vigilant
-and Volunteer and Defender were added to the fleet. Now came Wilson,
-Purdue footballer, Furculow from West Point and Mt. Union, Hobensack
-from West Virginia U, Rieker and Crum from Ohio State, the last named
-becoming engineer officer of the group.
-
-Other practical men came in, from the balloon room and aero
-shops--Sheppard a Virginian, who later flew all over New England, the
-Middle West and Texas; Massick, Crosier and Munro; Blair, Army sergeant
-from Scott Field, came to Goodyear after the semi-rigid RS-1 was
-finished.
-
-Stacy, another New Englander, left the class room at Massachusetts Tech
-to sign up. Dixon, born in a lighthouse on Nantucket Island, left a
-billet as junior officer on a South American liner to fly land ships
-instead. Trotter, from the Naval Academy, was in engineering work in
-Florida when a blimp flew over. Lueders came in via the ground crew at
-Los Angeles.
-
-Many of the Goodyear pilots were commissioned as Reserve officers in the
-Navy, and Fickes, Boettner, Lange, Sewell, Wilson, Trotter and Furculow
-each took a year's active duty with the Navy at Lakehurst with rigid
-ships. More than a score of trips were made by Goodyear pilots across
-the ocean as student officers aboard the Graf Zeppelin and the
-Hindenburg, getting post-graduate training.
-
-The breaking up of the pilot organization began as early as 1940, when
-with war clouds appearing in the East, Trotter, Rieker and Furculow
-volunteered for active duty with the Navy. By the middle of 1941, Stacy,
-Smith, Lueders and Dixon had followed them into uniform, were flying
-Navy airships at Lakehurst.
-
-To fill their places and also furnish material for the already expanding
-airship Navy, a training class of 19 men was started in late 1940 at
-Akron and Los Angeles. A six-months' ground school preceded flight
-training--which started with seven balloon flights.
-
-The training course evolved there was one which grew naturally out of
-such a situation. Airship piloting had changed from the "seat of the
-pants" flying of the first war, when veteran Jack Boettner would turn
-out pilots in six weeks. The ships had become more complex as
-improvements were made. Helium gas was being used. Navigation by radio
-and compass was quite different from the "concrete compass flying" of
-1916, when pilots followed highways or railroad tracks to keep on
-course. Instrument flying had come in, and blind flying was part of
-every student's training, in a closed control car, operating by
-instrument only. The modern airship pilot had to know his radio beams
-and the rules of Civil Aeronautics Authority, be able to ride the beam
-into the airport. In these various details the Goodyear pilots,
-long-seasoned, had perfected themselves through years of operation, were
-competent to pass on their secrets to the youngsters coming in.
-
-The student pilot spent his first half dozen hours trying only to keep
-the ship at constant altitude, not caring where he was going. Then he
-would fly a given course, follow a zigzag rail fence, or a winding road,
-not worrying about his altitude. Lesson three was to combine the two,
-fly at constant altitude over a set course. And after enough hours at
-this, he'd try to circle a pylon, keeping a specified distance away,
-while the wind pushed the ship in one direction, then another--now
-flying up wind, now down, now cross-wind, now quartering, making such
-changes in course to allow for wind and drift as to maintain a perfect
-circle--and trying finally to achieve the supreme art of the airshipper,
-which is to get the feel of the controls and the weather so that he can
-anticipate drift and sharp drops and rises, move his controls a split
-second ahead of time, stay on course and altitude.
-
-Airship students got no exemption from Civil Aeronautics Authority by
-reason of the fact that blimps land more slowly than bombers, took the
-same physical examination, including eyesight. The training course
-worked out with the government followed closely that for
-heavier-than-air pilots, with such changes only as were made necessary
-by the fact that in one case a static lift was utilized chiefly, and in
-the other case dynamic lift. There was plenty of need for the students
-by the time they finished their training.
-
-Over the 16 years during which the fleet operations were carried on ship
-sizes settled down to 123,000 cu. ft. as a compromise between the 51,000
-cu. ft. Pilgrim and the 164,000 cu. ft. Defender. This size ship could
-carry six passengers with pilot and aide, was easy to handle with a
-small crew, had adequate cruising radius for the job at hand.
-
-Later ships, the Enterprise, Ranger, Resolute, Reliance and Rainbow,
-carried on the tradition of honoring the defenders of America's cup in
-international racing.
-
-While an airplane can land anywhere on an open field, the airship needed
-at least a minimum of terminal facilities. Many groups co-operated at
-the outset. St. Petersburg, Florida built a hangar; Miami towed a
-war-time Navy shed up from Key West; Col. E. H. R. Green built one on
-his New Bedford estate for use in connection with radio studies being
-made by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company built its own
-at Gadsden, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and New York, calling them
-air docks rather than hangars.
-
-Unused Army and Navy hangars were borrowed in the early years at
-Aberdeen, Md., and briefly at Cape May, N. J., Pensacola, Arcadia, Cal.
-and Chatham, Mass., with Lakehurst, Langley Field, Scott Field and
-Sunnyvale, Cal., handy as ports of call.
-
-More and more, however, the fleet grew independent of ground aid, became
-increasingly self-reliant through the use of its masting equipment.
-
-The Goodyear fleet wrote a remarkable safety record in the 16 years.
-Accidents to airship personnel could be counted on the fingers of one
-hand, and in the case of the public, 400,000 passengers had been carried
-up to 1942, for a total of 4,000,000 miles without a scratch of anyone's
-finger.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VIII
-                      Results of Fleet Operations
-
-
-    [Illustration: Moored airship and flying airship]
-
-Goodyear airships made some contribution during the 16 years of fleet
-operations, to flight and ground handling technique. They also
-contributed to men's knowledge about weather. For wherever it is flying,
-an airship, by the very nature of the craft, is continually registering
-the effects at that point of certain components of weather. And the
-ships covered a considerable part of the country fairly thoroughly.
-
-The nature and movements of air currents can be studied only
-incompletely from the ground, for conditions there are merely the result
-of forces aloft. Only two vehicles leave the ground and use the air as
-highways. Of these the airship is vastly more responsive to changes in
-temperatures and barometric pressure than the airplane, because of the
-lifting gas in its envelope, and somewhat more responsive to changes in
-wind directions and velocities, because of its greater displacement of
-air.
-
-Goodyear airships have traveled widely, have seen at first-hand the
-effects of rain and snow, fog and sleet, wind and whirlwind, thunderhead
-and lightning storm. More important they have been spectators at the
-unseen battle waged endlessly between cold fronts and warm ones across
-the great central plains, continued with renewed vindictiveness through
-mountain ranges and valleys.
-
-The information brought by these voyagers has not been without value to
-the men in the airport control towers, who are studying weather
-phenomena in the effort to make flying safe.
-
-A whole new science of weather interpretation has come in with air
-transport, and the U. S. Weather Bureau has other duties than advising
-farmers about planting and harvesting crops. It may be merely
-coincidence that when a new chief had to be selected for the Weather
-Bureau a few years ago an airship pilot was selected--Commander F. W.
-Reichelderfer of the Navy, who had long studied the movement of air
-masses and their effect on flight.
-
-Army and Navy ships put in more actual flying days per month than
-Goodyear ships, when on coastal patrol, because once out at sea the
-service ships were out for all day--and an airship, by picking its time,
-and using its mast, can always get out and get back.
-
-Goodyear pilots had a different sort of job. They were operating over
-land, flying 100 passengers a day, at 10 to 15 minute intervals, in one
-town after another. They might suspend operations when ceilings were
-low, or winds high, or gusty, not because they couldn't fly under those
-circumstances, but because flights would be less agreeable, and might be
-hazardous for their passengers. However, the ships themselves, having no
-shelter at hand, had to stay out and take it. Their job was to interest
-the people of America in lighter-than-air, and they had to go wherever
-people were, regardless of what flying weather might intervene.
-
-So between Navy, Army and Goodyear airships operating over a period of
-years, it was fairly well demonstrated that there is very little
-unflyable weather for lighter-than-air craft. That is a conclusion of no
-small importance.
-
-Winds of gale force may make it prudent for the airship to stay in the
-hangar or on the mast, and conditions of zero ceiling, zero visibility,
-which ground other aircraft, would make operations hazardous, especially
-over mountainous country, but even the most adverse weather conditions
-would hardly keep the airship at home if an enemy was at large. Any time
-submarines are operating the airship can be available to seek them out.
-
-Another result emerging from the fact of fleet operations was that
-flying men and construction men, working together, became a closely knit
-group. Engineers learned to fly ships, and flyers took their turn in the
-shops. In building airships for the Navy, at the speed demanded by war
-conditions, the control cars were built in the shop and the envelopes
-cut out and fitted and cemented together in the balloon room. But
-operating men, flyers and ground crew men, mechanics and riggers and
-maintenance men took over from there, put the ships together--assembled
-them, tested them out, delivered them to the Navy.
-
-    [Illustration: Lessons in streamlining gained from building and
-    flying blimps became useful when barrage balloons came into the
-    picture as a new defense weapon.]
-
-    [Illustration: The mooring mast made the blimps expeditionary craft,
-    eliminated the need for large ground crews, permitted more flying
-    days per month, increased safety.]
-
-    [Illustration: Floating Navy blimps and barrage balloons, with their
-    curious star-fish tails, give the service dock something of the
-    appearance of a giant aquarium.]
-
-    [Illustration: Principal use for the rigid airship in wartime is as
-    an airplane carrier, with half a dozen planes to extend its
-    reconnaissance range and determine the enemy's position.]
-
-It was this co-ordination between men in green eye shades, working over
-the drafting board and wind-tanned pilots, studying gray skies and
-phosphorescent control boards, which enabled the organization to meet
-the war emergency of large scale production of non-rigid airships.
-
-There was another by-product result arising from the fact that the
-company, even in the doldrum days, when there were few orders for ships,
-had kept its engineers at work on research and its ships flying on
-experimental missions. It all happened suddenly, a colorful circumstance
-not often found in the sober humdrum of the business world.
-
-A great plane manufacturer, having more defense work than its crowded
-shops could handle, looked around for some company with experience in
-the fabrication of light metal, to whom it could farm out some of the
-details.
-
-Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, the aeronautic subsidiary, was asked to
-build tail surfaces for Martin bombers. A curious thing happened. Men
-whose work had been primarily with airships, rather than airplanes
-(omitting the quite different field of airplane tires, wheels, and
-brakes) found themselves on familiar ground when they swung over to
-heavier-than-air construction.
-
-Here was the same problem of getting maximum strength with minimum
-weight, of selection and treatment of light alloys, of intricate stress
-calculations, and a hundred ingenious devices to measure those stresses,
-enabling designers to turn out a scientifically designed structure. The
-background was there--not to mention their experience and studies in
-streamlined design--to reduce resistance, get maximum performance from
-power plants.
-
-The difference was that in the case of the airship savings in weight
-mount fast, because of size. The importance of light weight and high
-strength had come home to airship designers years before.
-
-Their experience was directly applicable to the new field. Other orders
-came in, from Curtiss, Consolidated, Grumman, and soon the huge plant
-was humming with the production of parts for fighters and bombers.
-
-Then a four-company arrangement was set up by the government to expand
-airplane production still further, and after that an order for complete
-planes. The original plant was now jam-packed with lathes and drills,
-jigs and presses, and three huge new plants were built alongside and
-across the road, and Goodyear Aircraft Corporation found itself with
-thousands of men, building not only airships, but airplanes and airplane
-parts as well.
-
-Every large company took on new tasks in defense, but in this case
-Goodyear was able to move quickly, and give unexpected support to the
-airplane program by reason of its long research in a different field.
-This result, it is true, grew chiefly out of research in rigid airships,
-rather than non-rigids, but both played a part in another
-instance--barrage balloons.
-
-England was using them, might ask this country to supply some. The
-American government too might have use for them. So, long before there
-was even any hint of orders, Mr. Litchfield threw a new problem to the
-engineers at Goodyear Aircraft and the operating men at Wingfoot
-Lake--the job of designing an efficient barrage balloon. They were not
-to make Chinese copies of foreign balloons, but draw on their experience
-in lighter-than-air and see if principles and technique established
-there could not be applied to design balloons which would ride with
-maximum stability in gusty and unstable air. Men went to work,
-designing, building, flying, observing, rejecting, altering, improving,
-week after week, month after month, until several satisfactory types
-were evolved. One of these was capable of flying at 15,000 feet, twice
-the usual height. Orders began to come in, and the little group of men
-and girls in the balloon room quickly grew into a large organization.
-The department outgrew its quarters, took over room after room, expanded
-to subsidiary plants outside Akron.
-
-One instrument developed illustrates how the airship men were able to
-utilize past experience in a new project.
-
-Mounted alongside the winch on the ground, it gave exact information, as
-often as was wanted, as to what the barrage balloon was doing, a mile or
-three miles up.
-
-This assembly included a moving picture camera, which continuously, or
-at fixed intervals, or at any instant desired, by means of radio
-control, would photograph recording dials and show these things: wind
-velocity at the balloon, tension on cable, gas pressure inside the
-balloon, temperature of confined gas, temperature and humidity of the
-air surrounding the balloon, angle of attack at which the balloon faced
-the wind, both fore and aft and from side to side, also a clock, which
-showed the time the readings were recorded.
-
-These pictures, when developed gave the engineers the data from which
-they could modify designs and arrive at a type of balloon which would
-ride most easily aloft, avoid undue tugging and surging on the
-cable--incidentally permitting smaller gauge and weight cable to be used
-for a given height with ample safety margin.
-
-Perhaps the largest single result, however, growing out of the fleet
-operations was that it had created manufacturing facilities, ships and
-personnel on which the Navy could draw, as fully as it wanted, in
-emergency, and with little more delay than the time it took for a man to
-change his uniform.
-
-Boettner, Sewell, Blair, Hobensack and Hill followed the others into the
-service. Hobensack's ground crew in California signed up with him in a
-body, and men from other ground crews, expert in rigging, in motors,
-radio, in mooring out and maintenance joined up. In the end only Fickes
-and Crum were left at Akron to build the new ships, and Sheppard,
-Crosier and Massic to test-fly them, then ferry them to their
-destinations.
-
-The student pilots at Wingfoot Lake had finished their training just in
-time. About half of them went immediately into the Navy, were
-commissioned and sent to the various bases, the others remained at Akron
-as replacements to the other pilots, in testing and delivery flights, or
-on key posts in airship construction.
-
-The experience accumulated by the blimp pilots under varying weather
-conditions over the country proved useful to the Navy, particularly in
-the expeditionary operations which coastal patrol would demand. It was
-useful as well in helping train navy aviation cadets for the growing
-airship fleet. Five of the pilots, Sewell, Boettner, Rieker, Stacy and
-Smith had reached the rank of lieutenant commander by the end of 1942,
-and Lange, full commander, had become commanding officer of a new Navy
-station on the west coast. Two of the public relations men, Lieutenants
-Petrie and Schetter, old airship troupers, followed the fliers into
-uniform.
-
-The airship service suffered its first casualty in 1942 when Lt.
-Trotter, gallant and resourceful pilot of balloons and ships, was killed
-in a collision, in which Lt. Comdr. Rounds also lost his life.
-
-The Goodyear fleet passed out of existence with the war. The ships being
-the same size as the Navy training ships, it was a simple matter to
-change them over, paint the new name on their broad sides.
-
-Facilities for ship construction became useful also in the new war. An
-airship hangar is unlike any other structure in the world. It must be
-broad and high and free of supporting girders. There were two large
-airship docks at Akron, half a dozen smaller ones over the country. At
-hand, too, was equipment for helium purification and storage, along with
-radio and weather gear, mobile mooring masts and other specialized
-equipment which only lighter-than-air uses. There was the balloon room,
-too, with a wealth of experience dating back to the first World War, and
-which with new jobs like building barrage balloons, rubber rafts and
-assault boats grew to large dimension.
-
-Wingfoot Lake was more than doubled in size, and the large airship dock,
-occupied at first by heavier-than-air production, had to be changed back
-later for airship assembly, to meet the Navy's mounting demands for
-ships. The bases at Washington and Los Angeles were converted to other
-aeronautic uses; the two-ship dock at Chicago and the one at New York
-were torn down and moved to Akron to provide additional space for ship
-assembly.
-
-And so the fact that the company had maintained an airship fleet for a
-number of years had the result that in emergency when the Navy needed
-ships and men to fly them, Goodyear was ready. All of which was not
-foreseen when Mrs. Litchfield pulled a cord to release a flock of
-pigeons and christen the pioneer ship Pilgrim, at a pasture-airport
-outside Akron in 1925.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IX
-                       Vulnerability of Airships
-
-
-    [Illustration: Airship and escort warship]
-
-Mention airships and most people will immediately raise the question of
-vulnerability.
-
-Large, slow moving, a tempting target, airships could be shot out of the
-sky by ship or shore guns, or by hostile airplane fire, it is argued,
-almost as easily as a dinner guest touching his cigaret to a toy
-balloon.
-
-And this is probably true, with reservations, if enemy ships or
-anti-aircraft batteries or planes were around. But the airship,
-non-rigid, has no more business in such areas than a British airplane
-carrier would have to drop anchor in Hamburg harbor.
-
-It was because of the imminence of attack from sea or shore or air that
-neither England nor Germany used airships in the present war,
-particularly since they would have to use the inflammable hydrogen gas.
-It was because such attack on American airships from any of these three
-sources was much less likely--and that we have helium gas, which does
-not burn--that this country is using them.
-
-Their chief field of operations is not off the enemy's coasts but our
-own, along that broad ribbon of waters used by our coastwise shipping,
-an area roughly marked in the Atlantic by the 100 fathom curve, the
-favorite fishing grounds of enemy submarines. Thousands of miles of blue
-water, not the narrow lanes of the North Sea or British Channel are
-between them and the shore guns of an enemy.
-
-An enemy fleet, though likelihood of this seems remote, might penetrate
-those coast waters in attempted invasion, attack the blimps with
-anti-aircraft fire. But such an enemy, arriving in force, would have
-either to knock out our Atlantic fleet, or slip past it in surprise
-attempt. In the remote later contingency, the information relayed back
-by airship radio that the enemy was moving in would be worth losing
-airships or any other craft, to get.
-
-The third hypothesis, attack by airplane, is also conceivable. But if
-long-ranging enemy planes were able to get that close to our shores
-they'd have more important business in hand than wasting time and powder
-on a helium bubble bobbing in the air, 10,000 feet below--which in any
-event would already have radioed the news ashore.
-
-In the fairly remote contingency that the airplane did choose to attack
-the blimp, it would find the position of that moving target, flying at
-an indeterminate distance below, much more difficult to calculate than a
-fixed target ashore, no easy thing to drop bombs on.
-
-If it swung down close, it might riddle the bag with machine gun bullets
-but without necessarily sinking it--as witness the case of Trotter's
-ship in Oklahoma leaking gas for 72 hours from 14 gaping holes and still
-able to fly 400 miles for repairs. The plane would have almost to cut
-the blimp in two with a spray of bullets to destroy it--if it chose to
-use its precious far-borne ammunition in such fashion--and would find it
-better to attack from below, on the chance of a lucky hit into the
-airship structure or controls, or one which disabled its crew. But in
-that event the airship, also armed, shooting it out from its more stable
-gun platform above would have as good a chance as the plane.
-
-The airship is vulnerable--as are all other military craft--but used as
-the Navy proposes to use airships, it may be said to have an acceptable
-degree of vulnerability, in view of its potential usefulness in its
-special field--defense against submarine attack on convoys or coastwise
-shipping.
-
-The airship's advantages have been pointed out, but may be repeated.
-These grow out of its speed range, from zero to a maximum of 65 knots or
-so. Its slow speed, as compared to the airplane has the compensation
-that it does not have to circle around to maintain altitude, can keep
-any suspect object under continuous observation. Its high speed enables
-it to reach a given point much sooner than the fastest surface scout.
-
-    [Illustration: Barrage balloons--spiders who spin out webs of steel
-    as they ascend--but these spiders are out to catch fliers, not
-    flies, enemy fliers who threaten our democracy.]
-
-    [Illustration: Modern armies towing a few of these pocket sized
-    barrage balloons along, might not be too much concerned over attacks
-    by strafing airplanes.]
-
-    [Illustration: This Strata Sentinel will fly at 15,000 feet, twice
-    the height of other barrage balloons. By that time the lobes will be
-    completely filled out by expanding pressure of the lifting gas.]
-
-    [Illustration: This airship, silhouetted against the afternoon sun
-    might be pacing a peaceful cruiser race through the surf off Long
-    Beach, on the Southern California coast. Or it might be leading
-    units of the mosquito fleet to sea off Cape Cod, to hold an enemy
-    U-boat in check till ships of heavier armament could arrive.]
-
-    [Illustration: Helium-inflated, fast, long ranged, the modern K-type
-    Navy patrol ship is a far cry from the primitive airships of World
-    War I. They are armed with bombs and machine guns.]
-
-    [Illustration: In brilliant sunshine, or overcast, in fog or rain or
-    snow, the blimps take off from their bases day after day, on guard
-    against any enemy who may invade the coastal waters. A faint smoke
-    screen, miles distant over the endless waters, may turn out to be a
-    peaceful merchantman--or a vessel with grimmer purpose, seeking the
-    advantage of surprise attack.]
-
-    [Illustration: Airship over cargo ship]
-
-The detection of a submarine even on the surface is largely a matter of
-looking in the right direction at the right time. The open windows on
-all sides of the airship, without obstruction by wings give it special
-value in this field.
-
-A submarine submerged is still harder to find as its tell-tale feather
-is not easy to spot from a speeding plane or from the crow's nest of a
-surface craft.
-
-A non-rigid airship throttling down to the speed of its prey, and having
-the altitude of the airplane, has a much better chance of sighting the
-submarine, before it can launch its torpedoes.
-
-Taking off in fog, flying in low visibility, compelled to fly close to
-the water, these factors do not worry the airship or handicap its
-usefulness overmuch, and might under given conditions prove extremely
-useful.
-
-The airship appears to have some advantage too in the length of time it
-may remain on station, ranging from 30 hours at high speed to
-undetermined days at low. Indeed its endurance is not so much a matter
-of fuel capacity as of the ability of crews to stand long watches
-without relief.
-
-There might be emergencies where airship scouts were wanted on
-continuous duty over a considerable period. Commander Roands'
-experiments point out interesting possibilities in this respect, through
-the transfer of fuel and supplies from a surface ship, and the taking on
-of fresh crews.
-
-This generally was the case men saw for the airship up to 1941, as
-having potential usefulness, in the event of war, against attack by sea.
-
-Then came Pearl Harbor, and America's entrance into a new war. German
-U-boats, larger, faster, more deadly, moved swiftly in to attack, as if
-waiting for the signal. The Japs made reconnaissance raids along the
-West Coast.
-
-"Wolf packs" of submarines in new under-water tactics stalked convoys,
-picked off stragglers. More than 600 coast-wise ships, merchantmen from
-the Caribbean and South America, and tankers from the Gulf, were sunk in
-the first year of war. The loss of tankers brought serious complications
-ashore, the rationing of gas along the eastern seaboard to conserve
-supply for military purposes. Despite a quickly expanding program of
-ship construction merchantmen were being sunk faster than they could be
-built.
-
-The Navy's sea-frontier defense moved to meet the attack. Non-rigid
-airships were assigned a place in that program, wherever they could be
-utilized and with what ships were on hand, and new airship construction
-was rushed.
-
-Under authorization from Congress, a program of airship and base
-construction, together with helium procurement, was accelerated, and by
-the end of the year, stations were in commission or being built at key
-points along both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico.
-
-Akron expanded its facilities many fold for the building of new
-airships, which were flown to the various bases with increasing
-frequency during the year. Large classes of officers, aviation cadets
-and enlisted men went into intensified training at Lakehurst and Moffett
-Field, preparing themselves to man the ships as fast as they were
-delivered.
-
-The blimps which have been available to the sea-frontier forces have
-rendered valuable service in patrol and escort missions. Their exact
-record of performance, including number of submarine sinkings, obviously
-cannot now be published.
-
-On sighting a submarine, or finding indication of its presence, the
-tactical doctrine might call either for attack, or to stand by,
-summoning airplanes and surface craft in for the kill, keeping the enemy
-under unsuspected surveillance the while, and saving the blimp's own
-depth bombs for another action.
-
-The airship is capable of carrying on patrol and escort missions day
-after day under a wide range of weather conditions, going for months at
-some stations, even in the winter, without missing a day.
-
-Though no detailed summary of airship activities is possible now, it is
-no secret that, just as in the last war, the submarines avoided attack
-upon convoys where airships were on guard. The German high command
-tacitly admitted that this was one type that the U-boats did not want to
-meet, an enemy immune to its torpedoes, whose presence the sub's
-under-water detectors did not reveal, and which might appear overhead
-without warning. Admiral Doenitz, commanding the German submarine force,
-testified in a press interview to their respect for our blimps.
-
-The battle against the submarines will be long and difficult, and ships
-will still go down and men will be lost, but the chase will be
-relentless as long as the menace exists. Airships, non-rigid, have taken
-their place in that phase of America's war effort.
-
-
-
-
-                               References
-
-
-Little is available in the way of bibliography on lighter-than-aircraft,
-their history and characteristics. Among the best works dealing with
-this subject are Captain C. E. Rosendahl's, "What About the Airship?"
-(Scribner's), and "Up Ship" (Dodd Mead); Captain Ernst Lehmann's
-"Zeppelin" (Longman's) and Captain J. A. Sinclair's "Airships in Peace
-and War" (Rich & Cowan, London).
-
-Copies of "The Story of the Airship (Non-Rigid)," may be procured
-through The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. at Akron, Ohio; or at Los
-Angeles, or branch offices.
-
-
-
-
-                                 Index
-
-
-                                   A
-  Alcock (and Brown) Atlantic Crossing, 16.
-
-
-                                    B
-  Ballast recovery, 40 et seq.
-  Bases, airship, world war, 14;
-      peacetime, 58, 59, 64, 65.
-  Baldwin, Major Tom, 25, 45.
-  Bennett, James Gordon, races won by Goodyear pilots, 13;
-      by Westover, 30;
-      Van Orman, 46.
-  Barrage Balloons, 63, illust. opp. 62, 63, 68.
-  Blimp, origin of name, 25.
-  Blanchard, Jean Pierre, channel crossing, 22.
-  Boettner, Jack, pilot, 51, 52, 58, 65.
-  Boyd, Lt., 19-20.
-  Brannigan, Charles, photograph opp. vi;
-      pilot, 45, 46, 50, 51.
-
-
-                                    C
-  C-5, illust. opp. 14, 22;
-      Atlantic crossing, 15, 16.
-  Charles, J. A. C., first hydrogen balloon, 22;
-      drag rope, 23.
-  Chatham, U-boat attack, 14.
-  Consolidated, planes, 63.
-  Curtiss planes, early flights, 27;
-      Goodyear part in construction, 62.
-  Crum, H. W., pilot, 56, 57.
-
-
-                                    D
-  Defender, 47;
-      at Havana, 55.
-  De Rozier, 22.
-  Drag rope, developed by Charles, 23;
-      use at sea, 42;
-      with mast, at sea, 70.
-
-
-                                    E
-  Eckener, Hugo, 31, 37.
-
-
-                                    F
-  Fickes, Karl, pilot, 52;
-      record flight of K-5, 54, 57, 58, 65.
-  Finger patch, illust. opp. 14, 35.
-  Franklin, Benj., observations on aeronautics, 22.
-  Fulton, Captain Garland, 37.
-  Furculow, Pilot, 57, 58.
-
-
-                                    G
-  Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, 62, 63.
-  Greene, Col. E. H. R., dock at New Bedford, 60.
-  Grosse Ile, hangar, 50.
-  Grumman, planes, 63.
-
-
-                                    H
-  Hawker (and Greene) Atlantic Crossing, 16.
-  Helium, characteristics, 24, 33;
-      discovery of, 34.
-  Hockensmith, pilot, 50.
-  Hydrogen, first use in balloon, 22;
-      characteristics, 24, 33.
-
-
-                                    I
-  Iron Horse, 37, 40.
-
-
-                                    J
-  Jutland, battle, 10.
-
-
-                                    K
-  Kenworthy, Commander J. L., 17.
-
-
-                                    L
-  Lange, Karl, pilot, 51, 52, 57, 58, 66.
-  Lawrence, Lt. John, pilot, 15.
-  Lindbergh, flight, effect of, 31.
-  Litchfield, P. W., first air meet, 27;
-      starts blimp fleet, 30;
-      mast experiments, 38.
-  Little, Lt., pilot, 15.
-  Los Angeles, airship, illust. opp. 23;
-      why built, 29;
-      mast studies, 36, 44.
-
-
-                                    M
-  Macon, USS, size, 25.
-  Martin, planes, 63.
-  Mast, mooring, 36 et seq.;
-      illust. opp. 38.
-  Mills, Commander, G. H., 8, 17.
-  Minnesota, damaged by mine, 2.
-  Moffett, Admiral, W. A., photograph opp. iii;
-      report on value of airships, 12, 37.
-  Montgolfiers, first balloon flight, 21.
-  Morton, Walter, pilot, 45.
-
-
-                                    N
-  NC-4, Atlantic flight, 16;
-      illust. opp. 22.
-  Norge, airship, 25.
-
-
-                                    P
-  Parsevals, airships, 25.
-  Peck, Commander S. E., C-5 flight, 15.
-  Pilgrim, airship, 26, 31, 33, 66;
-      launching, 66.
-  Pony Blimp, airship, 47, 50.
-  Preston, R. A. D., pilot, 13, 15.
-
-
-                                    R
-  R-34, Atlantic Crossing, 15, 16;
-      size, 25.
-  Radio, first use of, 55.
-  Reichelderfer, Commander F. W., chief U. S. Weather Bureau, 62.
-  Rieker, John, pilot, 58, 65.
-  Roma, Italian-built airship, 35.
-  Rosendahl, Captain, C. E., photograph opp. vi, 17, 37.
-  Rounds, Lt. C. S., ballast pick-up, 40, 66.
-  RS-1, army airship, 25, 30.
-  Rubber, use of synthetics, 35.
-
-
-                                    S
-  San Diego, USS, sunk by mine, 2.
-  Santos Dumont, illust. opp. 22;
-      first flights, 27.
-  Settle, Commander T. G. W., photograph opp. vi, 38.
-  Sewell, A. T., pilot, 56, 57, 58, 65.
-  Shenandoah, USS, 29.
-  Sheppard, S. H., pilot, 54, 57.
-  Smith, Alfred E., 36, 48.
-  Smith, Verne, pilot, 57, 58.
-
-
-                                    T
-  TC-14, airship, 17, 19.
-  Trotter, F. A., pilot, bullet holes in ship, 53, 58, 66.
-
-
-                                    U
-  Upson, R. H., pilot, 13.
-
-
-                                    V
-  Van Orman, W. T., balloon pilot, 46.
-  Volunteer, airship, 39;
-      cross country trip, 55;
-      masting out, 39.
-
-
-                                    W
-  Westover, General, 30.
-  Wilson, R. D., pilot, Everglades rescue, 48, 57.
-  Wright brothers, first flight, 21.
-
-
-
-
-                               Footnotes
-
-
-[1]See U.S. Navy Publication, "German Submarine Activities on the
-    Atlantic Coast of the United States and Canada," 1920, also the
-    book, "German Subs in Yankee Waters"--Henry J. James, 1940.
-
-
-
-
-                          Transcriber's Notes
-
-
---Copyright notice provided as in the original--this e-text is public
-  domain in the country of publication.
-
---Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
-  dialect unchanged.
-
---In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the
-  HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid), by Hugh Allen
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF THE AIRSHIP (NON-RIGID) ***
-
-***** This file should be named 51547-8.txt or 51547-8.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/5/4/51547/
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan, Paul Hutcheson
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
-States without permission and without paying copyright
-royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
-  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-
-Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
diff --git a/old/51547-8.zip b/old/51547-8.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index eb74917..0000000
--- a/old/51547-8.zip
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h.zip b/old/51547-h.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index 89e37b4..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h.zip
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/51547-h.htm b/old/51547-h/51547-h.htm
deleted file mode 100644
index 236b71f..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/51547-h.htm
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3708 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
-<head>
-<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
-<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
-<title>The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid)&mdash;A Study of One of America&rsquo;s Lesser Known Defense Weapons, by Hugh Allen: a Project Gutenberg eBook</title>
-<meta name="author" content="Hugh Allen" />
-<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
-<link rel="schema.DC" href="http://dublincore.org/documents/1998/09/dces/" />
-<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Hugh Allen" />
-<meta name="DC.Title" content="The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid): A Study of One of America&rsquo;s Lesser Known Defense Weapons" />
-<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" />
-<meta name="DC.Format" content="text/html" />
-<meta name="DC.Created" content="1943" />
-<meta name="pss.pubdate" content="1943" />
-<style type="text/css">
-large { font-size:125%; }
-sc    { font-variant:small-caps; font-style: normal; }
-
-/* == GLOBAL MARKUP == */
-body, table.twocol tr td  { margin-left:2em; margin-right:2em; }   /* BODY */
-.box     { border-style:double; margin-bottom:2em; max-width:30em; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-top:2em; clear:both; }
-.box p   { margin-right:1em; margin-left:1em; }
-.box dl  { margin-right:1em; margin-left:1em; }
-h1, h2, h5, h6, .titlepg p { text-align:center; clear:both; }   /* HEADINGS */
-h2                { margin-top:1.5em; margin-bottom:1em; }
-h1                { margin-top:3em; }
-div.box h1        { margin-top:1em; }
-div.box h2        { margin-top:1em; }
-h3                { margin-top:2.5em; text-align:center; font-size:100%; clear:both; }
-h4, h5            { font-size:110%; text-align:center; clear:right; }
-h6                { font-size:100%; }
-h6.var            { font-size:80%; font-style:normal; }
-.titlepg          { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; border-style:double; clear:both; }
-span.chaptertitle { font-style:normal; display:block; text-align:center; font-size:150%; }
-.tblttl           { text-align:center; }
-.tblsttl          { text-align:center; font-variant:small-caps; }
-
-pre sub.ms { width:4em; letter-spacing:1em; }
-table.fmla { text-align:center; margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0em; }
-table.inline, table.symbol { display: inline-table; vertical-align: middle; }
-td.cola           { text-align:left; vertical-align:100%; }
-td.colb           { text-align:justify; }
-
-p, blockquote, div.p, div.bq { text-align:justify; }                              /* PARAGRAPHS */
-div.p, div.bq   { margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; }
-blockquote, .bq { margin-left:1em; margin-right:0em; }
-.verse    { font-size:100%; }
-p.indent  {text-indent:2em; text-align:left; }
-p.tb, p.tbcenter, verse.tb, blockquote.tb      { margin-top:2em; }
-
-span.pb, div.pb, dt.pb, p.pb                                      /* PAGE BREAKS */
-{ text-align:right; float:right; margin-right:0em; clear:right; }
-div.pb { display:inline; }
-.pb, dl.index dt.pb, dl.toc dt.pb, dl.tocl dt.pb    { text-align:right; float:right; margin-left: 1.5em;
-         margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em; display:inline; text-indent:0;
-         font-size:80%; font-style:normal; font-weight:bold;
-         color:gray; border:1px solid gray;padding:1px 3px; }
-div.index .pb  { display:block; }
-.bq  div.pb, .bq span.pb  { font-size:90%; margin-right:2em; }
-
-div.img, body a img  {text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em; clear:right; }
-
-sup, a.fn { font-size:75%; vertical-align:100%; line-height:50%; font-weight:normal; }
-h3   a.fn { font-size:65%; }
-sub { font-size:75%; }
-.center, .tbcenter       { text-align:center; clear:both; }                  /* TEXTUAL MARKUP */
-span.center              { display:block; }
-table.center { clear:both; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; }
-table.center tr td.l  {text-align:left; margin-left:0em; }
-table.center tr td.t  {text-align:left; text-indent:1em; }
-table.center tr td.t2 {text-align:left; text-indent:2em; }
-table.center tr td.r  {text-align:right; }
-table.center tr th    {vertical-align:bottom; }
-table.center tr td    {vertical-align:top; }
-table.inline, table.symbol { display: inline-table; vertical-align: middle; }
-
-p           { clear:left; }
-.small, .lsmall      { font-size:90%; }
-h2 .small            { font-size:67%; }
-.smaller    { font-size:80%; }
-.smallest   { font-size:67%; }
-.larger     { font-size:150%; }
-.large      { font-size:125%; }
-.xlarge     { font-size:200%; line-height:60%; }
-.xxlarge    { font-size:200%; line-height:60%; }
-.gs         { letter-spacing:1em; }
-.gs3        { letter-spacing:2em; }
-.gslarge    { letter-spacing:.3em; font-size:110%; }
-.sc         { font-variant:small-caps; font-style:normal; }
-.unbold     { font-weight:normal; }
-.xo         { position:relative; left:-.3em; }
-.over, over { text-decoration: overline; display:inline; }
-hr          { width:20%; }
-.jl         { text-align:left; }
-.jr         { text-align:right; min-width:2em; display:inline-block; float:right; }
-.jr1        { text-align:right; margin-right:2em; }
-h1 .jr      { margin-right:.5em; }
-.ind1       { text-align:left;  margin-left:2em; }
-.u          { text-decoration:underline; }
-.hst        { margin-left:2em; }
-.hst2        { margin-left:4em; }
-.rubric     { color:red; }
-.cnwhite    { color:white; background-color:black; min-width:2em; display:inline-block;
-              text-align:center; font-weight:bold; font-family:sans-serif; }
-.cwhite     { color:white; background-color:black; text-align:center; font-weight:bold;
-              font-family:sans-serif; }
-ul  li      { text-align:justify; }
-
-dd.t           { text-align:left; margin-left: 5.5em; }
-dl.toc         { clear:both; margin-top:1em; }                    /* CONTENTS (.TOC) */
-.toc  dt.center    { text-align:center; clear:both; margin-top:3em; margin-bottom:1em;}
-.toc  dt      { text-align:right; clear:left; margin-top:.5em; }
-.toc  dd      { text-align:right; clear:both; }
-.toc  dd.ddt  { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:4em; }
-.toc  dd.ddt2 { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:5em; }
-.toc  dd.ddt3 { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:6em; }
-.toc  dd.ddt4 { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:7em; }
-.toc  dd.ddt5 { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:8em; }
-.toc  dd.note { text-align:justify; clear:both; margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em; margin-right:3em; }
-.toc  dt .xxxtest {width:17em; display:block; position:relative; left:4em; }
-.toc  dt  a,
-.toc  dd  a,
-.toc dt span.left,
-.toc dt span.lsmall,
-.toc dd span.left { text-align:left; clear:right; float:left; }
-.toc  dt  a  span.cn { width:2.3em; text-align:right; margin-right:.7em;  float:left; }
-.toc  dt.sc   { text-align:right;  clear:both; }
-.toc  dt.scl  { text-align:left;   clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; }
-.toc  dt.sct  { text-align:right;  clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; margin-left:1em; }
-.toc  dt.jl   { text-align:justify;  clear:both; font-variant:normal; margin-left:3em;
-                margin-right:3em; text-indent:0em; margin-top:0; }
-.toc  dt.scc  { text-align:center; clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; }
-.toc  dt span.lj { text-align:left; display:block; float:left; }
-.toc  dd.center { text-align:center; }
-dd.tocsummary {text-align:justify; margin-right:2em; margin-left:2em; }
-dd.center sc  {display:block; text-align:center; }
-/* BOX CELL */
-td.top { border-top:1px    solid; width:.5em; height:.8em; }
-td.bot { border-bottom:1px solid; width:.5em; height:.8em; }
-td.rb  { border:1px solid; border-left:none;  width:.5em; height:.8em;  }
-td.lb  { border:1px solid; border-right:none; width:.5em; height:.8em;  }
-
-/* INDEX (.INDEX) */
-dl.index   { clear:both; }
-.index dd  { margin-left:4em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left; }
-.index dt  { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left; }
-.index dt.center {text-align:center; }
-
-.ab, .abl {
-font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none;
-border-style:solid; border-color:gray; border-width:1px;
-margin-right:0px; margin-top:5px; display:inline-block; text-align:center; }
-.ab { width:1em; }
-
-                                                           /* FOOTNOTE BLOCKS */
-div.notes p  { margin-left:1em; text-indent:-1em; text-align:justify; }
-
-dl.undent dd   { margin-left:3em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; }
-dl.undent dt   { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; }
-dl.undent dd.t { margin-left:4em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; }
-                                                           /* POETRY LINE NUMBER */
-.lnum   { text-align:right; float:right; margin-left:.5em; display:inline; }
-
-.hymn     { text-align:left; }                                  /*  HYMN AND VERSE: HTML  */
-.verse    { text-align:left; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:0em; }
-.versetb  { text-align:left; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:0em; }
-.originc  { text-align:center; }
-.subttl   { text-align:center; font-size:80%; }
-.srcttl   { text-align:center; font-size:80%; font-weight:bold; }
-p.t0, p.l { margin-left:4em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.lb                 { margin-left:4em;  text-indent:-3em; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.tw, div.tw, .tw    { margin-left:1em;  text-indent:-1em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t,  div.t,  .t     { margin-left:5em;  text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t2,  div.t2,  .t2  { margin-left:6em;  text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t3,  div.t3,  .t3  { margin-left:7em;  text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t4,  div.t4,  .t4  { margin-left:8em;  text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t5,  div.t5,  .t5  { margin-left:9em;  text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t6,  div.t6,  .t6  { margin-left:10em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t7,  div.t7,  .t7  { margin-left:11em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t8,  div.t8,  .t8  { margin-left:12em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t9,  div.t9,  .t9  { margin-left:13em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t10, div.t10,.t10  { margin-left:14em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t11, div.t11,.t11  { margin-left:15em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t12, div.t12,.t12  { margin-left:16em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t13, div.t13,.t13  { margin-left:17em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t14, div.t14,.t14  { margin-left:18em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.t15, div.t15,.t15  { margin-left:19em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; }
-p.lr, div.lr, span.lr { display:block; margin-left:0em; margin-right:1em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:right; }
-dt.lr                { width:100%; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:1em; text-align:right; }
-dl dt.lr a           { text-align:left; clear:left; float:left; }
-
-.fnblock   { margin-top:2em; }
-.fndef     { text-align:justify; margin-top:1.5em; margin-left:1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em; }
-.fndef p.fncont, .fndef dl { margin-left:0em; text-indent:0em; }
-dl.catalog dd { font-style:italic; }
-dl.catalog dt { margin-top:1em; }
-.author { text-align:right; margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; display:block; }
-
-dl.biblio  dt        { margin-top:.6em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; clear:both; }
-dl.biblio  dt  div   { display:block; float:left; margin-left:-6em; width:6em; clear:both; }
-dl.biblio  dt.center { margin-left:0em; text-align:center; }
-dl.biblio  dd        { margin-top:.3em; margin-left:3em; text-align:justify; font-size:90%; }
-.clear     { clear:both; }
-p.book     { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; }
-p.review   { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; font-size:80%; }
-p.pcap     { margin-left:auto; text-indent:0em; text-align:center; margin-top:0em;
-              font-weight:bold; font-size:90%; max-width:35em; margin-right:auto; }
-p.pcapc    { margin-left:4.7em; text-indent:0em; text-align:justify; }
-span.pn    { display:inline-block; width:4.7em; text-align:left; margin-left:0; text-indent:0; }
-div.sidenote  { max-width:50%; float:left; clear:left;
-
-                margin-bottom:1em; font-weight:bold; font-size:90%; }
-
-
-</style>
-</head>
-<body>
-
-
-<pre>
-
-Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid), by Hugh Allen
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid)
-       A Study of One of America's Lesser Known Defense Weapons
-
-Author: Hugh Allen
-
-Release Date: March 25, 2016 [EBook #51547]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF THE AIRSHIP (NON-RIGID) ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan, Paul Hutcheson
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-<div id="cover" class="img">
-<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid): A Study of One of America&rsquo;s Lesser Known Defense Weapons" width="500" height="756" />
-</div>
-<div class="box">
-<h1>The Story of
-<br />THE AIRSHIP
-<br /><span class="smaller">(NON-RIGID)</span></h1>
-<p class="center"><i>A Study of One of America&rsquo;s Lesser Known Defense Weapons</i></p>
-<p class="center">BY HUGH ALLEN</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig1">
-<img src="images/img001.jpg" alt="Airship in flight" width="258" height="216" />
-</div>
-<p class="center">AKRON, OHIO, 1943</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_iii">iii</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill1">
-<img id="fig2" src="images/img001a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="681" />
-<p class="pcap">ADMIRAL W. A. MOFFETT
-<br />To whom this book is dedicated</p>
-</div>
-<p class="center small">FIRST PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1942
-<br />SECOND PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1943
-<br />THIRD PRINTING, DECEMBER, 1943</p>
-<p class="center smaller">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
-<br />THE LAKESIDE PRESS, R. R. DONNELLEY &amp; SONS COMPANY, CHICAGO AND CRAWFORDSVILLE, INDIANA</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_v">v</div>
-<h2 id="c1">Dedication</h2>
-<p>To <i>Admiral William A. Moffett, and the men his leadership
-inspired&mdash;to Landsdowne, McCord and Berry&mdash;to Calnan
-and Dugan and other able juniors, to Maxfield and Hoyt,
-Hancock and Lawrence of an earlier decade&mdash;to the Army&rsquo;s Hawthorne
-Gray, and as well to England&rsquo;s Scott, France&rsquo;s de Grenadin,
-Germany&rsquo;s Lehmann and Goodyear&rsquo;s Brannigan and Morton&mdash;names
-taken from lighter-than-air&rsquo;s brief but distinguished casualty list&mdash;of
-men who believed in airships and accepted gallantly the penalty
-which progress eternally exacts from men&mdash;this book is dedicated.</i></p>
-<p><i>Not forgetting the living men, the Navy&rsquo;s Rosendahl, Fulton,
-Mills, Settle; Goodyear&rsquo;s Litchfield and Arnstein, and hundreds of
-others who have carried on with unshaken faith, in the face of great
-setbacks.</i></p>
-<p><i>Much of devotion and courage, of scientific research and engineering
-achievement has gone into this enterprise&mdash;and much has been
-proved. Today, airships of the non-rigid type are taking on a new
-responsibility to the nation. If they succeed, they may well bring back
-the great rigid airships, to act as long range scouts against enemy
-raid or surprise fleet movement, as fast moving bases and refueling
-points for fighting airplanes far at sea&mdash;and as factors in world
-commerce in days to come.</i></p>
-<p><i>It is this impulse which is driving forward the men who believe in
-airships&mdash;that the sacrifices and efforts of Admiral Moffett and the
-rest shall not have gone in vain.</i></p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_vi">vi</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill2">
-<img id="fig3" src="images/img002.jpg" alt="" width="403" height="555" />
-<p class="pcap">E. J. THOMAS
-<br />President of the Goodyear Company</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill3">
-<img id="fig4" src="images/img003.jpg" alt="" width="404" height="558" />
-<p class="pcap">CAPTAIN C. E. ROSENDAHL, U.S.N.
-<br />He never gave up his ships</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill4">
-<img id="fig5" src="images/img004.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="560" />
-<p class="pcap">COMMANDER T. G. W. SETTLE, U.S.N.
-<br />He explored the Stratosphere</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill5">
-<img id="fig6" src="images/img005.jpg" alt="" width="404" height="560" />
-<p class="pcap">CHARLES BRANNIGAN
-<br />His courage still inspires airship men</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill6">
-<img id="fig7" src="images/img006.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="594" />
-<p class="pcap">P. W. LITCHFIELD
-<br />An industrial leader, chairman of the Goodyear board,
-who has believed for 30 years that airships
-would prove useful to his country in peace or war</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_vii">vii</div>
-<h2 id="c2">Foreword</h2>
-<p>High admirals of the American fleet faced in 1940 the
-gravest responsibility in the National Defense the Navy
-had ever known. Wherever they turned, north, east,
-south, west, perils lurked. If they swung their binoculars toward
-Iceland, toward the Caribbean, toward Singapore, Alaska, or the
-Canal, everywhere waited potential threats against our American
-way of life, which they must meet with ships and men, with guns
-and stout hearts. This was not merely national defense, perhaps
-not even hemisphere defense, it was World War.</p>
-<p>Surveying their gigantic task, and moving swiftly to meet it,
-they found a place in their program for half forgotten craft, long
-over-shadowed by other arms of the fleet, the non-rigid airship,
-sometimes called a dirigible, but more often a &ldquo;blimp.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Couldn&rsquo;t the airship be used as a watchdog along the coast,
-against enemy submarines, in discovering enemy mines&mdash;relieve
-for sterner tasks the destroyers and other craft now wallowing
-their innards out in those restless shallow waters? Great Britain
-and France had used airships effectively in this service over the
-English Channel during the last war.</p>
-<p>The areas within their patrol range, a hundred or 200 miles out
-to sea, within the 100 fathom curve, was a vital one. There steamship
-lanes converge, great harbors lie, coastwise merchantmen
-cruise, there is the greatest concentration of military and commercial
-shipping.</p>
-<p>With depth bombs and machine guns the blimps might strike
-a stout blow of their own, even if they weren&rsquo;t rated as combat
-craft. At least they could sound the alarm, call out reinforcements
-from swift moving shore-based craft, keep the intruder
-under surveillance. After all the main thing was to find the submarines
-in those endless miles of water. And in this field the very
-slowness of the airship, as compared to the airplane, would be an
-advantage, permit a more thorough search of the ocean&rsquo;s surface,
-while its speed as compared to any man-of-war, would enable
-it to cover more ground within a given 24 hours.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_viii">viii</div>
-<p>So on the Navy&rsquo;s recommendation Congress in 1940 approved
-the building of the airship fleet up to substantial proportions,
-together with bases from which they might operate along the
-Atlantic and Pacific coasts. That program is now being put into
-effect and the Goodyear company which had built most of the
-airships used in the first World War, began again to build ships.</p>
-<p>The story of the great rigid airships, the Los Angeles, the Akron,
-Macon and Graf Zeppelin is fairly well known. That of the smaller
-non-rigids is less familiar. The larger airships still hold vital commercial
-and military promise for the future. However, this book
-will confine itself to the non-rigid airship, with only enough
-reference to the larger ships to round out the picture.</p>
-<p>Every new vehicle of combat or transport has had to fight its
-way to acceptance against misunderstanding and lack of understanding.
-Steamships had to prove themselves against sailing
-ships. Submarines had an uphill battle to establish themselves.
-The airplane was long on probation, and now the airship is on
-trial.</p>
-<p>This book will tell something about these ships, cite what is
-claimed for them and what has been reasonably proved they can
-do, see what progress has been made in performance, and point
-out what may be expected from them hereafter&mdash;not avoiding
-the moot question of vulnerability.</p>
-<p>Lighter-than-air is older by a century than the heavier-than-air
-branch of aeronautics. Its history is marked by long research and
-experiment and continued progress. Like every pioneering development
-it has had its setbacks. But the sincerity of the effort
-and solid accomplishment made, entitles the project to thoughtful
-consideration.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_ix">ix</div>
-<h2>Contents</h2>
-<dl class="toc">
-<dt><a href="#c1"><span class="sc">Dedication</span></a> v</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c2"><span class="sc">Foreword</span></a> vii</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c3"><span class="cn">I. </span><span class="sc">German Submarines in American Waters</span></a> 1</dt>
-<dt class="jl">A little known story from the first World War.</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c4"><span class="cn">II. </span><span class="sc">British Airships in the First World War</span></a> 9</dt>
-<dt class="jl">The use of non-rigid airships in Europe in 1914-18&mdash;as convoys, and as scouts against mines and U-boats.</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c5"><span class="cn">III. </span><span class="sc">American Airships in Two Wars</span></a> 13</dt>
-<dt class="jl">Activities in first war, though building of ships, training of men and erecting of bases had to be done after war broke out.</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c6"><span class="cn">IV. </span><span class="sc">The Beginnings of Flight</span></a> 21</dt>
-<dt class="jl">Difference between airships and airplanes&mdash;classes of airships&mdash;progress, from Montgolfiers to Santos Dumont to 1914.</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c7"><span class="cn">V. </span><span class="sc">Effect on Aeronautics of Post-War Reaction</span></a> 28</dt>
-<dt class="jl">Blimps overshadowed by Zeppelins and airplanes&mdash;only rigid airships had anything like continuing program, and they because of possible commercial value&mdash;effect on public opinion of Lindbergh flight and first arrival of the Graf Zeppelin.</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c8"><span class="cn">VI. </span><span class="sc">Airship Improvements Between Wars</span></a> 32</dt>
-<dt class="jl">Helium gas&mdash;structural changes&mdash;development of mooring mast&mdash;Navy experiments in picking up water ballast from the ocean.</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c9"><span class="cn">VII. </span><span class="sc">Adventures of the Goodyear Fleet</span></a> 45</dt>
-<dt class="jl">Reason for starting&mdash;adventures&mdash;familiarize country with airships&mdash;safety record&mdash;evolution of masting technique.</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c10"><span class="cn">VIII. </span><span class="sc">Results of Fleet Operations</span></a> 61</dt>
-<dt class="jl">Weather information&mdash;effect on flying and ground handling practice&mdash;on ship design&mdash;created bases, ships and construction plants which might prove useful in emergency.</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c11"><span class="cn">IX. </span><span class="sc">Vulnerability of Airships</span></a> 67</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c12"><span class="sc">References</span></a> 72</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c13"><span class="sc">Index</span></a> 73</dt>
-</dl>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div>
-<h2 id="c3"><span class="small">CHAPTER I</span>
-<br />German Submarines in American Waters</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig8">
-<img src="images/img007.jpg" alt="Submarine" width="470" height="210" />
-</div>
-<p>In the last six months of the first World War Germany sent six
-submarines to America at intervals starting in April, to lay
-mines along our shipping lanes, attack merchantmen, drive
-the fishing fleet ashore, try to force this country to call back part of
-its European fleet for home defense&mdash;and in any case to give America,
-geographically aloof from the war, a taste of what war was
-like.</p>
-<p>These activities were overshadowed at the time by graver events,
-or hidden by military secrecy. Few people even today know that
-ships were sunk and men killed by German U-boats within sight of
-our coast.<a class="fn" id="fr_1" href="#fn_1">[1]</a></p>
-<p>It was in no sense an all-out effort. Only a handful of submarines
-were used. The attack was launched late in the war, in fact one of
-the six didn&rsquo;t even reach American waters, was called back by news
-of the Armistice. Submarines of that day had a cruising range of
-some three months, could spend only three weeks in our coastal
-waters, used the rest of the time getting over and back.</p>
-<p>But in those few weeks these six submarines destroyed exactly
-100 ships, of all sizes, types and registry, killed 435 people. Most of
-the ships were peaceful unarmed merchantmen, coastwise ships
-<span class="pb" id="Page_2">2</span>
-from the West Indies and South America, tankers from Galveston,
-fishing ships heading back from the Grand Banks, supply ships
-carrying guns and war materials to England, a few stragglers from
-convoys.</p>
-<p>The subs&rsquo; biggest catch was the USS San Diego, a cruiser, sunk
-by mine off Fire Island, just outside New York harbor, July 19,
-1918, with 1,180 officers and men aboard. Only six lives, fortunately,
-were lost. The battleship Minnesota, escorted by a destroyer,
-struck a mine off Fenwick shoals light ship, early in the morning of
-September 29, but made temporary repairs and limped back into
-Philadelphia Navy Yard 18 hours later. A fragment of the mine
-was found imbedded in her frame work.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill7">
-<img id="fig9" src="images/img008.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="561" />
-<p class="pcap">Reproduced from U.S. Navy map
-showing track of submarines operating
-in American waters during
-last few months of first World War.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Mines were laid at strategic points. One field, with its mines 500
-to 1,000 yards apart was laid off Cape Hatteras, one at the mouth
-<span class="pb" id="Page_3">3</span>
-of Chesapeake Bay, one across Delaware Bay, two in between these
-key inlets, another off Barnegat, and the last off Fire Island. Some
-of the mines drifted ashore, others were found and destroyed&mdash;the
-last ones not till the following January. But mines accounted for
-six of the ships lost.</p>
-<p>One of the submarines, the U-117, built as a mine layer, planted
-46 of the 58 mines laid along our shores; four others were merchant
-subs of the Deutschland type, including the Deutschland itself,
-which had twice previously visited this country on ostensibly
-friendly missions.</p>
-<p>Though the subs encountered a few victims on the way over or
-back, most of the ships were destroyed in the shallower waters within
-200 miles of the American and Canadian coast. The fishing was
-better close in.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_4">4</div>
-<p>Naval Intelligence knew, through Admiral Sims&rsquo; office in London,
-just when each submarine left Kiel, what its probable destination
-was, and its approximate arrival date. The Navy could not
-broadcast this information, lest U-boat captains learn they were
-expected, but took appropriate defense measures. Even so, each submarine
-traveled directly to its destination, carried out its mission.</p>
-<p>U-boats operated almost with immunity from Newfoundland to
-the Virginia capes. Twice American men of war passed over submerging
-craft so close as almost to ram them. The U-151 worked at
-cutting cables for three days, near enough to New York City that
-the crew could see the lights of Broadway at night. The U-115,
-lying off the Virginia capes, came to the surface one afternoon just
-in time for its periscope to disclose a cruiser, two destroyers and a
-Navy tug a mile away, peacefully returning from routine target
-practice, entirely unaware that the U-boat was lurking in the
-vicinity.</p>
-<p>The submarines got a poor press that summer, not only for reasons
-of military secrecy, but because more stirring news held the
-attention of the public. The AEF was beginning to see action in
-France.</p>
-<p>Still headlines flashed occasionally as censorship was raised, or
-survivors brought in stories. From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin
-during this period:</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Hun U-boats Raid New Jersey coast&mdash;Schooner Edward H.
-Cole Attacked by two Submarines, Destroyed&mdash;Two Attacked Off
-New England&mdash;Atlantic Ports Closed&rdquo;&mdash;and the story, under New
-York date line: &ldquo;Germany has carried her unrestricted submarine
-warfare to this side of the ocean&mdash;at least five vessels sunk&mdash;submarine
-chasers ordered out from Cape May&mdash;Coast Guard stations
-on special lookout&mdash;marine insurance companies announce sharp
-increase in rates.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>News Flash&mdash;&ldquo;Wireless report from passenger steamer Carolina
-says she is under attack&rdquo;&mdash;The Carolina is sunk, 300 survivors
-are landed at Barnegat Bay, 19 at Lewes Del., 30 at Atlantic City,
-others picked up in open boats.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_5">5</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill8">
-<img id="fig10" src="images/img009.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="874" />
-<p class="pcap">On this map of actual ship sinkings and mine layings in 1918 is superimposed
-a sketch of the area which a handful of modern patrol blimps might cover.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div>
-<p>Then: &ldquo;Navy mine sweepers sent out to destroy mines and floating
-torpedoes which had missed target&mdash;tanker Herbert L. Pratt
-strikes mine in shallow water on maiden voyage&mdash;War Department
-asks Congress for $10,000,000 to set up balloon and plane
-stations along the coast to combat sub menace&mdash;British steamer
-Harpathian torpedoed off Virginia capes&mdash;American vessel, name
-withheld, puts back to &lsquo;an Atlantic port&rsquo; after being chased by
-U-boat.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>The record continues: &ldquo;San Diego sunk by mine&mdash;tug and four
-barges sunk&mdash;British freighter attacked&mdash;sub sends landing crew
-on board lumber schooner off Maine coast, set her afire&mdash;Steamer
-Merak sunk off Hatteras&mdash;tanker torpedoed off Barnegat Bay,
-beaches blanketed with oil&mdash;Norwegian steamer Vinland&mdash;British
-steamer Peniston and Swedish steamer Sydland off Nantucket&mdash;nine
-U. S. fishing vessels off Massachusetts coast&mdash;British tanker
-Mirlo&mdash;U.S. Schooner Dorothy Barrett&mdash;tanker Frederick R. Kellogg&rdquo;
-and so on and on.</p>
-<p>Events of the time and since have swept these happenings out of
-the minds of most Americans&mdash;even if they knew of it at the time.
-But somewhere, half forgotten in Naval files, is an official report,
-painstakingly compiled after the war, from ship logs, from stories
-by merchant captains and crews, even by officers of surrendered
-German submarines, to make up as complete a record as possible
-of one of the amazing operations of the war&mdash;and one whose magnitude,
-in territory covered and damage done, few suspected, even
-within the Navy, at the time.</p>
-<p>Only two subs had so much as a brush with American ships. The
-transport von Steuben, former German liner, proceeding to the
-rescue of men in life boats from a merchant ship, dropped depth
-bombs which the U-boat escaped by diving to 83 meters, lying
-low till the enemy had gone.</p>
-<p>Closer call had the U-140, largest and most modern of the fleet,
-which after sinking several ships off Diamond Shoals, including the
-light ship itself, almost caught a tartar when the Brazilian passenger
-liner, Uberabe, zigzagging furiously to escape, sent out
-S.O.S. messages which brought four U.S. destroyers hurrying to
-the rescue. Nearest was the USS Stringham, which proceeding under
-full speed, using the Uberabe as a screen, charged on the U-boat,
-dropped 15 depth charges when the U-boat dived, timed to explode
-at different levels.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill9">
-<img id="fig11" src="images/img010.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="671" />
-<p class="pcap">Training exercises with U. S. submarines have taught airship captains much about
-the habits, movements and characteristics of the underseas craft. (U. S. Navy photo).</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill10">
-<img id="fig12" src="images/img010a.jpg" alt="" width="599" height="194" />
-<p class="pcap">The year before America got into the last war the German submarine U-51 sank a half dozen
-merchant ships off Nantucket Island then proceeded into Newport. (U. S. Navy photo)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill11">
-<img id="fig13" src="images/img011.jpg" alt="" width="508" height="799" />
-<p class="pcap">Navy airships in practice patrols identify, as to class and nationality, all surface ships in
-their area, learn to recognize the silhouette of a submarine from afar. (U. S. Navy photo)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div>
-<p>The U-boat captain, one of the best in the German navy, drove
-his craft at a sharp angle to 400 feet. One charge exploding underneath
-the sub turned it stern upward till it stood almost perpendicular.
-He managed to level out finally at 415 feet, lay there as long
-as he dared, finally reached the surface. His ship was so badly crippled
-it had to abandon its mission and set out for home&mdash;though
-it sunk a couple more ships in the mid-Atlantic on the way back.</p>
-<p>The only U-boat casualty was the U-156 which after getting 34
-victims in American waters, getting eight in one day, was itself sunk
-by mines&mdash;but off Faroe Island as it was almost home.</p>
-<p>This then is the story of submarine operations in U. S. waters in
-1918&mdash;a half hearted effort of short duration started late in the day&mdash;but
-which destroyed 100 ships, totalling 200,000 tons, most of
-them close to our shores.</p>
-<p>No one could doubt but that in the event of another war submarines
-would be used again, and in more vigorous fashion. The
-American fleet might easily keep major enemy ships at a safe distance,
-and bombing attack from any part of Europe or over the
-Pacific would have little military value. But certainly submarines
-would find their way past the screen of Navy craft, bob up off
-American harbors, again to lay mines in the path of coastwise
-steamers, deliver hit-and-run attack by torpedo and gunfire at
-American craft.</p>
-<p>We could be equally sure that these ugly motorized sharks,
-churning the muddy sub-surface waters, would not be satisfied to
-attack merchantmen only, would be looking for bigger prey.</p>
-<p>On the map showing the operations of German submarines in
-1918 let us superimpose, as an example, the patrol area which
-two blimps, basing at Boston, Lakehurst, Cape May and Norfolk
-might effectively cover in a 12 hour period.</p>
-<p>A patrol area of 2,000 square miles per ship is conservative. It
-assumes the ship flying at no faster than 35 knots, having visibility
-of five miles in all directions. As a matter of fact, allowing a little
-more than 40 knots speed&mdash;and the airship cruises considerably
-<span class="pb" id="Page_8">8</span>
-faster than that&mdash;we might say that a modern blimp could patrol
-an area 10 miles wide and 500 miles long in the 12 hours, or an
-area of 5,000 square miles. But by criss-crossing back and forth in
-accordance with a progressive plan, an area of 2,000 square miles
-could be made reasonably secure&mdash;except under extremely adverse
-conditions of visibility.</p>
-<p>Laying these patrol areas down over the map of submarine operations
-of 1918 it is apparent that such patrols would cover much of
-the territory where ship sinkings were achieved, cover all of the
-areas where mines were laid.</p>
-<p>With blimps operating from such bases, in addition to the
-patrols being executed by other naval craft, we might conclude
-that no submarine could venture within 100 miles of the
-American coast during daylight hours without considerable risk
-of detection, and that blimps should be able to make contribution
-to the safety of coastwise shipping and harbor cities.</p>
-<p>The patrol areas assigned to the blimps would have their flanks
-exposed, but airship patrol would be co-ordinated with that of
-airplanes and surface craft, guarding the areas farther out.</p>
-<p>That this conclusion is reasonable is indicated by the fact that
-from 1939 on, Lakehurst Naval Air Station, under command of
-Commander G. H. Mills had been doing just this, patroling areas
-all the way from Nantucket to Cape Hatteras.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_9">9</div>
-<h2 id="c4"><span class="small">CHAPTER II</span>
-<br />British Airships in the First War</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig14">
-<img src="images/img012.jpg" alt="Airship over water" width="397" height="216" />
-</div>
-<p>Germany entered the first World War with high expectations
-as to one, perhaps two of its new weapons of war. Its
-submarines might offset Britain&rsquo;s superiority at sea, and
-certainly the Zeppelins, which had proved themselves in four years
-of commercial flying, would be able to cross the English Channel
-and carry the war to the island which had seen no invasion since
-William the Conqueror.</p>
-<p>No nation except Germany had Zeppelins. And as the German
-people began to feel the pinch of the blockade, cutting their life
-line of food and supplies, they brought increasing public pressure
-on High Command to use these weapons to punish England.</p>
-<p>Later commentators have speculated as to whether, if Germany
-had held its fire, waited till it could assemble an overpowering
-force of Zeppelins and submarines and stage a joint attack, it might
-not have been able to force a quick decision.</p>
-<p>But the Zeppelins were sent over a few at a time, as fast as they
-could be built, and England was given time to devise defenses.
-These were chiefly higher altitude airplanes, farther ranging anti-aircraft
-guns, sky piercing searchlights, which combined to force
-the invaders to fly continuously higher as the war wore on, as high
-as 25,000 feet at times, with corresponding sacrifice of bombing accuracy.
-And when machine guns, synchronized with the propellers,
-were mounted in airplane cockpits, and began to spit inflammable
-bullets into the hydrogen filled bags and send them down in flames,
-the duel took on more even terms.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div>
-<p>Less spectacularly the Zeppelins were used on a wide scale as
-reconnaissance and scouting craft, which flying fast and far were
-given credit on more than one occasion for saving German Naval
-squadrons from being cut off by superior Allied forces, were acknowledged
-even by the British to have played an important part
-in the Battle of Jutland.</p>
-<p>It is a little hard to realize today that whatever air battles were
-waged over water in the last war were conducted chiefly by lighter-than-air
-craft. Planes staged spectacular battles along the Allied lines
-in France, but lack of range and carrying capacity forced them to
-leave sea battles to the airship. As a measure of that situation, the
-great hangars at Friedrichshafen, spawning ground of the Zeppelins,
-one of the outstanding targets in all Europe if England were to
-draw the dirigible&rsquo;s fangs, lay hardly more than a hundred miles
-from the French borders, but even that distance was too great for
-effective attack.</p>
-<p>While these greater events were taking place, British airships,
-smaller in size, less spectacular, were playing no small part in repelling
-Germany&rsquo;s other threat, the submarine.</p>
-<h3><span class="sc">Blimps Used to Search for U-Boats</span></h3>
-<p>Navy opinion around the world was skeptical at the beginning
-of the War as to whether submarines would ever be practical.
-There were mechanical troubles, accidents, usually costly. Even
-Germany, prior to 1914, used to send an escort of warships along
-to convoy its subs to their station&mdash;then send out for them afterward
-to bring them home again.</p>
-<p>But the war was only a few weeks old when the captain of the
-U-9, cruising down the Dutch coast, discovered that his gyro compass
-was off, and when he got his bearings saw that he was 50 miles
-off course. He wasted no breath, however, on many-syllabled German
-swear words, for off on his southern horizon were the masts of
-three British ships. He dived, came up alongside, and in 30 minutes,
-single handed, with well directed torpedoes, had sunk in turn
-HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy.</p>
-<p>The morning of September 22, 1914, marked the beginning of a
-new era in Naval warfare. The warring nations grew furiously busy
-<span class="pb" id="Page_11">11</span>
-building their own U-boats and devising defenses against the
-enemy&rsquo;s. Among these defenses was the non-rigid airship.</p>
-<p>These two vehicles, so widely different, have much in common.
-If we may be technical for a minute we may say that the airship
-and the submarine are both buoyant bodies, completely immersed
-and floating in a medium&mdash;air and water respectively&mdash;of
-changing pressures, that each uses dual sets of steering gear and
-rudders to control direction and altitude. And further, that the airship
-in 1941 faces the same division of opinion as the submarine
-faced in 1914, as to whether, particularly with rigid airships, it will
-ever be widely used and accepted.</p>
-<p>In any event in 1914 there was an urgent and immediate job to
-be done.</p>
-<p>Indicator nets and high explosive mines might give some protection
-to harbors, might be stretched across steamship lanes and
-planted around the hiding places of the submarines, if those could
-be discovered. But troop ships and munition ships and food ships
-must be dispatched without interruption across the tricky waters
-of the English Channel to France, and for this purpose convoy escorts
-were devised, with camouflaged warships zigzagging alongside,
-while high aloft in lookout stations men with binoculars
-strained their eyes, searching the waters, ahead, astern, alongside,
-their search lingering long over every bit of floating wreckage&mdash;and
-there was a lot of it&mdash;to make sure it was not a periscope.</p>
-<p>These lookouts aboard ship quickly had a new ally in the air. As
-the submarine menace grew, binoculars began to flash too from the
-fuselages of bobbing blimps overhead. At a few hundred or perhaps
-a thousand feet elevation they could see deep below the surface,
-and quickly learned to recognize at considerable distance the
-tell-tale trail of bubbles or feathered waters or smear of oil which
-denoted the enemy&rsquo;s presence, might even pick out the shadowy
-form of the submerged craft itself.</p>
-<p>The value of the airship in convoy was that it could fly slowly,
-could throttle down its motors and march in step with its charges,
-cruise ahead, alongside, behind. The very speed of its sister craft,
-the airplane, handicapped its use in this field.</p>
-<p>This characteristic of the blimp was even more useful in hunting
-<span class="pb" id="Page_12">12</span>
-U-boat nests. The blimp could head into the wind, with its motors
-barely turning over, hover for hours at zero speed over suspect
-areas. It could fly at low altitudes, follow even slender clues. Seagulls
-following a periscope sometimes gave highly useful information.
-An orange crate moving against the tide attracted the attention
-of one alert pilot, for the crate concealed a periscope, and the
-blimp dropped bombs&mdash;successfully.</p>
-<p>When a blimp discovered a submarine, it would give chase.
-With its 50 knots of reserve speed it was faster than any warship,
-much faster than the poky wartime submarine, which could do
-only 10 or 12 knots on the surface, much less than half that when
-submerged. If it was lucky the airship might drop a bomb alongside
-before the sub got away.</p>
-<p>And run for cover the submarine always did. It wanted no argument
-with a ship which could see it under water, could out-run it,
-and might plunk a bomb alongside before its presence was even
-suspected.</p>
-<p>Airships did get their subs during the war. The records, always
-incomplete in the case of submarines, whose casualties were invisible,
-show that British blimps sighted 49 U-boats, led to the destruction
-of 27. But their greater usefulness lay in the fact that their
-mere presence sent the underseas craft scuttling for submerged
-safety.</p>
-<p>Between June, 1917, and the end of the war British blimps flew
-1,500,000 miles, nearly as many as the Zeppelins. A French Commission
-made an exhaustive study of dirigible operations after the
-war, and the late Rear Admiral W. A. Moffett quoted from its reports
-in summarizing lighter-than-air lessons taken from the war,
-when he told the Naval Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives
-that &ldquo;as far as they could learn, no steamer was ever
-molested by submarines when escorted by a non-rigid airship.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>France and Italy had long coast lines, used the blimps extensively
-along the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and the Adriatic,
-but England found still greater use for them because it was an
-island. So blimp scouts played a singularly useful role from Land&rsquo;s
-End to the Orkneys, stood watch at the mouth of the Firth of
-Forth, the Solway, the Humber, and the Thames.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_13">13</div>
-<h2 id="c5"><span class="small">CHAPTER III</span>
-<br />American Airships in Two Wars</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig15">
-<img src="images/img013.jpg" alt="Airship and hangar" width="338" height="213" />
-</div>
-<p>Compared to British and French airships, American dirigibles
-made a less impressive record during the first war.</p>
-<p>This for the reasons that there were few enemy activities in
-our waters until the very end, and that there were few American
-airships to oppose them. Virtually the entire airship organization
-had to be created after we got into the war.</p>
-<p>Naval attach&eacute;s abroad had been watching blimp operations over
-the English channel, and on the basis of rather meager information
-which they furnished, Navy designers were working on plans, when
-the Secretary of the Navy, in February 1917, 60 days before the
-declaration of war, ordered 16 blimps started at once.</p>
-<p>Nine of these were to be built by Goodyear which had at least
-given some study to the principles, had built a few balloons, one of
-which, flown by its engineers out of Paris, had won the James
-Gordon Bennett Cup Race.</p>
-<p>No one in this country, however, knew much about building airships,
-and less about flying them after they were built. Operating
-bases would have to be built and the very construction plants as
-well. The first Goodyear airship under the Navy order was completed
-before the airship dock (hangar) at Wingfoot Lake was
-ready, and the ship had to be erected in Chicago and flown in.</p>
-<p>The engineers who built it, Upson and Preston, made their first
-airship flight in delivering the ship to Akron, using theoretical
-principles applied in the international balloon race the year before,
-to make up for their lack of practical experience.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_14">14</div>
-<p>Those first ships were small, slow, lacked range, uncovered
-many shortcomings. Flight training was done under adverse circumstances.
-Men had to teach themselves to fly airships, then
-teach others to fly them.</p>
-<p>The pilots were chiefly engineering students from the colleges,
-with a sprinkling of Navy officers. They had to take their advanced
-training abroad at British and French bases, because there were no
-facilities here, and in fact did most of their flying abroad. By the
-end of the war American pilots were manning three British airship
-bases and had taken over practically all the French operations, including
-the large base at Paimboeuf, across the Loire from St.
-Nazaire, on the French coast.</p>
-<p>So the war was well along before American bases were set up
-and manned. These were at Chatham, Mass., at Montauk and
-Rockaway, N. Y., at Cape May, Norfolk and Key West. Like the
-airplane patrols the blimps saw little action, though they had an
-advantage in that they could stay out all day, while the short range
-planes of 1917-18 had to come back every few hours to refuel.</p>
-<p>A patrol airship at Chatham, Mass. missed its chance in that it
-was adrift at sea with engine trouble when the German U-156
-slipped into the harbor at nearby Orleans and wiped out some fishing
-boats&mdash;though it might have done no better than the first
-plane which reached the scene, whose few bombs did not explode.</p>
-<p>The blimp patrols, however, uncovered one other type of activity.
-More than once they spotted suspicious looking craft emerging
-under cover of fog, from remote coves and inlets along the Long
-Island coast, fishing boats and barges with improvised power plant
-and curious looking paraphernalia on deck. Keeping the stranger
-in sight the blimp summoned armored craft from shore which sent
-boarding crews on, found mines destined for the New York steamship
-lanes.</p>
-<p>A more important result of the blimp operations was the improvements
-in design which were found, particularly in the &ldquo;C&rdquo;
-type ship, brought out in 1918, of which 20 were built. They had
-much better performance in range, power, could make 60 miles
-speed, were faster than any airships except the Zeppelins. Navy
-officers and crews came to have high respect for them.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill12">
-<img id="fig16" src="images/img014.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="310" />
-<p class="pcap">Here&rsquo;s the gallant C-5, which with a bit of luck would have
-been the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic. (U. S. Navy photo)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill13">
-<img id="fig17" src="images/img014a.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="313" />
-<p class="pcap">Wingfoot Lake, Akron,
-was a busy place
-during the first war,
-as the spawning
-ground of scores of
-blimps, hundreds of
-training and observation
-balloons.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill14">
-<img id="fig18" src="images/img014b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="473" />
-<p class="pcap">&ldquo;Finger patches&rdquo; of
-rope ends raveled
-out and cemented to
-the outside of the bag
-were used in 1918 to
-support the weight of
-the gondola&mdash;an improvised
-airplane
-fuselage.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill15">
-<img id="fig19" src="images/img015.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="831" />
-<p class="pcap">During most of the period between World wars the Navy had only a few J-type ships,
-but used them effectively in training and experimental work. (U. S. Navy photo)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
-<p>Which led to one of the interesting aeronautic adventure stories
-of the period. It happened just after the Armistice.</p>
-<p>Men had come out of the war with imaginations afire over the
-possibilities of aircraft. One challenge lay open&mdash;the Atlantic&mdash;no
-one had flown it.</p>
-<p>In the breathing spell brought by the Armistice, the British were
-preparing their new Zeppelin R-34 for the crossing; two English
-planes were being shipped to Newfoundland to try to fly back; the
-U. S. Navy had a seaplane crossing in prospect. There was even a
-German plan. A new Zeppelin had just been finished at Friedrichshafen
-when the Armistice was signed, and the crew planned
-to fly it to America as a demonstration&mdash;but authorities got wind of
-it and blocked the venture.</p>
-<p>But of all the Atlantic crossings about which men were dreaming
-in early 1919, none is more interesting than the one projected for
-the little blimps.</p>
-<p>The C-5, newest of the non-rigid airships built for the Navy, was
-stationed at Montauk, and there one night a group of officers sat
-intensively studying charts and weather maps. St. John&rsquo;s, Newfoundland,
-1,400 miles away, would be the first leg of the trip. It
-was easily within the cruising radius of the ship, particularly if they
-got helping winds, which they should if the time was carefully
-picked. From there to Ireland was another 1850 miles, also within
-range with the prevailing westerly winds.</p>
-<p>Permission was asked from Washington, and the Navy flashed
-back its approval and its blessing, assigned five experienced
-officers to the project: Lieut. Comdr. Coil, Lieuts. Lawrence,
-Little, Preston, and Peck. The USS Chicago was sent ahead to St.
-John&rsquo;s to stand by and give any help needed.</p>
-<p>Shortly after sunrise on May 15, 1919, motors were warmed up
-and the ship shoved off from the tip of Long Island with six men
-aboard headed for Newfoundland. At 7 o&rsquo;clock the next morning
-they circled over the deck of the <i>Chicago</i>, dropped their handling
-lines to the waiting ground crew on a rocky point at St. John&rsquo;s. The
-first leg had been made in a little more than 24 hours, at an average
-speed of nearly 60 miles per hour.</p>
-<p>The morning was clear and comparatively calm. Coil and Lawrence
-<span class="pb" id="Page_16">16</span>
-went aboard the <i>Chicago</i> to catch a little sleep before the final
-hop over the ocean. The others saw to re-fueling the C-5, stowing
-provisions aboard, topping off a bit of hydrogen from the cylinders
-alongside. Mechanics swarmed over the motors. All was well.</p>
-<p>But about 10 o&rsquo;clock gusts began to sweep down from Hudson&rsquo;s
-Bay, dragging the ground crew over the rocks. There were no
-mooring masts in those days. A modern mast would have saved
-the ship. More sailors were put on the lines and word sent to Coil
-and Lawrence. If the ground crew could hold the ship till the
-pilots could get aboard and cut loose, the storm would give them a
-flying start over the Atlantic.</p>
-<p>But the wind blew steadily stronger as the commander was
-hurrying ashore. It reached gale force, hurricane force, 40 knots, 60
-knots in gusts, varying in direction crazily around a 60-degree arc.
-It picked the ship up and slammed it down, damaging the fuselage,
-breaking a propeller. Little and Peck climbed aboard to pull the
-rip panel and let the gas out. After the storm passed, they could
-cement the panel back in, reinflate the bag and go on.</p>
-<p>But the fates were against them. The cord leading to the rip
-panel broke. Desperately, the two men started climbing up the
-suspension cables to the gas bag with knives, planning to rip the
-panel out by hand. But a tremendous gust caught the ship, lifted
-it up. Seeing the danger to the crew, Peck shouted to them to let
-go, and he and Little dropped over the side. Little broke an ankle.</p>
-<p>The ship surged upward, crewless, set off like another &ldquo;Flying
-Dutchman&rdquo; across the Atlantic, was never seen again.</p>
-<p>Just three days later Hawker and Grieve set out from St. John&rsquo;s,
-landed in the ocean. Alcock and Brown cut loose their landing gear
-a month later and landed in Ireland. One of the three Navy seaplanes,
-the NC-4, reached Europe on May 31 and the British
-dirigible R-34 set out on July 2 for its successful round trip to
-Mitchel Field.</p>
-<p>But for a trick of fate and the lack of equipment available today,
-a blimp would have been first to get across.</p>
-<p>Many things happened in the airship field between the two wars,
-but most of them affected non-rigid airships only indirectly, as the
-Navy was primarily concerned with the larger rigids.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_17">17</div>
-<p>The loss of the Hindenburg by hydrogen fire (which American
-helium would have prevented), coming on the heels of tragic setbacks
-in this country was enough to dismay anyone except Commander
-C. E. Rosendahl and his stouthearted associates at Lakehurst
-Naval Air Station.</p>
-<p>They didn&rsquo;t give up. Setbacks were inevitable to progress. Count
-Zeppelin had built and lost five rigid airships prior to 1909, but
-he went on to build ships which were flown successfully in war and
-peace. If the Germans, using hydrogen, could do this, Americans,
-with helium, should not find it impossible, Lakehurst reasoned.
-And if they had no rigid airships to fly and no immediate likelihood
-of getting any they would use blimps.</p>
-<p>The Navy was more familiar than the public with what the
-British and French airships had accomplished in the first war.
-Studying, as all Navy officers were doing in that period, the various
-possibilities of attack and defense, in case the war then threatening
-Europe should sweep across the Atlantic, they came to the
-conclusion that the coast line of America was no more remote from
-German submarines in 1938 than the coast of England was in 1914.</p>
-<p>The airplane had improved vastly in speed, range, and striking
-power, and their very multiplicity had ruled out the blimps over
-the English channel, even if helium was available, but those conclusions
-did not hold along the American coast.</p>
-<p>The heroic part played by Allied blimps was a part of the legend
-of the airship service. Nothing new developed in war had subtracted
-anything from the ability of American airships to do in this
-war what British non-rigids had done in the last. Commander J. L.
-Kenworthy and after him Commander G. H. Mills as commanding
-officer at Lakehurst turned to non-rigids.</p>
-<p>Under Mills was instituted, quietly, unostentatiously, with what
-ships he had, a series of practice patrols to determine the usefulness
-of airships in this field, to discover and perfect technique, and
-to train officers and men.</p>
-<p>Lakehurst had a curious conglomeration of airships to start
-with. There were two J ships of immediate post-war type, with
-open cockpits, 210,000 cubic feet capacity; two TC ships, inherited
-from the Army, of more modern design, and larger size; the ZMC2,
-<span class="pb" id="Page_18">18</span>
-an experimental job built to study the use of a metal cover, and
-about to be scrapped after nine years of existence; the L-1, the
-same size as the Goodyear ships, 123,000 cubic feet, the first modern
-training ship, which would be joined later by the L-2 and L-3;
-the G-1, a larger trainer of Goodyear Defender size, useful for
-group instruction, and the 320,000 cubic foot K-1, which had been
-built for experiments in the use of fuel gas. Only the K-2, prototype
-of the 416,000 cubic foot patrol ships later ordered could be
-called a modern airship, though the Army dirigibles also had good
-cruising radius.</p>
-<p>Yet with this curious assortment of airships of various sizes,
-types and ages, the Navy carried on practice patrols covering the
-areas between Montauk and the Virginia Capes, flying day after
-day, built an impressive accumulation of flight data, missed very
-few days on account of weather, made it a point not to miss a
-rendezvous with the surface fleet. More than any one thing it was
-this demonstration, over an 18-month period, which led to the
-revival of an airship program in this country, the ordering of ships
-and land bases.</p>
-<p>Let us see what a blimp patrol is like. The airship can fly up to
-65 knots or better, but this is no speed flight. The motors are
-throttled down to 40 knots, so that the crew may see clearly, take
-its time, study the moving surface underneath, scrutinize every
-trace of oil smear on the surface, alert for the tell-tale &ldquo;feather&rdquo; of
-the submarine&rsquo;s wake, air bubbles, a phosphorescent glow at
-night, for even a bit of debris which might conceal a periscope.</p>
-<p>A school of whales, a lone hammerhead shark on the surface or
-submerged stirs the interest of the patrol, offers a tempting live
-target for the bombs,&mdash;light charges with little more powder than
-a shot gun shell uses. Now a ship records a direct hit on a shark&rsquo;s
-back 500 feet below. He shakes his head, dives to escape this unseen
-enemy aloft. The airship gives chase, follows the moving
-shadow below, so strikingly resembling a submarine, finds the
-practice useful.</p>
-<p>Of the crew of eight, everyone on the airship is on watch, with
-an observation tower open on all sides, without interference of
-wings, as in the airplane. Compared with surface craft, the airship
-<span class="pb" id="Page_19">19</span>
-can patrol more area in a dawn to dusk patrol because of its speed
-and its wide range of unbroken observation.</p>
-<p>The submarine is more efficient in relatively shallow depths, but
-airships have spotted the silhouetted shadow of U-boats in clear
-water as deep as 70 feet below the surface. The submarine will
-attempt to maneuver within a mile of its target to launch its torpedoes
-effectively. But even at a mile away the ten inches of periscope
-which projects above the surface is difficult for other craft to
-detect,&mdash;either for a cruiser at sea level, or an airplane, flying at
-relatively high speed, a threat either may miss.</p>
-<p>Airship crews are at action stations even during peace time, on
-the alert against the appearance of strange craft. They identify
-each passing ship through binoculars, by voice or radio, taking no
-chances that attack without warning by a seeming peaceful ship
-might not be a declaration of war. As many as 40 or 50 ships may
-be encountered and identified in a day&rsquo;s patrol. The airships are
-off at sun-up, back at sundown, unless on more extended reconnaissance,
-move quietly into the big dock.</p>
-<p>Patrol is tedious work. Occasionally there is a break in the routine.
-Lt. Boyd has been assigned command of the big TC-14 for
-the next day&rsquo;s patrol. He is up late studying the curious tracks he
-is to follow in coordination with the other airships. At midnight
-however the radio brings startling word. An airplane leaving
-Norfolk with a crew of ten for Newport, is reported missing.
-Nearby destroyers, airplanes, airships, are ordered out as a searching
-party. The TC-14, having the longest cruising radius, 52 hours
-without refueling, is sent off at once, with a senior officer, Lt.
-Trotter, in charge. Men&rsquo;s lives may be at stake.</p>
-<p>By daylight, the TC-14 has flown over the entire northern half
-of the plane&rsquo;s track and back, watching intently for distress signals
-or flares or any sign of the distressed plane. Three miles north of
-Hog Island light outside Norfolk, the ship encounters fog extending
-clear to the water. Search of this area is hopeless and the ship
-scouts the edges, waits for the fog to burn off. At noon as it lifts,
-pieces of wreckage are spotted at the very area which it had hidden,
-and which the TC-14 had flown over five hours earlier.</p>
-<p>The airship cruised around, hoping that some bit of wreckage
-<span class="pb" id="Page_20">20</span>
-might support a survivor, finally returned to its station after 20
-hours, during which time it had covered 1,000 miles, intensively
-in parallel courses 20 miles wide. Had the luckless plane or any
-of its crew been able to send up flares anywhere within an area of
-20,000 square miles of water, the airship could have come up
-alongside and effected a rescue in a matter of minutes.</p>
-<p>In the meantime, Lt. Boyd, originally assigned to TC-14, was
-up at dawn only to learn of the change in plans. He was assigned
-to pilot the smaller G-1 trainer to New London, keep a sharp
-look-out enroute for the missing plane, then work with the destroyers
-on torpedo exercises. The G-1 had no galley aboard and
-in the rush the matter of food for an 18-hour cruise was somehow
-overlooked, and Boyd and his crew set off with only a couple of
-sardine sandwiches apiece and a pot of coffee, which quickly
-grew cold.</p>
-<p>Late in the afternoon, seeing his crew growing hungrier and
-hungrier,&mdash;for airshipping is excellent for the appetite,&mdash;Boyd
-had an idea. He radioed the Destroyer Division Commander:
-&ldquo;After last torpedo recovered, would you be able to furnish us
-with some hot coffee and a loaf of bread, if we lower a container
-on a 200-foot line across your after deck?&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Never in naval history had an airship borrowed chow from a
-surface craft. But the answer came promptly. &ldquo;Affirmative. Do
-you wish cream and sugar?&rdquo;</p>
-<p>There was nothing in the books giving the procedure for borrowing
-a meal from the air, but the crew rigged up a line from a target
-sleeve reel, fastened a hook with a quick release at the end, attached
-a monkey wrench to weight it down, stood by for the word
-to come alongside.</p>
-<p>Then while the crews of three destroyers watched, the G-1
-swung slowly over the destroyer&rsquo;s deck. One sailor caught the line
-held it while a second filled the coffee pot, and a third attached a
-load of sandwiches. Then the airship sailors hauled away, radioed
-their thanks, set off for the 200 mile trip back to Lakehurst, while
-hundreds of sailors below waved their white caps and cheered, a
-little inter-ship courtesy between sky and sea which all hands will
-long remember.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_21">21</div>
-<h2 id="c6"><span class="small">CHAPTER IV</span>
-<br />The Beginnings of Flight</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig20">
-<img src="images/img016.jpg" alt="Hot-air balloon" width="384" height="209" />
-</div>
-<p>In the spring of 1783, as the American Revolution was nearing
-a successful conclusion, two brothers named Montgolfier sitting
-before a fire at a little town in France found themselves
-wondering why smoke went up into the air.</p>
-<p>That was just as foolish as Newton wondering why an apple,
-detached from the tree, fell down. Smoke had always gone up and
-apples had always come down. That was all there was to it.</p>
-<p>But when men wonder momentous events may be in the making.
-In these instances epochal discoveries resulted: the law of gravitation
-and the possibility of human flight.</p>
-<p>The legends of Icarus and the narrative of Darius Green are
-symbols of the long ambition of earth-bound men, even before the
-days of recorded history, to leave the earth and soar into the air.
-The Montgolfiers had found the key.</p>
-<p>But a hundred years would pass before the discovery would be
-put to use. It was in 1903 that another pair of brothers, the Wrights,
-made their first flight from Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina. The
-first Zeppelin took off from the shores of Lake Constance in 1900.</p>
-<p>The Montgolfiers wasted no time testing out their conclusion
-that smoke rose because it was lighter than the air. They built a
-great paper bag 35 feet high, hung a brazier of burning charcoal
-under it, and off it went. Annonnay is a small town but the story
-of that miracle spread far and wide. The Academy of Science
-invited them to the capital to repeat the experiment.</p>
-<p>But while they were building a new bag a French physicist,
-<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span>
-Prof. J. A. C. Charles, stole a march on them. He knew that hydrogen
-was also lighter than air, so constructed a bag of silk, inflated
-it with hydrogen, sent it aloft before the Montgolfiers were
-ready.</p>
-<p>Still the countrymen were not to lose their hour of glory. Merely
-to repeat what had already been done was not enough. Their balloon
-was to be flown from the grounds of the Palace of Versailles,
-before the king and court and all the great folk of Paris, with half
-the people of the city craning their necks to watch it pass over. So
-they loaded aboard a basket containing a sheep, a duck and a
-rooster, and these three became aircraft&rsquo;s first passengers.</p>
-<p>When the U. S. Army Air Corps years later sought an appropriate
-insignia for its lighter-than-air division, it could think of nothing
-more fitting than a design which included a rooster, a duck
-and a sheep.</p>
-<p>Everyone was ready for the next step. A French judge had the
-solution. He offered the choice to several prisoners awaiting execution&mdash;a
-balloon flight or the guillotine. Two volunteered, felt they
-had at least a chance with the balloon, whereas the guillotine was
-distressingly final. They had nothing to lose. That word rang
-through Paris. A young gallant named De Rozier objected.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The chance might succeed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The honor of being the
-first man to fly should not go to a convict, but to a gentleman of
-France. I offer my life.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Even the king protested at this needless risk, but De Rozier took
-off the following month, flew half way over Paris, landed safely.
-This happened on Nov. 21, 1783.</p>
-<p>Among the witnesses to these experiments was Benjamin Franklin,
-the American ambassador, himself a scientist of no small
-renown. He predicted great things for aeronautics.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;But of what use is a balloon?&rdquo; asked a practical-minded friend.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Of what use,&rdquo; replied the American, &ldquo;is a baby?&rdquo;</p>
-<p>A little later, on January 7, 1785, Jean Pierre Francois Blanchard,
-a Frenchman, and Dr. John Jeffries, an American, practicing
-medicine in England, inflated a balloon, took off from the cliffs of
-Dover at one o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, arrived safely in Calais
-three hours later.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill16">
-<img id="fig21" src="images/img017.jpg" alt="" width="545" height="384" />
-<p class="pcap">Santos Dumont startled Paris in 1910, when he let an American girl fly one of his airships
-over the city. To descend she threw her weight forward, to climb she moved back a step.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill17">
-<img id="fig22" src="images/img017a.jpg" alt="" width="596" height="453" />
-<p class="pcap">A dramatic meeting of two rivals for the honor of making the first Atlantic crossing. The
-Navy&rsquo;s NC flying boats and the non-rigid C-5, photographed shortly before their take-off.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill18">
-<img id="fig23" src="images/img018.jpg" alt="" width="596" height="419" />
-<p class="pcap">Blimps too may use masts aboard surface ships as anchorage point on long cruises, as the U.S.S.
-Los Angeles successfully demonstrated when moored to the U.S.S. Patoka. (U. S. Navy photo)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill19">
-<img id="fig24" src="images/img018a.jpg" alt="" width="596" height="442" />
-<p class="pcap">The Army&rsquo;s TC-7 demonstrates the first airplane pick-up at Dayton. Army pilots found that at
-flying speed the plane weighed nothing, was sustained by dynamic forces. (U. S. Army photo)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_23">23</div>
-<p>Flight was here, though it would be a long time becoming practical.
-Dr. Charles and many others contributed, even at that early
-day. Knowing that hydrogen expanded as the air pressure grew
-less, at higher altitudes, Charles devised a valve at the top of the
-balloon, so that the surplus gas could be released, not burst the
-balloon. He devised a net from which the basket could be suspended,
-distributing its load over the entire bag.</p>
-<p>The drag rope was evolved, an ingenious device to stabilize the
-balloon&rsquo;s flight in unstable air. If the balloon tended to rise it
-would have to carry the entire weight of the rope. If it grew sluggish
-and drifted low, it had less weight to carry, as much of the
-rope now lay on the ground. These ballooning principles, early
-found, are still in use. But the &ldquo;dirigible&rdquo; balloon, or airship must
-wait for light weight, dependable motors, despite the hundreds of
-ingenious experiments made by men over a full century.</p>
-<p>Since this is an airship story, we should first make clear the difference
-between the airship and the airplane.</p>
-<p>The French hit on an apt phrase to distinguish them, dividing
-aircraft into those which are lighter than the air, such as airships,
-and those which are heavier than the air, like airplanes.</p>
-<p>Airships are literally lighter than air. So are all free balloons,
-used for training and racing, and all anchored balloons, such as
-the observation balloon widely used in the last war and the barrage
-balloons of the present war.</p>
-<p>The airship goes up and stays up because the buoyancy given by
-its lifting gas makes it actually lighter than the air it displaces, and
-even with the load of motors, fuel, equipment and passengers,
-must still use ballast to hold it in equilibrium.</p>
-<p>The airplane, on the other hand, is heavier than the air. Even
-the lightest plane can stay up only if it is moving fast enough to get
-a lifting effect from the movement of air along the wings, similar
-to that which makes a kite stay up. A kite may be flown in calm
-weather only if the one who holds the cord keeps running. On a
-windy day, the kite may be anchored on the ground, and the
-movement of the wind alone will have sufficient lifting effect. So
-powerful are these air forces that a plane weighing 20 tons may
-climb to an altitude of 10,000 feet if its speed is great enough, and
-<span class="pb" id="Page_24">24</span>
-its area of wing surface broad enough to produce this kiting effect.</p>
-<p>But an airplane can remain aloft only as long as it is moving
-faster than a certain minimum speed. Cut the motors, or even
-throttle down below this stalling speed, and the plane will start
-earthward.</p>
-<p>The airship needs its motors only to propel it forward. It can
-cut its speed, even stop its engines, and nothing happens. It retains
-its buoyancy, continues to float. The airplane&rsquo;s lift is dynamic,
-that of the airship is static.</p>
-<p>The airship has some dynamic lift, also, because its horizontal
-fins or rudders, and the body of the airship have some kiting effect
-in flight. The blimp pilot, starting on a long trip, will fill up his
-tanks with all the fuel the ship can lift statically, then take on
-another 2,000 pounds, taxi across the airport till he gets flying
-speed and so get under way with many more miles added to his
-cruising speed.</p>
-<p>This dynamic lift however, while useful in certain operations is
-still incidental. Primarily the airship gets its lift from the fact that
-the gas in the envelope is much lighter than the air.</p>
-<p>Hydrogen is only one-fifteenth the weight of air, helium, the
-non-inflammable American gas, is a little heavier, about one-seventh.
-The practical lift is 68 pounds to the thousand cubic feet
-of hydrogen, 63 pounds in the case of helium.</p>
-<p>Lighter-than-air ships are of three classes, rigid, semi-rigid and
-non-rigid. The rigid airship has a complete metal skeleton, which
-gives the ship strength and shape. Into the metal frame of the
-rigid airship are built quarters, shops, communication ways, even
-engine rooms in the case of the Akron and Macon, with only the
-control car, fins, and propellers projecting outside the symmetrical
-hull. The lifting gas is carried in a dozen or more separate gas
-cells, nested within the bays of the ship.</p>
-<p>The non-rigid airship has no such internal support. The bag
-keeps its taut shape only from the gas and air pressure maintained
-within. Release the gas and the bag becomes merely a flabby mass
-of fabric on the hangar floor. Ship crews do not live in the balloon
-section, but in the control car below.</p>
-<p>The British, apt at nicknames, differentiated between the two
-<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span>
-types of airships by calling them &ldquo;rigid&rdquo; and &ldquo;limp&rdquo; types, and
-since an early &ldquo;Type B&rdquo; was widely used in the first World War,
-quickly contracted &ldquo;B, limp&rdquo; into the handier word &ldquo;Blimp.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>The third type, semi-rigid, has a metal keel extending the length
-of the ship, to which control surfaces and the car are attached, and
-with a metal cone to stiffen the bow section.</p>
-<p>The rigid ship is of German origin. Developed by Count Zeppelin,
-retired army officer, and largely used by that nation during
-the war of 1914-18, it was taken up after the war started, by the
-British and Americans, and to a small extent later by France and
-Italy.</p>
-<p>Non-rigid ships were widely used by the British and French, to a
-less extent by Italy and United States.</p>
-<p>The intermediate semi-rigid was largely Italian and French in
-war use, though United States bought one ship after the war from
-the Italians, built one itself. The Germans also built smaller
-Parseval semi-rigids.</p>
-<p>The rigid airships are the largest, the non-rigids smallest. The
-rigid has to be large to hold enough gas to lift its metal frame
-along with the load of fuel, oil, crew, supplies, passengers and
-cargo. The blimps can be much smaller.</p>
-<p>The Army&rsquo;s first airship, built by Major Tom Baldwin, old time
-balloonist, had 19,500 cubic feet capacity. Goodyear&rsquo;s pioneer
-helium ship &ldquo;Pilgrim&rdquo; had 51,000 cubic feet. These contrast with
-the seven million feet capacity of the Hindenburg, and the ten
-million cubic feet of ships projected for the future.</p>
-<p>The following table will show the range of sizes:</p>
-<table class="center">
-<tr><td class="l">Rigid Airships: </td><td class="l">Hindenburg (German) </td><td class="r">7,070,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Akron-Macon (U. S.) </td><td class="r">6,500,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">R-100, 101 (British) </td><td class="r">5,000,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Graf Zeppelin (German) </td><td class="r">3,700,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Los Angeles (U. S.) </td><td class="r">2,500,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">R-34 (British) </td><td class="r">2,000,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">Semi-Rigids: </td><td class="l">Norge (Italian) </td><td class="r">670,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">RS-1 (U. S.) </td><td class="r">719,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">Non-Rigids: </td><td class="l">Navy K type (Patrol) </td><td class="r">416,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Navy G type (Advanced Training) </td><td class="r">180,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Navy L type (Trainer) </td><td class="r">123,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Goodyear (Passenger) </td><td class="r">123,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Pilgrim (Goodyear) </td><td class="r">51,000 cubic feet</td></tr>
-</table>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_26">26</div>
-<p>The Akron and Macon were 785 feet in length, the K type non-rigid,
-250 feet long, the Navy &ldquo;L&rsquo;s&rdquo; 150 feet long.</p>
-<p>Let&rsquo;s cut back now to the Montgolfiers. Progress was disappointingly
-slow. The simple balloon would only go up and down,
-and in the direction of the wind. Before it could be practical, men
-must be able to drive it wherever they liked, make it dirigible, or
-directable.</p>
-<p>Ingenious men, Meusnier, Giffard, Tissandier, Renard, Krebs,
-many others worked over that problem through the entire nineteenth
-century. They devised ballonets or air compartments to
-keep the pressure up. They built airships of cylinder shape, spindle
-shape, torpedo shape, airships shaped like a cigar, like a string
-bean, like a whale. But the stumbling block remained, the need of
-an efficient power plant.</p>
-<p>The steam engine was dependable, but once you had installed
-firebox, boiler and cord wood aboard, there was little if any lift
-remaining for crew or cargo. Giffard in 1852 built an ingenious
-small engine using steam but it still weighed 100 pounds per
-horsepower, drove the ship at a speed of only three miles an hour.
-Automobile engines today weigh as little as six pounds per horsepower,
-modern airplane engines one pound per horsepower.</p>
-<p>Man experimented with feather-bladed oars, with a screw propeller,
-turned by hand, using a crew of eight men. Haenlein, German,
-built a motor that would use the lifting gas from the ship&mdash;coal
-gas or hydrogen. Rennard in 1884 built an electric motor,
-taking power from a storage battery.</p>
-<p>But real progress would have to wait for the discovery of petroleum
-in Pennsylvania and the invention of the internal combustion
-engine. When the gasoline engine came in, in the 90&rsquo;s, the
-dirigible builders saw the long sought key to their problem.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_27">27</div>
-<p>While Count Zeppelin was experimenting with his big ships in
-Germany, Lebaudy, Juliot, Clement Bayard in France and most
-conspicuously the young Brazilian, Santos Dumont, were working
-with the smaller dirigibles. Santos Dumont built 14 airships in
-the first decade of the century, brought the attention of the world
-to this project. He won a 100,000 franc prize in 1901 for flying
-across Paris to circle Eiffel Tower and return to his starting point&mdash;and
-gave the money to the Paris poor.</p>
-<p>The Wright Brothers made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk,
-in 1903, opening a different field of experiment. France pushed
-both lines of research. After Santos Dumont&rsquo;s dirigible flight,
-Bleriot started from the little town of Toury in an airplane, flew
-to the next town and back, a distance of 17 miles, making only two
-en route stops,&mdash;and the town erected a monument to him.</p>
-<p>In 1909, Bleriot flew a plane across the English Channel and in
-the following year the airship Clement Bayard II duplicated the
-feat, carrying a crew of seven, made the 242 miles to London in
-six hours.</p>
-<p>The year 1910 was a momentous one for all aircraft, with France
-as the world center. Bleriot and Farman, Frenchmen, Latham,
-British, the Wrights and Curtiss, Americans, broke records almost
-daily at a big meet in August that year, while at longer range the
-French and English dirigibles and the Parsevals of Germany, and
-still more important the great Zeppelins at Lake Constance
-droned the news of a new epoch.</p>
-<p>A young American engineer, P. W. Litchfield, attended the
-Paris meet, saw these wonders, made notes. He stopped in Scotland
-on his way back, bought a machine for spreading rubber on
-fabric, hired the two men tending it (those men, Ferguson and
-Aikman, were still at their posts in Akron thirty odd years later),
-hired two young technical graduates on his return, tied in the
-fortunes of his struggling company with what he believed was a
-coming industry.</p>
-<p>The next five years would see the nations of the world bending
-their efforts toward perfecting these vehicles of flight,&mdash;little realizing
-they were building a combat weapon which would revolutionize
-warfare.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_28">28</div>
-<h2 id="c7"><span class="small">CHAPTER V</span>
-<br />Effect on Aeronautics of Post-War Reaction</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig25">
-<img src="images/img019.jpg" alt="Airship and escort planes" width="500" height="208" />
-</div>
-<p>Development of non-rigid airships slowed down after
-the impetus of the war had spent itself, as was the case
-in aeronautics generally and in all defense efforts.</p>
-<p>With the Armistice of November, 1918, the world was through
-with war. Men relaxed and reaction set in. There would not be
-another major war in a hundred years. Well-meaning people
-everywhere grasped at the straw of universal peace, of negotiated
-settlement of difficulties between nations, of disarmament of military
-forces to the point of being little more than an international
-police force. Germany, the trouble-maker, had been disarmed and
-handcuffed, would make no more trouble. The world, breathing
-freely after four years, wanted only to be left alone.</p>
-<p>Today with major countries striving feverishly to build guns and
-navies, it is hard to believe that na&iuml;ve nations were scrapping ships
-only a few years ago and pledging themselves to limit future building.
-No one in the immediate post-war era could believe that men
-must prepare for another war, an all-out war more terrible and
-ruthless than men had known,&mdash;one which would send flame-spitting
-machines down from the air and through woods and
-fields, against which conventional foot soldiers would be as helpless
-as if they carried bows and arrows. Wishing only to live at
-peace with other nations, we could conceive no need to make
-defense preparation against frightfulness.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_29">29</div>
-<p>Congress was divided between &ldquo;big navy men&rdquo; and &ldquo;little navy
-men,&rdquo; and generals and admirals who brought in programs for expansion
-or even reasonable maintenance were shouted down. The
-public was in no mood to listen.</p>
-<p>If the usefulness of the Army and Navy was discounted during
-this period, more so was the rising new Air Force. Few were interested
-in airplanes, and these chiefly wartime pilots, who sought
-to keep aviation alive, made a precarious living flying wartime
-&ldquo;Jennies&rdquo; and &ldquo;Standards&rdquo; out of cow pastures, carrying passengers
-at a dollar a head, or how much have you. The word &ldquo;haywire&rdquo;
-came into the language, as they made open-air repairs to
-wings and fuselage with baling wire.</p>
-<p>Lighter-than-air had no Rickenbackers or Richthofens to point
-to, but got some advantage during this period from the activities
-of the Shenandoah, completed in 1923, and the Los Angeles, delivered
-in 1924. These ships could not be regarded as military
-craft, carried no arms. The Shenandoah was experimental, based
-on a 1916 design. The Los Angeles was technically a commercial
-ship, with passenger accommodations built in, could be used only
-for training.</p>
-<p>This grew out of the fact that the Allies planned to order the
-Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen torn down but had held up
-the order long enough for it to turn out one more ship. This last
-ship would be given to United States in lieu of the Zeppelin this
-country would have received from Germany, if the airship crews,
-like those of the surface fleet, had not scuttled their craft after the
-Armistice, to keep them from falling into enemy hands. The Allies
-stipulated that the Los Angeles should carry no armament. It took
-a specific waiver from them for the ship to take part several years
-later in fleet maneuvers.</p>
-<p>Other airship activities in this country were at a minimum.
-The blimps, little heard of in this country during War I, remained
-in the background. A joint board of the two services gave the
-Navy responsibility for developing rigid airships, the Army to take
-non-rigids and semi-rigids. The Navy maintained a few post-war
-blimps for training, had little funds except for maintenance.</p>
-<p>The Army, having Wright Field to do its engineering and experimental
-<span class="pb" id="Page_30">30</span>
-work, fared somewhat better, carried on a training and
-something of a development program. It built bases at Scott Field,
-Ill., and Langley Field, Va., ordered one or two non-rigid ships a
-year, purchased a semi-rigid ship from Italy, ordered another, the
-RS-1, from Goodyear, operated it successfully.</p>
-<p>The Army&rsquo;s non-rigids, however, were overshadowed by the
-Navy&rsquo;s rigids and even more by its own airplanes, with the result
-finally that the Chief of the Air Corps, Major General O. O.
-Westover, a believer in lighter-than-air, an airship as well as airplane
-pilot, and a former winner of the James Gordon Bennett
-cup in international balloon racing, told Congress bluntly that
-there was no point in dragging along, that unless funds were appropriated
-for a real airship program the Army might as well
-close up shop. And this step Congress, in the end, took, and the
-Army blimps and equipment were transferred to the Navy, and
-the experimental program started by the one service was carried
-on by the other.</p>
-<p>The rigid ships were in more favorable position because they
-seemed to have commercial possibilities, and it was the long-range
-policy of the government to aid transportation. Government support
-to commercial airships could be justified under the policy by
-which the government gave land grants to the railways, built
-highways for the automobile, deepened harbors and built lighthouses
-for the steamships, laid out airports for planes, gave airmail
-contracts to keep the U. S. merchant flag floating on the high seas
-and air routes open over land.</p>
-<p>On this theory Navy airships, even though semi-military, got
-some support during the reaction period, because they might blaze
-a trail later for commercial lines&mdash;which, with ships and crews
-and terminals, would be available in emergency as a secondary
-line of defense, like the merchant marine.</p>
-<p>The little non-rigid blimps remained the neglected Cinderellas
-of post-war days.</p>
-<p>The Goodyear Company at Akron, which had built 1000 balloons
-of all types and 100 airships during and after the war,
-stepped into the picture during this period with a modest program
-of its own. The first of the Goodyear fleet, the pioneer, helium-inflated
-Pilgrim, now in the Smithsonian Institute, was built in
-1925.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill20">
-<img id="fig26" src="images/img020.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="446" />
-<p class="pcap">The Atlantic crossing of the Graf Zeppelin in 1928 and its round-the-world flight in
-the following year gave new stimulus to all aeronautics. With a relatively tiny
-Goodyear blimp as escort, the Graf lands at Los Angeles after crossing the Pacific.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill21">
-<img id="fig27" src="images/img020a.jpg" alt="" width="477" height="599" />
-<p class="pcap">At Lakehurst the Graf tries
-out the &ldquo;Iron Horse,&rdquo; the U.S.
-Navy&rsquo;s mobile mooring mast,
-finds it highly useful, utilized
-masting equipment thereafter
-to compile an unusual
-record for regularity of departures,
-even under highly
-unfavorable weather conditions.
-(U. S. Navy photo)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill22">
-<img id="fig28" src="images/img021.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="495" />
-<p class="pcap">The U.S.S. Akron, first result growing out of renewed interest in aeronautics after the reaction
-period, goes on the mast inside the Goodyear air dock, prior to leaving for her trial flights.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill23">
-<img id="fig29" src="images/img021a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="385" />
-<p class="pcap">No large ground crews are needed with the mobile mast. Even the mighty Akron swings around
-easily at anchorage, heads into the wind like a weather vane, its control car resting on the ground.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_31">31</div>
-<p>In building this ship, Mr. Litchfield and his company indicated
-their belief in the value of big airships for trans-oceanic travel, for
-which the blimps would provide inexpensive training for pilots,
-and experience in operating under varying weather conditions.</p>
-<p>The Pilgrim, the Puritan, the Vigilant, the Mayflower and the
-rest of the Goodyear fleet which followed&mdash;named after cup defenders
-in international yacht racing&mdash;would also uncover during
-the course of day-after-day operations, improvements in ships and
-operating technique, which would be available to its customers,
-the Army and Navy.</p>
-<p>In building its own ships, Goodyear was following the tradition
-of American industry, which does not sit back and merely build
-goods to order, but has sought by developing better goods to
-anticipate and stimulate customer demand. In the automobile industry,
-for example, self-starters, closed cars, steel bodies, balloon
-tires, streamlining, and the rest were initiated by industry to increase
-public acceptance and further popularize the automobile.
-By building its own airships and flying them, Goodyear hoped to
-expand the market for military and commercial airships.</p>
-<p>The doldrum period, which made progress difficult, came to an
-end with dramatic suddenness. In the year 1927 a youthful pilot
-flew an airplane, alone, across the Atlantic ocean, and in the following
-year a middle-aged scientist made a round trip from
-Europe to America by airship, with 24 people aboard. The imagination
-of America and the world took fire. Aeronautics started
-anew.</p>
-<p>Perhaps no events in years have appealed so fully to the public
-consciousness or had such dynamic effects. Almost from the day of
-Lindbergh&rsquo;s flight and the Graf Zeppelin&rsquo;s arrival at Lakehurst,
-aeronautical engineers found themselves with money to spend in
-research and machinery. Airports unrolled across the carpet of
-America, night lighting came in, pilots became business men, appropriations
-were rushed through Congress, state assemblies, and
-city councils, and aeronautics became Big Business almost over
-night. The period of inaction and of reaction was over.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_32">32</div>
-<h2 id="c8"><span class="small">CHAPTER VI</span>
-<br />Airship Improvements Between Wars</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig30">
-<img src="images/img022.jpg" alt="Docked airship" width="414" height="211" />
-</div>
-<p>The wartime airship was a cigar-shaped gas bag with an
-airplane cockpit, open to the weather, slung below. The
-contrast between it and the sleek, fast, streamlined Navy
-airship of today is almost as striking as that between wartime
-planes and automobiles and modern ones.</p>
-<p>Many improvements have been made, even though the airship
-has not had the experience of building thousands of units, as the
-automobile and airplane have had, or ample funds for research
-and experiment. Less than 150 non-rigid airships have been built
-all told since 1914.</p>
-<p>The &ldquo;B&rdquo; type blimp, chiefly used in the World War, contained
-80,000 cubic feet of hydrogen, though some British and French
-non-rigids were built in larger sizes, and the United States Navy
-&ldquo;C&rdquo; ships, toward the end of the war, had 200,000 cubic feet of
-lifting gas. These compare with the 416,000 cubic feet of helium in
-the new Navy &ldquo;K&rdquo; ships. Speed, under the pressure of war needs
-moved up from 47 miles in the &ldquo;B&rdquo; to close to 60 in the &ldquo;C,&rdquo; but
-is around 80 in today&rsquo;s &ldquo;K&rdquo; ships.</p>
-<p>Wartime ships carried three to five men and a day&rsquo;s fuel. Today&rsquo;s
-carry eight or ten, enough pilots, radio men, navigators,
-riggers and mechanics for two full watches, though normally
-everyone is on duty during patrols. The &ldquo;B&rdquo; was good for perhaps
-900 miles, the &ldquo;K&rdquo; for well over twice that distance.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_33">33</div>
-<p>Wartime ships had to keep the control car well away from the
-bag to prevent sparks from igniting the hydrogen gas. A windshield
-was the pilot&rsquo;s only protection from the elements. Modern
-ships, using non-inflammable helium, have closed cars, streamlined
-into the bag, ample room for navigation and radio, sleeping
-and eating quarters, even a photographic dark room, can be
-heated and noise-proofed.</p>
-<p>Early airships were pulled down and held by a large ground
-crew, a pneumatic bumper bag on the car cushioning its landing.
-Today&rsquo;s ships land on a swiveled wheel, roll up to a mast&mdash;or taxi
-off across the airport like an airplane and take off.</p>
-<p>These, however, are merely flight factors. More important is it
-that the wartime blimp was to a large extent hangar-bound. It
-could go no further from its base than it could safely return before
-its fuel was exhausted.</p>
-<p>Today&rsquo;s ships are expeditionary craft, can go almost anywhere,
-stay as long as they want. They are no longer land-bound, can be
-refueled and reserviced at sea. They are much safer, rank high in
-this respect among all carriers whether on land, sea or in the air.</p>
-<p>Three independent lines of study contributed to these results,
-those of the Army, Navy and Goodyear, each free to follow its own
-ideas, to observe results found by the others, adopt them, use them
-as starting points for further developments, or discard them.</p>
-<p>The improvements were achieved in a relatively short period.
-The army started in after the war and carried on a continuing program
-till 1932. The Navy, absorbed in its rigid airships, did not get
-into non-rigids till the early 1930&rsquo;s. Goodyear built the Pilgrim in
-1925 but its development program really began with the blimp
-fleet in 1929.</p>
-<p>Noteworthy improvement was found during this period in materials,
-structure, design, engines and radio communication, with
-outstanding advances along three major lines.</p>
-<p>First was increased safety, permitted by helium gas. Wartime
-airships used hydrogen because it was all they had, had to develop
-what protection they could against fire through construction devices
-and operating technique. Hydrogen was not only inflammable,
-but under certain conditions explosive. World War pilots
-<span class="pb" id="Page_34">34</span>
-had to fly their hydrogen ships through thunder and lightning
-storms, dodge inflammatory bullets if they could. Zeppelin sailors
-wore felt shoes, with no nails to create a spark, used frogs for buttons,
-had to guard against static.</p>
-<p>It was a fortunate thing for the airship world when a gas was
-found in 1907 in Dexter, Kansas, which would not burn. Curious
-scientists, asking why, found it was helium, a gas previously identified
-(in 1869) only in the rays of the sun. Helium gas is inert, refusing
-to combine with any other element, does not deteriorate
-metal or fabric. It was not much heavier than hydrogen, the
-lightest of all gases, so proved a welcome gift to lighter-than-air.</p>
-<p>For some reason, not explained except on the theory that Providence
-takes special interest in America, helium has been found in
-quantity only in this country. It is a component, present to the
-extent of two or three percent in certain natural gas, though
-ranging as high as eight or ten percent in favored areas. It can be
-separated by compression and liquefaction from the natural
-gas,&mdash;which is that much improved by the removal of the non-inflammable
-content.</p>
-<p>The world&rsquo;s chief known supply of helium lies in certain sections
-of Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Utah. More important, United
-States is the only country having great pipe lines, can distribute
-natural gas from Texas to cities as far away as Kansas City, St.
-Louis and Chicago. Without such a market operators would have
-to separate and release the 95% of natural gas to get the 5% of
-helium, and costs would be still higher.</p>
-<p>Helium is perhaps the most useful of the few natural monopolies
-given to this country.</p>
-<p>It was only toward the end of the World War, however, that
-Army engineers worked out a process of separating helium from
-natural gas. A plant was built at Fort Worth and the first cylinders
-of helium had reached New Orleans ready for shipment to France
-to inflate observation balloons when the Armistice was signed.</p>
-<p>Army, Navy and Bureau of Mine engineers worked thereafter to
-increase production and cut costs, but as late as 1925 Will Rogers
-called attention to the fact that the Navy had not been able to get
-enough helium to supply both the Shenandoah and the Los
-<span class="pb" id="Page_35">35</span>
-Angeles at the same time. If one was using the helium the other
-had to stay home. Two ships, and only one set of helium, he
-commented.</p>
-<p>The use of helium cut the casualty list on the Shenandoah,
-would have saved the Hindenburg. Non-rigid airships have had
-no fire or explosive accidents since helium came into use as the
-lifting gas.</p>
-<p>It was the loss by a hydrogen fire of the Italian-built Roma,
-after it struck a high tension line at Langley Field in February,
-1922, which fixed the policy of &ldquo;helium only&rdquo; for U. S. Army and
-Navy airships. The Army&rsquo;s C-7 was the first airship to use helium.
-In building the Pilgrim in 1925, Goodyear followed the same
-policy&mdash;even though it had to pay $125 a thousand cubic feet for
-helium while it could have obtained hydrogen for $5 per thousand.</p>
-<p>Further improvements and increasing volume of production
-brought the cost down in time from $125 to less than $20, and helium
-expense became relatively unimportant in providing safety
-for Goodyear&rsquo;s airship operations.</p>
-<p>Important too during this period was the Army&rsquo;s development
-of tank cars for transporting helium. A large item of helium expense
-was freight, the cost of hauling 130 pound metal containers
-which held 170 to 200 cu. ft. of the gas. It took 250 such containers
-to inflate Goodyear&rsquo;s smallest ship, the Pilgrim. The tank cars hold
-200,000 cu. ft. of gas, almost enough to inflate two Goodyear
-airships.</p>
-<p>Experiments with specially woven fabric and the use of synthetic
-rubber cut down the losses resulting from diffusion, and
-where formerly it was necessary to remove the helium and purify
-it every six months, diffusion losses were cut to one or two per cent
-a month, with purification needed only every other year.</p>
-<p>In addition to increasing safety, helium permitted improvements
-in airship design. The wartime craft had its control cars suspended
-by cables from finger patches cemented to the outside of
-the bag. But with helium ships the car could be built into the bag,
-attached by an internal catenary suspension system to the top of
-the gas section. Each exposed suspension cable, no matter how
-small, creates parasitic resistance from the air, so that the removal
-<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span>
-of yards of steel and rope had the result of increasing the speed of
-the ship with the same horsepower.</p>
-<p>The second set of major improvements centers around the mooring
-mast. The mooring mast idea was not new. The British had
-built the first ones during the World War for its large rigid ships,
-found that a ship attached to it would swing easily, like a weather
-vane, continuing to point into the wind, and that a well streamlined
-ship would hold securely even in winds of great velocity.</p>
-<p>When Alfred E. Smith ordered a mooring mast built on top the
-Empire State building, it was with the assurance from his engineers
-that even with the tugging of the 150-ton Graf Zeppelin, the strain
-would be little more than the normal push of the wind against the
-building itself, that the added stresses would be negligible.</p>
-<p>The Germans had had little occasion to use mooring masts.
-Friedrichshafen, where most of the Zeppelins were built, lay in a
-natural bowl, well protected from the winds, and ships could take
-off and land, be walked in or out of the hangar with little risk from
-the weather.</p>
-<p>Lakehurst, on the other hand, lay in an exposed position, in the
-path of coast-wise storms, a frequent battle-ground between onshore
-winds from the ocean and storms breaking over the mountains
-from the west. A study made later to determine bases for projected
-American passenger operations showed that of weather conditions
-prevailing between Boston and the Virginia Cape, those at
-Lakehurst were almost the most unfavorable.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill24">
-<img id="fig31" src="images/img023.jpg" alt="" width="366" height="167" />
-<p class="pcap">Four stages in the evolution of the mooring
-mast. At the outset large ground
-crews held the ship on the ground.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill25">
-<img id="fig32" src="images/img024.jpg" alt="" width="357" height="159" />
-<p class="pcap">Then a stub mast was placed atop a
-truck, to hold the ship on the ground,
-maneuver it in or out of the dock.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill26">
-<img id="fig33" src="images/img025.jpg" alt="" width="363" height="149" />
-<p class="pcap">A high mast, made in sections, can be
-erected anywhere, anchored by guy
-wires, holds the airship securely
-against winds of gale force.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill27">
-<img id="fig34" src="images/img026.jpg" alt="" width="368" height="153" />
-<p class="pcap">The little brother of the &ldquo;Iron Horse&rdquo;,
-which will receive the largest of the
-new Navy blimps, maneuver them on
-the field.</p>
-</div>
-<p>People knew little about airship operating when the Navy base
-was moved from Pensacola to Lakehurst on a waste site in the
-Jersey pine lands which the Army no longer needed after the war
-as a proving ground for its artillery.</p>
-<p>This defect proved an advantage. The Navy was forced by the
-very nature of things to concentrate on a problem which had been
-no problem to Doctor Eckener and his associates. At the urging of
-Admiral Moffett, Commander Garland Fulton, Lieutenant Commander
-C. E. Rosendahl and others, Navy engineers built a high
-mast, 180 feet tall, following British practice, with a service elevator
-inside, then tackled the problem of keeping the ship on even
-keel against up and down gusts. Since the wind does not come out
-of the ground, a low mast was suggested, half the height of the ship,
-so that when anchored the ship would all but rest on the ground.
-The Navy was working on this when an incident happened to
-strengthen the argument.</p>
-<p>The co-incidence of a wind shift, and rising temperatures one
-afternoon as the Los Angeles was resting comfortably at anchorage,
-started the tail rising, and it continued to rise till it reached almost
-90 degrees. Then the ship turned gently on its swivel, and descended
-easily on the other side, with no more damage than some
-broken china in the galley. Still a 700-foot airship has no business
-doing head-stands, so the low mast development was rushed
-through. It proved successful.</p>
-<p>The next step was to make the low mast mobile, so that it could
-not only hold the ship on the ground but take it in and out of the
-hangar. First of these was Lakehurst&rsquo;s famous &ldquo;iron horse,&rdquo; a giant
-<span class="pb" id="Page_38">38</span>
-motor-driven tripod, which rolled out on the airport, hauling incoming
-ships into the hangar, took advantage of daylight calms to
-take ships out into the field ahead of time so as to be ready to leave
-on schedule.</p>
-<p>On the Graf Zeppelin&rsquo;s trip around the world in 1929, hangars
-were available for fueling stops at Lakehurst, Friedrichshafen, and
-curiously enough in Japan, a German shed turned over to the Nipponese
-after the 1918 Armistice, having been re-erected at Tokio.
-There was none however on the American West Coast to house the
-ship after its long trip across the Pacific. So the Navy, under direction
-of Lieutenant Commander T. G. W. Settle, hauled a mast up
-to Los Angeles from San Diego (it had been erected there for the
-Shenandoah&rsquo;s flight around the rim of the country in 1923) anchored
-it with guy wires. It served the purpose perfectly.</p>
-<p>The Germans, skeptical at first, became convinced of the value
-of the mast, themselves erected masts at Frankfort, and Seville, at
-Pernambuco and Rio de Janiero, used them as terminals.</p>
-<p>Once the masting technique had been worked out, the Graf Zeppelin
-and the Hindenburg, in the years 1930-6, made a record of
-regularity which no other vehicle of transportation has approached.
-They took off at times over the ocean for Europe when all other
-aircraft in the area was grounded, when the fog hid the entire top
-half of the ship, and the ship disappeared into the fog within a few
-seconds after the &ldquo;Up Ship&rdquo; signal was given. What few delays appear
-on the record were due to waiting for connecting airplanes to
-arrive with the latest European mail for the Americas.</p>
-<p>So far the use of masts had been entirely a matter for the large
-rigid airships. The Army did the first development work on high
-and low masts for its smaller ships at Scott Field, as well as a landing
-wheel for them to ride on. A situation at Akron started experimentation
-along a different line. At Goodyear&rsquo;s Wingfoot Lake
-Field, Mr. Litchfield frowned over the expense of having a considerable
-crew on hand to land and launch the blimps, with little to
-do after the ship was in the air. To an Army or Navy post, with
-plenty of men in training, this surplus of men was no difficulty, but
-any private corporation operating passenger airship lines would
-find the expense burdensome.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill28">
-<img id="fig35" src="images/img027.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="362" />
-<p class="pcap">The Navy L-2, one of the first ships under the expanded program,
-lands at Wingfoot Lake, Akron, is walked to the mooring mast.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill29">
-<img id="fig36" src="images/img027a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="442" />
-<p class="pcap">Close-up view of engine and cowling, and swiveled landing wheel.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill30">
-<img id="fig37" src="images/img028.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="515" />
-<p class="pcap">With a drogue or sea
-anchor to hold the airship
-steady, supplies or
-personnel may be taken
-aboard at sea.
-(U. S. Navy photo)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill31">
-<img id="fig38" src="images/img028a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="672" />
-<p class="pcap">A newly-hatched airship
-breaks its shell at Akron,
-will try its wings then join
-the Navy.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_39">39</div>
-<p>He put the question to his men in 1930, offering cash prizes for
-the best solution. Out of many ideas, one clear-cut line of progress
-appeared. This was to make the ground crew truck a maneuvering
-base, with a mast on top, which could be folded down when not in
-use. The truck then could not only hold the ship on the ground,
-but guide it in and out of the hangar with more security than by
-using a large number of men. Extra wheels mounted on outriggers
-kept the truck from being turned over by side gusts. In succeeding
-years the ground crew truck became a traveling mooring point
-which could follow the ship across country, give it anchorage when
-night fell, and at the same time act as a traveling supply depot,
-machine shop, radio cabin, and crew quarters.</p>
-<p>A portable mast, built in sections, high enough for ships to mast
-at the nose, was the next step. It could be set up on an hour&rsquo;s notice,
-anchored by guy wires and screw stakes for more extended
-operations. Gradually the airship became independent of the
-hangar, came to use it only for overhaul and the purification of its
-helium gas. The blimp could be fueled and serviced completely in
-the open.</p>
-<p>Lacking a dock in San Francisco, at the time of the Exposition
-in 1939, the Goodyear blimp Volunteer moved up from Los
-Angeles, based on a mast for five months. The only time it sought
-shelter was when a splinter from the propeller pierced the bag,
-causing a leak. The ship flew 60 miles down the bay to the Navy
-base at Sunnyvale, like a boy coming in from play to have a splinter
-removed from his finger, went back again, didn&rsquo;t even stay over
-night.</p>
-<p>In the winter of 1940-41 the &ldquo;Reliance&rdquo; which had been spending
-its winters in Miami, using a wartime Navy hangar which the
-city had moved up from Key West, found that building commandeered
-for defense work. So a mast was set up on the Causeway,
-and the ship operated with no other home than that for six
-months, saw no shelter from the time it left Wingfoot Lake in early
-December till it returned at the end of May.</p>
-<p>The Navy had a different problem as it moved into the non-rigid
-picture in the early 1930&rsquo;s. Its problem was only incidentally
-to operate away from its base at Lakehurst. Ships were getting
-<span class="pb" id="Page_40">40</span>
-larger in size, and masts were needed where they could be moored
-outdoors, or taken in and out of the hangar. The solution was a
-smaller replica of the rigid airship&rsquo;s &ldquo;Iron Horse&rdquo; except that it
-moved on large rubber tires, and was towed in and out by tractor,
-rather than carrying its own power plant.</p>
-<p>A portable mast was also developed for the Navy blimps, with a
-special car to haul it around. This mast could be sent to Parris
-Island or some point in New England, ahead of time, set up and
-used as a temporary base for radio calibrating or other missions.</p>
-<p>Navy ships basing at Lakehurst have operated for weeks at a
-time along the coast as far north as Bath, Maine, and as far south
-as the Carolinas, with a portable mast as headquarters.</p>
-<p>Utilization of the mast principle by non-rigid airships not only
-greatly increased their radius of operation, and cut down landing
-crews, but increased the number of operating days per month.</p>
-<p>Pilots of early airplanes used to go out on the airport, hold up a
-handkerchief, and if it fluttered, conclude it was too windy to fly.
-So early airship pilots, with anemometers on the roof of the hangar
-and at points over the field, judged it too risky to take the ships out
-if the wind was higher than four or five miles an hour, and then
-only if it was down-hangar in direction.</p>
-<p>Modern airships lose few flying days because it is too windy to go
-out. Under war conditions, when risks must be taken, which need
-not be taken for passenger or training flights, very few days would
-be wasted if there is military necessity for it.</p>
-<p>Navy non-rigids miss few rendezvous with the fleet in exercises
-out of Lakehurst, regardless of the weather outside.</p>
-<p>If the portable mast revolutionized airship operations over land,
-experiments started by the Navy in 1938-39, largely under the
-direction of Lt. C. S. Rounds, promise to be just as important in
-over-water operations. These showed that the airship could pick
-up ballast from the ocean, could get fuel from a passing ship, could
-change crews at sea.</p>
-<p>Ballast is important to a vehicle which growing continuously
-lighter as it uses up fuel, must still be kept in equilibrium. Transoceanic
-Zeppelins, using hydrogen, had to fly high enough to
-&ldquo;blow off&rdquo; the surplus gas once or twice during a trip to compensate
-<span class="pb" id="Page_41">41</span>
-for the ship growing lighter. But hydrogen was cheap, and
-could be manufactured as needed. American ships could not afford
-to waste helium, which was a natural resource. Army and
-Navy engineers had worked on this, and equipment developed
-for the Akron and Macon to condense the gases from the burned
-fuel was able to recover more than 100 pounds of water ballast for
-every 100 pounds of fuel used.</p>
-<p>The blimps didn&rsquo;t use these since they ordinarily would not be
-out for more than a day at a time, still a ready source of ballast
-would make it unnecessary to valve helium on long flights.</p>
-<p>Ironically enough a whole ocean full of ballast lay below seagoing
-airships, but no practical method had been devised to take
-the sea water aboard until the Navy tackled the problem in 1938.</p>
-<p>That problem may be visualized in the obvious difficulty of
-maintaining physical contact between an airship and a surface
-ship. The two move in different media, one influenced mostly by
-the waves, the other mostly by the wind. The surface ship is moving
-up and down, the airship subject to gusts which might break
-the contact or thrust it violently against the masts or superstructure
-of the surface ship. Servicing has been done under favorable circumstances,
-but could not be relied on as standard procedure.</p>
-<p>The solution reached was this. The pilot swings his ship down to
-within 100 or 150 feet of the water, lowers a hose with a small
-bronze scoop, not much wider than the hose, so as to lessen the
-drag.</p>
-<p>Twenty-five feet up from the scoop is a streamlined cylinder,
-blimp shaped, carrying a small electric pump. This cylinder, nicknamed
-the &ldquo;fish&rdquo;, has tail fins to keep it from spinning, and skims
-along the surface or jumps out like a porpoise, but the scoop is far
-enough behind and heavy enough to trail easily beneath the surface,
-stays directly in the ship&rsquo;s wake, continues without interruption
-to pick up ballast for the airship above.</p>
-<p>The whole gear weighs slightly more than 100 pounds, can pick
-up water at cruising speed, can function in rough water or smooth.
-The Navy J-4, chiefly used in these experiments, normally consumes
-500 pounds of fuel in five hours of flying at cruising speed.
-It was able to pick up that much water ballast in seven minutes.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_42">42</div>
-<p>The next step was to enable an airship to obtain fuel from a
-tanker or other ship without physical contact or advance arrangements&mdash;even
-from a passing merchantman. The pilot asks by radio
-or voice whether the surface ship can spare some gasoline, and on
-an affirmative answer, lowers or drops on his deck two rubberized
-fabric spheres connected to each other by 14 feet of rope&mdash;also a
-note of instructions. The smaller sphere is an ordinary air-filled
-buoy, the larger, about three feet in diameter when filled, is the
-fuel bag. The surface ship fills the fuel bag, then drops both bags
-overboard, being careful only that they do not get tangled up.
-Then the airship flies over the two bags, drops a hook between
-them, hauls away, pumps the gasoline into its tanks.</p>
-<p>The third device permits an airship to anchor in the open sea
-near a surface ship to transfer crews or take on fuel and supplies.
-The anchor is a cone-shaped rubberized fabric bag, ten feet long,
-with a diameter of 2&frac12; feet at the top. It is lowered 50 feet below
-the airship by two cables connected with each other by rungs to
-form a ladder. Half of the cables&rsquo; length is made up of heavy exerciser
-cord to dampen the effect of wave movements. On top the
-cone is a wire mesh cover which allows the water to pass through,
-and is strong enough to act as a platform, supporting a man.</p>
-<p>As the cone fills up the airship drops ballast till its &ldquo;mooring
-mast&rdquo; is half submerged. The principle of the drag rope comes into
-play&mdash;if the airship starts to rise it finds itself lifting an increasingly
-heavier load, counteracting the rising tendency. If it starts to
-settle down toward the water, the load is correspondingly lessened
-and the ship grows lighter. The result is that the airship is held
-highly stable, even in a rough sea. The surface ship then sends a
-small boat alongside and dispatches the relief crew members or supplies,
-them up and down the ladder, or uses a winch, the platform
-atop the anchor serving as the operating base. This system also permits
-the moving of a sick passenger ashore, or the rescue of a man
-overboard.</p>
-<p>When the airship is ready to leave its anchorage, the cone is
-tipped by a line attached to the bottom, spilling the water, and
-hauled aboard. The servicing ship need carry no special equipment.
-The weight of cone and ladder is negligible.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_43">43</div>
-<p>By being able to pick up ballast and borrow fuel from a passing
-ship, (neither airship nor surface ship need slow down for the fuel
-exchange if going in the same direction) the airship greatly increases
-its radius of operations.</p>
-<p>The advantage of being able to change crews at sea may not be
-quite as clear. This, however, grows out of the fact that today&rsquo;s non-rigid
-airship has greater endurance than the crew which flies it.
-An anti-submarine, anti-mine patrol calls for constant alertness.
-Reduction of vibration and noise, the use of closed cars instead of
-open cockpits has lessened fatigue, enabling men to remain on duty
-over longer periods than before. But obviously there are limits.</p>
-<p>The Navy is conservative in estimating how long its new &ldquo;K&rdquo;
-ships may stay out without refueling. Weather and the nature of
-the mission will have some bearing on that, but if we assume a
-cruise of 48, 60 or even 72 hours which might be done under favorable
-conditions and idling the motors, we still cannot expect a
-crew of men to remain vigilant and alert for that length of time.</p>
-<p>Extra men for relief watches can be carried only at the expense
-of the fuel load. However, if a fresh crew could be sent aboard every
-12 hours from a nearby surface ship, along with fuel, ballast and
-supplies, the blimps might operate for extended periods.</p>
-<p>No blimps have done this. The fleet might see no need for them
-to go out for long periods. However, the possibility has been established,
-and might be useful in the emergencies of war, or accident.
-While the primary usefulness of the blimp lies in the coastal waters,
-it can go to sea if needed&mdash;and stay out&mdash;can be used in convoy
-work or as a listening post.</p>
-<p>Other improvements were uncovered during the experiments. A
-sea anchor or drogue was devised to enable the airship to &ldquo;lay to&rdquo;
-for extended periods, without consuming fuel, in case it wishes to
-use its listening devices against submarines, make repairs or for
-other purposes. Plans have been worked out for landing on the
-water in quiet bays in calm weather, utilizing flotation gear, or a
-three-point mooring to ordinary mud anchors&mdash;facilitating servicing
-from nearby Coast Guard stations.</p>
-<p>Perhaps a significant thing about these experiments is that the
-principles seem applicable as well to rigid airships. The ability to
-<span class="pb" id="Page_44">44</span>
-pick up ballast in flight may well eliminate the necessity for ballast-recovery
-devices, with a substantial saving in cost, and an impressive
-saving in weight.</p>
-<p>By eliminating the heavy condensers, and translating that
-weight-saving into fuel, it is estimated that the range of a ship of
-the Los Angeles size could be increased by 20 percent and ships of
-the Akron-Macon size by 15 percent, in the last case amounting
-to 1,250 miles of additional cruising radius.</p>
-<p>A trans-oceanic passenger airship could start out with virtually
-no water ballast at all except a minimum amount for maneuvering,
-use its fuel supply as ballast and pick up sea water as needed.
-This could be done at 500 feet elevation, at the rate of 80 gallons a
-minute, using a 30 horsepower motor, could be done in half an hour
-a day. The ship need not slow down materially while doing this.</p>
-<p>Application of this principle to military airships of the rigid type
-might be still more significant. The chief use for the rigid airship
-in war would seem to be as a high speed airplane carrier, whose
-planes would increase many fold its own reconnaissance range,
-and would be expected also to do the major part of what fighting
-became necessary in case of enemy contact. The airship itself in
-that situation would put more dependence on its speed of retreat
-and its ability to seek cover in clouds as the submarine does
-beneath the surface, than on its own machine guns and cannons.</p>
-<p>One thing brought urgently home to us in the first weeks of the
-present war is that oceans are wide, and that the movements of
-even a huge enemy fleet are difficult to discover in those endless
-expanses of water.</p>
-<p>Large military airships of five or ten million cubic feet helium
-capacity might prove exceedingly useful, if they were able to
-operate away from their base for weeks or even months at a time,
-and they might be able to do this by utilizing devices similar to
-those developed for smaller non-rigids, resting on the sea in calm
-waters, mooring to anchored masts they could lower into the
-water, picking up fuel from tankers, getting supplies from neighboring
-ships&mdash;in addition to what was carried to them from the
-fleet by their own planes.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_45">45</div>
-<h2 id="c9"><span class="small">CHAPTER VII</span>
-<br />Adventures of the Goodyear Fleet</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig39">
-<img src="images/img029.jpg" alt="Airships flying in formation" width="372" height="206" />
-</div>
-<p>One of the lesser romances at least of aeronautics is the story
-of the Goodyear airship fleet.</p>
-<p>There is thrill and adventure in the narrative, daring
-and resourcefulness, hazards faced by men who believed in their
-craft&mdash;chances which were usually won. So this chapter might well
-be dedicated to Airship Captain Charles Brannigan and Balloon
-Pilot Walter Morton.</p>
-<p>Morton was an old timer, who had flown balloons with Tom
-Baldwin, in the far corners of the country. Between times he worked
-in the Goodyear balloon room, a practical mechanic who could
-always make things work, the salt-of-the-earth workman whom
-every foreman swore by, the aide every pilot wanted alongside.
-Steady, self-effacing, courageous, with an instinct for the right
-thing to do in emergency, Morton feared but one thing. That was
-lightning.</p>
-<p>He had flown many times through lightning storms prior to the
-helium era, beneath a bag filled with inflammable gas, but he
-didn&rsquo;t like it. He knew its swift striking power.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;I could almost see the Old Fellow standing there throwing
-those darts at us,&rdquo; said Morton one afternoon in 1928, as he
-scanned the skies before taking off in a balloon race out of
-Pittsburgh. &ldquo;One would flash past and miss, and he would say
-&lsquo;I&rsquo;ll get you next time,&rsquo; and there would come another. And you
-can&rsquo;t dodge in a balloon.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>The Old Fellow scored a direct hit that afternoon. Morton was
-<span class="pb" id="Page_46">46</span>
-flying with Van Orman, Gordon Bennett Cup winner. The uncertain
-weather of the afternoon had resolved itself less than an hour
-after the take-off, and eight balloons were being tossed as a juggler
-tosses weights, a thousand feet high, 10,000 feet, caught and tossed
-aloft again just before they touched the ground. Morton&rsquo;s balloon
-was hit at 12,000 feet, caught fire, alternatively fell like a plumb
-bob or parachuted in the net, landed without too much of a shock.
-Van Orman, unconscious, sustained a broken ankle. Morton had
-been instantly killed.</p>
-<p>But aerologists learned things that afternoon about the force of
-vertical movements of the air. The balloons gave a perfect track of
-what went on. One balloon was falling so fast that sacks of ballast
-thrown overboard lagged behind it, while a hundred yards away
-another balloon was shooting upward at similar speed.</p>
-<p>We still know less than we should about the movements of the
-air, this new world into which the Aeronautic Age is moving. The
-Pittsburgh tragedy may save many lives, avoid other tragedies.</p>
-<p>The Brannigan story is shorter, no less dramatic. High-spirited,
-keen, a captain whose ship and crew must always be shipshape,
-Brannigan had come to Goodyear from the Army&mdash;where he had
-already distinguished himself by making repairs in mid air to the
-semi-rigid Roma, ripped by a splintered propeller&mdash;saving a comrade
-as an incident to the job&mdash;had quickly won his captaincy at
-Goodyear, was one of its best flyers.</p>
-<p>At Kansas City one afternoon in 1931 a Kansas twister headed
-for the airport. Seeing the weather uncertain Brannigan had
-stopped passenger flying, put his ship on the mast. Now he ordered
-his mechanic to get off and cut the ship loose. Once aloft, with
-helium gas, he was not afraid of any storm that blew. But before the
-ship could clear the mast, the storm had struck, with full fury. The
-anchors holding the mast pulled out of the ground and the ship,
-with the mast attached, was hurled into the nearest hangar, ripping
-one motor off. That was Brannigan&rsquo;s cue to jump. The door had
-been propped open for a photographer&rsquo;s camera. But he had one
-motor left, the bag was undamaged, the mast had fallen clear. He
-wouldn&rsquo;t give up his ship as long as there was a chance to save it.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill32">
-<img id="fig40" src="images/img030.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="408" />
-<p class="pcap">Reunion in Akron&mdash;The ships comprising the Goodyear fleet, could
-tell stirring stories of battles with the elements waged in many states.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill33">
-<img id="fig41" src="images/img030a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="424" />
-<p class="pcap">Some of these pilots flew airships in the first war, others came in later
-from the technical schools&mdash;many now are flying airships for the Navy.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill34">
-<img id="fig42" src="images/img031.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="474" />
-<p class="pcap">From this pocket handkerchief size airport, off the Century of Progress Exposition
-in Chicago, Goodyear ships carried thousands of passengers, from all over America.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill35">
-<img id="fig43" src="images/img031a.jpg" alt="" width="476" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">The Mayflower landed on the deck of the SS
-Bremen, took off passenger P. W. Litchfield.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill36">
-<img id="fig44" src="images/img031b.jpg" alt="" width="398" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">The Enterprise lands to rescue the crew of an
-ice-locked steamer in Chesapeake Bay.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_47">47</div>
-<p>However the storm was not to be denied, and before he could
-get altitude, the wind threw the ship into a nest of high-tension
-wires, set it afire. Brannigan climbed out, walked to a nearby automobile,
-transferred to a second car enroute to the hospital after a
-collision&mdash;and died the next day from third-degree burns.</p>
-<p>He called Furculow, his co-pilot, just before the end, told him to
-see that the men in the crew were taken care of, that they were not
-penalized for the loss of the ship. Furculow, now flying airships for
-the Navy, is not the only man in Goodyear who will not forget
-Charley Brannigan. It is on such men that the traditions of the
-service are built. Any cause for which men give their lives cannot
-be held lightly.</p>
-<p>The Goodyear Company had built a few airships of its own prior
-to the 1925 Pilgrim, when helium became available. Best known of
-these was the &ldquo;Pony Blimp&rdquo; which operated out of Los Angeles
-from 1919 to 1923, flew passengers to Catalina, worked for the
-movies in Arizona and Wyoming.</p>
-<p>But the real beginning came with the Pilgrim, the larger Puritan
-and still larger Defender, as the Goodyear fleet came into existence
-in 1928-29.</p>
-<p>Early pilots had no specific instructions except to take the ships
-out and fly them&mdash;fly them hard, find out all they could about
-them, see what weaknesses and shortcomings there were and how
-to improve them. It was another test fleet, repeating the history of
-the automobile.</p>
-<p>The pilots were supposed not to get hurt, but they were to fly in
-all kinds of weather they felt it safe to fly in. They might lose a few
-ships, but were expected to be able to walk away from them, not to
-get in any trouble they couldn&rsquo;t get out of. They had an advantage
-over Army and Navy fliers in having a free hand as to where they
-might go. They were expected to make mistakes but should learn
-from them.</p>
-<p>Such instructions, largely unwritten, acted as a challenge to the
-pilots, a high-spirited and courageous group. Starting with a few
-men who had flown airships in the World War, or helped build
-them in the balloon room and the machine shop, they added some
-technical school graduates in 1929, and others as needed.</p>
-<p>Their adventures started after they left Akron. Operating from
-<span class="pb" id="Page_48">48</span>
-bases built or leased over the country, they would cover every state
-east of the Mississippi in a few years. They looked for hard things to
-do&mdash;or unusual things which would interest the public in airships.
-They landed on the roofs of buildings in Akron and in Washington&mdash;though
-a prudent Department of Commerce would later rule
-against that; they picked up mail from lines dropped on decks of
-incoming ships, and from small boats alongside; they fished for
-sharks and barracuda, hunted for whales; they picked up a bundle
-of newspapers from the Hearst building downtown, and lowered
-them to Al Smith on the top deck of the Empire State building;
-picked up another batch from The Toronto Star offices, delivered
-them at the Canadian Exposition grounds; they covered boat
-races, football and baseball games, the International Yacht Races,
-carrying press photographers, newsreel men and radio announcers;
-they went to the Mardi Gras, to the Carnival of States, the Cotton
-Carnival, Expositions at Chicago, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco
-and New York, to county fairs, plowing and corn-husking contests.
-They covered fires in New York, chased outlaws and reported forest
-fires in the high Sierras; they made traffic studies in New York
-and Washington, studies in bird life in Florida; they picked up
-stranded fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, took Mr. Litchfield off
-the after deck of the SS Bremen in New York harbor; they surveyed
-canal projects; patrolled the Mississippi during flood time to
-rescue families from raging waters, to report to the engineers
-where the levees were weakening; they carried food and supplies to
-a boat ice-bound in Chesapeake Bay; they circled a thousand
-country school houses, dropped greetings by parachute to hundreds
-of cities.</p>
-<p>One of their spectacular feats was the rescue of an airplane crew
-in Florida in 1933. Two pilots flying to Miami from Tampa for the
-Air Races had made a forced landing in the Everglades. Searching
-airplanes located the ship, but it was far from any highway, inaccessible
-by boat or on foot, the men without food and tormented by
-mosquitos, and with apparently no way of ever getting out unless a
-road could be built in to them. But a blimp found it easy, because
-it alone of all craft could stand virtually still in the air.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_49">49</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill37">
-<img id="fig45" src="images/img032.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="910" />
-<p class="pcap">Few important cities east of the Mississippi have missed seeing a Goodyear blimp
-by now, not to speak of those in the Southwest, the Pacific coast. Trips have been
-made also to Cuba, Canada and Mexico. More than 400,000 passengers have
-been carried, without even the scratch of a finger.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="box">
-<table class="center">
-<tr><th colspan="2">SUMMARY</th></tr>
-<tr><th colspan="2">TOTALS UP TO JANUARY 1, 1942</th></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">FLIGHTS </td><td class="r">151,810</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">HOURS </td><td class="r">92,966</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">PASSENGERS </td><td class="r">405,526</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">MILES </td><td class="r">4,183,470</td></tr>
-</table>
-<table class="center">
-<tr><th colspan="3">FLIGHTS BETWEEN:</th></tr>
-<tr><td class="c">AKRON </td><td class="l">- FLORIDA </td><td class="r">49</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c">&rdquo; </td><td class="l">- DALLAS </td><td class="r">6</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c">&rdquo; </td><td class="l">- CHICAGO </td><td class="r">12</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c">&rdquo; </td><td class="l">- TORONTO </td><td class="r">14</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c">&rdquo; </td><td class="l">- LAKEHURST </td><td class="r">18</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c">&rdquo; </td><td class="l">- WASHINGTON </td><td class="r">57</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c">&rdquo; </td><td class="l">- NEW YORK </td><td class="r">42</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_50">50</div>
-<p>Pilot Wilson flew to the spot, cut his motors, drifted down to 50
-feet, directed the refugees to catch the trail ropes, then as the airship
-settled took them aboard, dropped sand bags to lighten ship,
-flew home&mdash;came back later with salvage parties to recover motors
-and other parts.</p>
-<p>All these exploits were incidental to the job of learning about
-airships and airship weather&mdash;the tricks of winds and rain and
-storms. And they did learn. A hangar had been built in the woods
-at Grosse Ile, Detroit, with a lane of trees left standing so as to extend
-the line of the building&mdash;this under the assumption that the
-trees would protect the airships while entering or leaving. The
-British, under stress of war conditions had done this, used woods as
-windbreaks for landings, even for the assembly of airships at times.</p>
-<p>But the wind has a trick of spilling over, like a waterfall, when it
-strikes an obstruction. Early pilots were expert balloonists, and
-might have remembered their experience in riding over mountainous
-country&mdash;observed how the wind would carry them almost
-into a cliff, but just before reaching it would pick the great bag
-gently up, carry it over the top, drop it on the far side, almost to
-the bottom of the next valley&mdash;but not quite, pick it up and carry
-on&mdash;a graphic chart of the air flow in broken terrain.</p>
-<p>But in the first weeks of operation at Detroit, a cross-hangar
-wind, spilling over the windbreak, twice pushed an airship gently
-but firmly into the trees on the far side. The trees were cut down,
-and the study of eddies and gusts hastened the development of a
-mobile mooring mast which would hold the ship steady in turbulent
-areas.</p>
-<p>The Goodyear pilots learned to fly unworried through fog. As
-early as 1920, Hockensmith, flying the &ldquo;Pony Blimp&rdquo; from Los
-Angeles to Catalina Island, got lost when his compass failed in a
-fog so dense he could hardly see the nose of the ship. Flying low and
-slowly, barely off the water, he presently spied a dark shape ahead,
-came on a U. S. submarine, with decks awash, and an officer on
-lookout in the conning tower. He landed on his pontoons, taxied
-alongside, borrowed a compass, went on to his destination.</p>
-<p>The conviction that except within its hangar the ship was safest
-in the air, grew out of many battles with wind and storm. Brannigan,
-flying the Vigilant at Washington, was caught in a storm
-<span class="pb" id="Page_51">51</span>
-which broke up an aeronautic show, wrecked several planes on the
-ground, sent the rest scattering for shelter. Piling extra cans of
-gasoline aboard, Brannigan cut his ship loose, headed into the
-wind, a wind so high that at times he found himself pushed backward
-at full throttle, hovered for an hour and a half over the capital,
-waiting the storm out, then flew 150 miles down the bay to
-Langley field and put up for the night.</p>
-<p>On another occasion at Winston Salem, with his ship on the
-mast, Brannigan was caught in a sleet storm, found his ship bowed
-down and being crushed by the weight of ice on its back. Getting
-extra men from the city fire department, he braced his control surfaces
-with poles, beat off the ice on the bag as high as he could
-reach with branches, built oil smudge fires alongside to melt the
-ice, took off all possible equipment, to lighten ship, kept his craft
-headed into the wind, fought the storm successfully&mdash;and in the
-morning as the sun came out and the ice melted, flew on to Florida.</p>
-<p>Boettner, starting south in 1930 in the larger Defender attempting
-a non-stop flight to Miami, ran into ice and snow in the Tennessee
-mountains. An oil line froze. His mechanic climbed out on
-the outriggers and made emergency repairs in flight, but not before
-the ship had lost most of its oil. Reaching Knoxville airport by
-morning, he dropped a note, lowered a line, hauled up additional
-oil, refilled the tanks, went on to the Gadsden hangar to complete
-repairs.</p>
-<p>No Goodyear blimp has ever been damaged by storms while in
-the air, though a bit of resourcefulness was needed from time to
-time. For that matter, inquiry does not disclose any cases of a non-rigid
-airship being damaged by storm while in flight.</p>
-<p>Two Goodyear blimps were in the path of the 1938 hurricane,
-which, heading for Florida from the Caribbean, changed its course
-erratically and moved up the coast, shot across New England.
-Lange, with the Enterprise, was at New Brunswick, N.J., 50 miles
-off the direct course of the hurricane. He put his ship on the mast,
-held it there during winds which rose as high as 73 miles per hour.
-He put extra men on the handling lines, doubled the number of
-screw stakes which held the mast, used the bus, with its motor wide
-open, as further re-enforcement. The storm raged furiously at the
-<span class="pb" id="Page_52">52</span>
-ship for hours but couldn&rsquo;t budge it and when the hurricane passed
-on, everything was intact.</p>
-<p>Boettner, with the Puritan at Springfield, Mass., was almost directly
-at the axis of the storm. He made the same gallant fight as
-Lange, but against winds which roared to 100 miles per hour in
-gusts, uprooted 100-year-old trees, tugged at a sheet-iron hangar
-roof, flapping it up and down, finally ripped it loose, sailed it like a
-child&rsquo;s kite across the airport and out of sight.</p>
-<p>At the peak of the storm the steel chains attaching the mast
-cables to the screw stakes failed on the windward side, thrusting
-the mast into the side of the ship, cutting a hole in the fabric.
-Boettner pulled out the rip panel, deflating the ship to prevent
-further damage and when the storm passed rolled up the bag,
-loaded it and the control car aboard a truck, shipped it into Akron
-where a new bag was attached. The Puritan was back at work
-within a week.</p>
-<p>No wonder Goodyear pilots came to have great faith in the
-staunchness of their craft, and their ability to get out of trouble.</p>
-<p>Fuel exhaustion didn&rsquo;t bother the blimp. Fickes found that out
-early, at Wingfoot Lake, when a leak developed in his tank and
-emptied it. Free ballooning his ship he floated over a farm house,
-asked them to call the office, waited aloft till a truck came out with
-additional fuel.</p>
-<p>Boettner had a similar difficulty while returning from Canada in
-the Defender. Persistent headwinds cut down his fuel and when he
-reached the American shore around midnight it was a question
-whether he could go on as far as Akron. Picking up U. S. Highway
-Five as being heavily traveled, he swung low over an adjoining
-field, slowed down so that his mechanic could drop off, flag a passing
-car and go into town for gas. By the time the aide returned a
-number of cars had parked alongside. Driving into the field, with
-headlights full on they formed a half circle, and the drivers caught
-the lines, held the ship till the fuel could be delivered, and Boettner
-proceeded on to Wingfoot Lake.</p>
-<p>Mishaps there were of course, in all these years, but few were
-serious. Lange snagged a lone dead tree in the fog over the Alabama
-mountains and Smith side-swiped another while flying over
-<span class="pb" id="Page_53">53</span>
-a pass in Tennessee. The ship settled easily to the ground in each
-instance, and farmers came in with stone boats, carried the car and
-bag to town for repairs.</p>
-<p>Brannigan, returning at night from Syracuse, ran short of gasoline,
-directed his ground crew to land him in an open field ahead.
-The ship nosed down, his aide directing the men with his flashlight.
-But just at this juncture the top of the flashlight fell off into
-the propeller, was whipped into the bag like a bullet, started a leak
-which was not discovered till next day.</p>
-<p>Most ships in the Goodyear fleet have been fired on by thoughtless
-hunters. Once a bullet went through a ship a few inches back
-of the pilot. One marksman was arrested and sent to jail in Florida.
-Pilot Trotter had a curious experience in Oklahoma in 1935, while
-on his way to the Dallas fair. The ship had been on the mast for
-three days waiting for weather. On the fourth morning, finding the
-ship rather sluggish, Trotter looked around. A glass window from
-the cabin gives a view of the interior of the bag and as Trotter
-looked he saw light blinking from 14 bullet holes&mdash;through which
-gas had been pouring for three days!</p>
-<p>The nearest hangar where repairs could be made and helium
-secured was at Scott Field, near St. Louis, 400 miles away. By this
-time the ship had barely enough lift for the pilot and 100 gallons of
-gas, not enough for the co-pilot. So Trotter flew alone to St. Louis,
-landing so heavy that the ship had almost to be carried into the
-hangar, made his repairs and was back in Oklahoma the next day.</p>
-<p>Sewell had the experience of seeing a propeller fly off while
-heading down the bay from San Francisco, saw it careen wildly
-down, flew on to the next airport on one motor, mounted his spare.</p>
-<p>Always the pilots were calling for more speed, removing or
-streamlining whatever sources of resistance they could, picking the
-time for cross-country flights when conditions were favorable. They
-flew from Akron to Washington and New York frequently at 60
-miles per hour. The Reliance did even better in a trip north in 1939.</p>
-<p>Starting home after its winter in Florida, the ship was held up in
-Jacksonville&mdash;by tire trouble of all things. The distance an airship
-can make in a day is limited by the distance the bus can travel,
-since the ground crew must be on hand at night to land the ship.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_54">54</span>
-And by now the bus, with its radio equipment, masts and the like
-had reached the point where only the special Goodyear YKL tires
-would sustain the 14,000 pounds of weight comfortably. There was
-a shortage of YKL&rsquo;s when they started and three standard tires had
-failed on the run up from Miami. Neither Jacksonville nor Atlanta
-branch had YKL&rsquo;s in that size and to get them from Akron would
-entail a day&rsquo;s delay.</p>
-<p>Meanwhile the ship was tugging on the mast, with a strong
-south wind, anxious to get under way. The pilots held a conference.
-Maybe, utilizing the tail wind, they could make it non-stop all the
-way to Washington, 700 miles north and have Lange&rsquo;s crew land
-them. If they ran short of gas they could stop at Ft. Bragg, N. C.,
-a convenient half-way point. The Army had a motorized observation
-balloon there, and was always willing to lend a hand to fellow
-airshippers. It was Sheppard&rsquo;s turn to take the controls. He sent a
-wire to Ft. Bragg.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;If I run short of fuel, I&rsquo;ll circle the field as a signal. Could you
-land my ship, lend me enough gas to get on to Washington?&rdquo; The
-answer came back promptly, in the affirmative, and the ship left at
-midnight.</p>
-<p>Roaring across the Carolinas at mile a minute speed the Reliance
-sighted Ft. Bragg before daylight, with plenty of gas left. An
-entire company was lined up ready to land the ship. Sheppard
-flew low, cut his motors, thanked them, flew on for Hoover Airport,
-arriving before noon. He averaged 66 miles per hour over the 700 mile
-trip, and landed with enough gasoline to have gone on to New
-York.</p>
-<p>By utilizing helping winds, throttling his motors to cruising
-speed, Sheppard had effected most economical use of his fuel supply.</p>
-<p>Fickes used the same technique more strikingly in the delivery
-flight of the larger Navy K-5 in 1941, when he flew in to Lakehurst
-from Wingfoot Lake at 100 miles per hour speed, again demonstrating
-that greater cruising radius than that for which a ship was
-designed may be effected, whenever it is possible to pick departure
-times that are most favorable.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill38">
-<img id="fig46" src="images/img033.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="853" />
-<p class="pcap">Ships like these, off New York City&rsquo;s great harbor, might afford warning of the
-approach of enemy submarines, or the laying of mines to endanger its shipping.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill39">
-<img id="fig47" src="images/img034.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="449" />
-<p class="pcap">Operating from a base across in Jersey, the blimps became a
-familiar sight around New York City during the World&rsquo;s Fair.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill40">
-<img id="fig48" src="images/img034a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="461" />
-<p class="pcap">While throughout the middle west, the long afternoon shadows marked
-the arrival in one city after another of strange visitors from the sky.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_55">55</div>
-<p>Other improvements in construction or operating technique
-grew out of the fleet&rsquo;s experiences in flying in all weathers. A trip
-made by the Defender in 1930 from Miami across to Havana
-brought home the usefulness of the radio. The insurance underwriters
-insisted on a two-way radio being installed, along with
-pontoons on the ship, as safety precautions. Neither radio nor pontoons
-were needed during the crossing, but the pilots sensed the
-desirability of being able to communicate with their home station
-and their airport objective. Shortly after a short wave frequency
-was granted to the ships, one of the early ones in aircraft, and two-way
-sets were later installed on every ship, on the ground-crew
-buses and at Akron.</p>
-<p>This permitted the making of daily weather maps, extended the
-airships&rsquo; radius of action. Pilots would set out with more assurance,
-knowing that they would be quickly advised of foul weather ahead,
-could change their course, give appropriate instructions to the men
-on the ground, land whenever it seemed desirable.</p>
-<p>In the end the airships were all doing instrument flying, riding
-the radio beams like the passenger airplanes, got their landing and
-take-off instructions from the radio control towers at the airports.</p>
-<p>The fleet proved an ideal testing vehicle for the expeditionary
-mast. But progress moved carefully, a step at a time. As late as 1930
-an air dock was built alongside the company&rsquo;s plant at Gadsden,
-Ala., for use as an operating base in the middle south. It was
-thought necessary as a half way point for ships headed for Florida.
-After the high mast came in however, the Gadsden dock came to
-be used only for warehousing, and no airship has been inside it in
-four years.</p>
-<p>In 1932 the Volunteer started in from Los Angeles for Akron,
-making the first successful trip of any non-rigid airship over the
-Continental Divide. The Volunteer was due for helium purification
-and a new bag. No helium facilities were available closer than
-Akron. Rather than deflate the ship and send it by train, Pilot
-Smith decided to fly in. He laid out a route via El Paso, San Antonio,
-and Scott Field, so that he could get shelter, if necessary, at
-army hangars at those points. He berthed at El Paso just after a
-100-mile-an-hour storm had passed over, stayed three days at
-Kelly Field, found it unnecessary to stop over night at Scott. Even
-so, because of persistent head winds he had had to spend ten nights
-<span class="pb" id="Page_56">56</span>
-in the open, setting up his low mast with screw stakes on the open
-prairie.</p>
-<p>Mooring out procedure had improved by the time that Sewell
-made the same trip five years later, so he made only courtesy stops
-at the three army camps, was on his own.</p>
-<p>A mishap at Louisville gave impetus to the development of the
-high mast. The retractible low mast mounted on top of the bus
-was attached to the bag about half way between the car and nose
-of the ship, convenient to get at, the system being referred to as
-&ldquo;belly-mooring.&rdquo; The low mast was light, could be set up quickly
-and easily, would hold securely against a straight pull of considerable
-force. However, it was not as effective in the case of a wind
-shift, or gusts which rolled the ship on its side. A higher mast, with
-the ship anchored at the nose, was free to swing in all directions.
-Every one realized this, but it was only after Crum&rsquo;s ship was
-caught and twisted by a gust at Louisville, punching a hole in the
-bag, that the change was made.</p>
-<p>The high mast, built in sections, anchored by guy wires to stakes
-screwed in the ground, was more bulky, took longer to set up, but
-would hold the ship indefinitely once it was in place.</p>
-<p>Thereafter both masts were carried in cross-country trips, the
-convenient low mast being used for overnight stops in good weather,
-the high mast for more extended operations, or when the
-weather looked threatening.</p>
-<p>The ground-crew bus was in evolution during this period. Built
-originally to carry merely crew, spare parts and supplies it added
-a radio room, navigation quarters, and carried the two masts. A
-scout car cruises ahead to make overnight arrangements, a trailer
-follows, with its own electric plant and expeditionary equipment,
-including a spot light to play on the ship at night. Duties of airship
-personnel grew more specialized and complex.</p>
-<p>Members of the ground crew acted as radio technicians, meteorologists,
-mechanics, riggers. They comprised a colorful group, recruited
-from all parts of the country. Sailors from New Bedford,
-fruit growers from Florida, farm boys from Ohio, ranchers from the
-San Joaquin valley, a mechanic from a Chicago airport, a policeman
-from the Cleveland fair, all dropped their work and followed
-<span class="pb" id="Page_57">57</span>
-the airships. The personnel list was a history of every place an airship
-had operated.</p>
-<p>The work wasn&rsquo;t easy, involved long hours in the cold and rain
-when storms threatened, picking up mail from their families on the
-fly in cross-country operations, moving their households from north
-to south and north again. But the ground-crew men stuck, most of
-them having ten years&rsquo; service and more. On cross-country trips a
-crew of 14, including pilots, is adequate.</p>
-<p>The pilot personnel too formed an interesting group. Jack
-Boettner, chief pilot, veteran of the group, with probably more airship
-hours than any man in the world, certainly in non-rigid airships,
-had played all-American football at Washington and Jefferson,
-been instructor at Wingfoot Lake through the first war, was
-working in Goodyear&rsquo;s aeronautical sales when the fleet got under
-way.</p>
-<p>As expansion started in 1927 Smith came in from the aero workshop,
-would remain second in flight hours only to Boettner. Fickes
-from Akron University, left the Efficiency Dept. to sign up, set up
-one of the first outside bases, at New Bedford, flew the Mayflower
-when it picked up Mr. Litchfield from an ocean liner, later became
-manager of all airship operations. O&rsquo;Neil from the workshop came
-on too, in that year, became chief mechanic.</p>
-<p>When a base was set up at Los Angeles, Lange, a New Englander
-who had left Boston University to fly airships in the first war, later
-flying out of Panama, joined up, was sent to California, later took
-charge of the Washington base. Sewell, a Kansan with a similar
-record, having left the state university to fly blimps in coastal patrol
-in 1918 came in, captained a ship at New York, followed Lange
-at Los Angeles.</p>
-<p>Further expansion came in 1929, when the Puritan, Mayflower,
-Vigilant and Volunteer and Defender were added to the fleet. Now
-came Wilson, Purdue footballer, Furculow from West Point and
-Mt. Union, Hobensack from West Virginia U, Rieker and Crum
-from Ohio State, the last named becoming engineer officer of the
-group.</p>
-<p>Other practical men came in, from the balloon room and aero
-shops&mdash;Sheppard a Virginian, who later flew all over New England,
-<span class="pb" id="Page_58">58</span>
-the Middle West and Texas; Massick, Crosier and Munro;
-Blair, Army sergeant from Scott Field, came to Goodyear after the
-semi-rigid RS-1 was finished.</p>
-<p>Stacy, another New Englander, left the class room at Massachusetts
-Tech to sign up. Dixon, born in a lighthouse on Nantucket
-Island, left a billet as junior officer on a South American liner to
-fly land ships instead. Trotter, from the Naval Academy, was in
-engineering work in Florida when a blimp flew over. Lueders came
-in via the ground crew at Los Angeles.</p>
-<p>Many of the Goodyear pilots were commissioned as Reserve
-officers in the Navy, and Fickes, Boettner, Lange, Sewell, Wilson,
-Trotter and Furculow each took a year&rsquo;s active duty with the Navy
-at Lakehurst with rigid ships. More than a score of trips were made
-by Goodyear pilots across the ocean as student officers aboard the
-Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg, getting post-graduate training.</p>
-<p>The breaking up of the pilot organization began as early as
-1940, when with war clouds appearing in the East, Trotter, Rieker
-and Furculow volunteered for active duty with the Navy. By the
-middle of 1941, Stacy, Smith, Lueders and Dixon had followed
-them into uniform, were flying Navy airships at Lakehurst.</p>
-<p>To fill their places and also furnish material for the already expanding
-airship Navy, a training class of 19 men was started in
-late 1940 at Akron and Los Angeles. A six-months&rsquo; ground school
-preceded flight training&mdash;which started with seven balloon flights.</p>
-<p>The training course evolved there was one which grew naturally
-out of such a situation. Airship piloting had changed from the
-&ldquo;seat of the pants&rdquo; flying of the first war, when veteran Jack Boettner
-would turn out pilots in six weeks. The ships had become more
-complex as improvements were made. Helium gas was being used.
-Navigation by radio and compass was quite different from the
-&ldquo;concrete compass flying&rdquo; of 1916, when pilots followed highways
-or railroad tracks to keep on course. Instrument flying had come
-in, and blind flying was part of every student&rsquo;s training, in a closed
-control car, operating by instrument only. The modern airship
-pilot had to know his radio beams and the rules of Civil Aeronautics
-Authority, be able to ride the beam into the airport. In these
-various details the Goodyear pilots, long-seasoned, had perfected
-<span class="pb" id="Page_59">59</span>
-themselves through years of operation, were competent to pass on
-their secrets to the youngsters coming in.</p>
-<p>The student pilot spent his first half dozen hours trying only to
-keep the ship at constant altitude, not caring where he was going.
-Then he would fly a given course, follow a zigzag rail fence, or a
-winding road, not worrying about his altitude. Lesson three was
-to combine the two, fly at constant altitude over a set course. And
-after enough hours at this, he&rsquo;d try to circle a pylon, keeping a
-specified distance away, while the wind pushed the ship in one direction,
-then another&mdash;now flying up wind, now down, now cross-wind,
-now quartering, making such changes in course to allow for
-wind and drift as to maintain a perfect circle&mdash;and trying finally
-to achieve the supreme art of the airshipper, which is to get the feel
-of the controls and the weather so that he can anticipate drift and
-sharp drops and rises, move his controls a split second ahead of
-time, stay on course and altitude.</p>
-<p>Airship students got no exemption from Civil Aeronautics Authority
-by reason of the fact that blimps land more slowly than
-bombers, took the same physical examination, including eyesight.
-The training course worked out with the government followed
-closely that for heavier-than-air pilots, with such changes only as
-were made necessary by the fact that in one case a static lift
-was utilized chiefly, and in the other case dynamic lift. There
-was plenty of need for the students by the time they finished their
-training.</p>
-<p>Over the 16 years during which the fleet operations were carried
-on ship sizes settled down to 123,000 cu. ft. as a compromise
-between the 51,000 cu. ft. Pilgrim and the 164,000 cu. ft. Defender.
-This size ship could carry six passengers with pilot and
-aide, was easy to handle with a small crew, had adequate cruising
-radius for the job at hand.</p>
-<p>Later ships, the Enterprise, Ranger, Resolute, Reliance and
-Rainbow, carried on the tradition of honoring the defenders of
-America&rsquo;s cup in international racing.</p>
-<p>While an airplane can land anywhere on an open field, the airship
-needed at least a minimum of terminal facilities. Many groups
-co-operated at the outset. St. Petersburg, Florida built a hangar;
-<span class="pb" id="Page_60">60</span>
-Miami towed a war-time Navy shed up from Key West; Col. E. H.
-R. Green built one on his New Bedford estate for use in connection
-with radio studies being made by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
-The company built its own at Gadsden, Los Angeles,
-Washington, Chicago and New York, calling them air docks rather
-than hangars.</p>
-<p>Unused Army and Navy hangars were borrowed in the early
-years at Aberdeen, Md., and briefly at Cape May, N. J., Pensacola,
-Arcadia, Cal. and Chatham, Mass., with Lakehurst, Langley
-Field, Scott Field and Sunnyvale, Cal., handy as ports of call.</p>
-<p>More and more, however, the fleet grew independent of ground
-aid, became increasingly self-reliant through the use of its masting
-equipment.</p>
-<p>The Goodyear fleet wrote a remarkable safety record in the 16
-years. Accidents to airship personnel could be counted on the
-fingers of one hand, and in the case of the public, 400,000 passengers
-had been carried up to 1942, for a total of 4,000,000 miles
-without a scratch of anyone&rsquo;s finger.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_61">61</div>
-<h2 id="c10"><span class="small">CHAPTER VIII</span>
-<br />Results of Fleet Operations</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig49">
-<img src="images/img035.jpg" alt="Moored airship and flying airship" width="290" height="219" />
-</div>
-<p>Goodyear airships made some contribution during the
-16 years of fleet operations, to flight and ground handling
-technique. They also contributed to men&rsquo;s knowledge
-about weather. For wherever it is flying, an airship, by the very
-nature of the craft, is continually registering the effects at that
-point of certain components of weather. And the ships covered a
-considerable part of the country fairly thoroughly.</p>
-<p>The nature and movements of air currents can be studied only
-incompletely from the ground, for conditions there are merely the
-result of forces aloft. Only two vehicles leave the ground and use
-the air as highways. Of these the airship is vastly more responsive
-to changes in temperatures and barometric pressure than the airplane,
-because of the lifting gas in its envelope, and somewhat
-more responsive to changes in wind directions and velocities, because
-of its greater displacement of air.</p>
-<p>Goodyear airships have traveled widely, have seen at first-hand
-the effects of rain and snow, fog and sleet, wind and whirlwind,
-thunderhead and lightning storm. More important they have been
-spectators at the unseen battle waged endlessly between cold fronts
-and warm ones across the great central plains, continued with renewed
-vindictiveness through mountain ranges and valleys.</p>
-<p>The information brought by these voyagers has not been without
-value to the men in the airport control towers, who are studying
-weather phenomena in the effort to make flying safe.</p>
-<p>A whole new science of weather interpretation has come in with
-<span class="pb" id="Page_62">62</span>
-air transport, and the U. S. Weather Bureau has other duties than
-advising farmers about planting and harvesting crops. It may be
-merely coincidence that when a new chief had to be selected for the
-Weather Bureau a few years ago an airship pilot was selected&mdash;Commander
-F. W. Reichelderfer of the Navy, who had long
-studied the movement of air masses and their effect on flight.</p>
-<p>Army and Navy ships put in more actual flying days per month
-than Goodyear ships, when on coastal patrol, because once out at
-sea the service ships were out for all day&mdash;and an airship, by picking
-its time, and using its mast, can always get out and get back.</p>
-<p>Goodyear pilots had a different sort of job. They were operating
-over land, flying 100 passengers a day, at 10 to 15 minute intervals,
-in one town after another. They might suspend operations
-when ceilings were low, or winds high, or gusty, not because they
-couldn&rsquo;t fly under those circumstances, but because flights would
-be less agreeable, and might be hazardous for their passengers.
-However, the ships themselves, having no shelter at hand, had to
-stay out and take it. Their job was to interest the people of America
-in lighter-than-air, and they had to go wherever people were, regardless
-of what flying weather might intervene.</p>
-<p>So between Navy, Army and Goodyear airships operating over
-a period of years, it was fairly well demonstrated that there is very
-little unflyable weather for lighter-than-air craft. That is a conclusion
-of no small importance.</p>
-<p>Winds of gale force may make it prudent for the airship to stay
-in the hangar or on the mast, and conditions of zero ceiling, zero
-visibility, which ground other aircraft, would make operations
-hazardous, especially over mountainous country, but even the
-most adverse weather conditions would hardly keep the airship at
-home if an enemy was at large. Any time submarines are operating
-the airship can be available to seek them out.</p>
-<p>Another result emerging from the fact of fleet operations was
-that flying men and construction men, working together, became a
-closely knit group. Engineers learned to fly ships, and flyers took
-their turn in the shops. In building airships for the Navy, at the
-speed demanded by war conditions, the control cars were built in
-the shop and the envelopes cut out and fitted and cemented together
-in the balloon room. But operating men, flyers and ground
-crew men, mechanics and riggers and maintenance men took
-over from there, put the ships together&mdash;assembled them, tested
-them out, delivered them to the Navy.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill41">
-<img id="fig50" src="images/img036.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="286" />
-<p class="pcap">Lessons in streamlining gained from building and flying blimps became useful
-when barrage balloons came into the picture as a new defense weapon.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill42">
-<img id="fig51" src="images/img036a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="644" />
-<p class="pcap">The mooring mast made the blimps expeditionary craft, eliminated the need for
-large ground crews, permitted more flying days per month, increased safety.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill43">
-<img id="fig52" src="images/img037.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450" />
-<p class="pcap">Floating Navy blimps and barrage balloons, with their curious star-fish tails,
-give the service dock something of the appearance of a giant aquarium.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill44">
-<img id="fig53" src="images/img037a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="551" />
-<p class="pcap">Principal use for the rigid airship in wartime is as an airplane carrier, with half a
-dozen planes to extend its reconnaissance range and determine the enemy&rsquo;s position.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_63">63</div>
-<p>It was this co-ordination between men in green eye shades,
-working over the drafting board and wind-tanned pilots, studying
-gray skies and phosphorescent control boards, which enabled the
-organization to meet the war emergency of large scale production
-of non-rigid airships.</p>
-<p>There was another by-product result arising from the fact that
-the company, even in the doldrum days, when there were few
-orders for ships, had kept its engineers at work on research and its
-ships flying on experimental missions. It all happened suddenly, a
-colorful circumstance not often found in the sober humdrum of the
-business world.</p>
-<p>A great plane manufacturer, having more defense work than its
-crowded shops could handle, looked around for some company
-with experience in the fabrication of light metal, to whom it could
-farm out some of the details.</p>
-<p>Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, the aeronautic subsidiary, was
-asked to build tail surfaces for Martin bombers. A curious thing
-happened. Men whose work had been primarily with airships,
-rather than airplanes (omitting the quite different field of airplane
-tires, wheels, and brakes) found themselves on familiar ground
-when they swung over to heavier-than-air construction.</p>
-<p>Here was the same problem of getting maximum strength with
-minimum weight, of selection and treatment of light alloys, of intricate
-stress calculations, and a hundred ingenious devices to measure
-those stresses, enabling designers to turn out a scientifically designed
-structure. The background was there&mdash;not to mention their
-experience and studies in streamlined design&mdash;to reduce resistance,
-get maximum performance from power plants.</p>
-<p>The difference was that in the case of the airship savings in
-weight mount fast, because of size. The importance of light weight
-and high strength had come home to airship designers years before.</p>
-<p>Their experience was directly applicable to the new field. Other
-orders came in, from Curtiss, Consolidated, Grumman, and soon
-<span class="pb" id="Page_64">64</span>
-the huge plant was humming with the production of parts for
-fighters and bombers.</p>
-<p>Then a four-company arrangement was set up by the government
-to expand airplane production still further, and after that an
-order for complete planes. The original plant was now jam-packed
-with lathes and drills, jigs and presses, and three huge
-new plants were built alongside and across the road, and Goodyear
-Aircraft Corporation found itself with thousands of men, building
-not only airships, but airplanes and airplane parts as well.</p>
-<p>Every large company took on new tasks in defense, but in this
-case Goodyear was able to move quickly, and give unexpected support
-to the airplane program by reason of its long research in a
-different field. This result, it is true, grew chiefly out of research in
-rigid airships, rather than non-rigids, but both played a part in
-another instance&mdash;barrage balloons.</p>
-<p>England was using them, might ask this country to supply some.
-The American government too might have use for them. So, long
-before there was even any hint of orders, Mr. Litchfield threw a
-new problem to the engineers at Goodyear Aircraft and the operating
-men at Wingfoot Lake&mdash;the job of designing an efficient barrage
-balloon. They were not to make Chinese copies of foreign
-balloons, but draw on their experience in lighter-than-air and see
-if principles and technique established there could not be applied
-to design balloons which would ride with maximum stability in
-gusty and unstable air. Men went to work, designing, building,
-flying, observing, rejecting, altering, improving, week after week,
-month after month, until several satisfactory types were evolved.
-One of these was capable of flying at 15,000 feet, twice the usual
-height. Orders began to come in, and the little group of men and
-girls in the balloon room quickly grew into a large organization.
-The department outgrew its quarters, took over room after room,
-expanded to subsidiary plants outside Akron.</p>
-<p>One instrument developed illustrates how the airship men were
-able to utilize past experience in a new project.</p>
-<p>Mounted alongside the winch on the ground, it gave exact information,
-as often as was wanted, as to what the barrage balloon
-was doing, a mile or three miles up.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_65">65</div>
-<p>This assembly included a moving picture camera, which continuously,
-or at fixed intervals, or at any instant desired, by means of
-radio control, would photograph recording dials and show these
-things: wind velocity at the balloon, tension on cable, gas pressure
-inside the balloon, temperature of confined gas, temperature and
-humidity of the air surrounding the balloon, angle of attack at
-which the balloon faced the wind, both fore and aft and from
-side to side, also a clock, which showed the time the readings were
-recorded.</p>
-<p>These pictures, when developed gave the engineers the data
-from which they could modify designs and arrive at a type of balloon
-which would ride most easily aloft, avoid undue tugging and
-surging on the cable&mdash;incidentally permitting smaller gauge and
-weight cable to be used for a given height with ample safety margin.</p>
-<p>Perhaps the largest single result, however, growing out of the
-fleet operations was that it had created manufacturing facilities,
-ships and personnel on which the Navy could draw, as fully as it
-wanted, in emergency, and with little more delay than the time it
-took for a man to change his uniform.</p>
-<p>Boettner, Sewell, Blair, Hobensack and Hill followed the others
-into the service. Hobensack&rsquo;s ground crew in California signed up
-with him in a body, and men from other ground crews, expert in
-rigging, in motors, radio, in mooring out and maintenance joined
-up. In the end only Fickes and Crum were left at Akron to build
-the new ships, and Sheppard, Crosier and Massic to test-fly them,
-then ferry them to their destinations.</p>
-<p>The student pilots at Wingfoot Lake had finished their training
-just in time. About half of them went immediately into the Navy,
-were commissioned and sent to the various bases, the others remained
-at Akron as replacements to the other pilots, in testing and
-delivery flights, or on key posts in airship construction.</p>
-<p>The experience accumulated by the blimp pilots under varying
-weather conditions over the country proved useful to the Navy,
-particularly in the expeditionary operations which coastal patrol
-would demand. It was useful as well in helping train navy aviation
-cadets for the growing airship fleet. Five of the pilots, Sewell,
-Boettner, Rieker, Stacy and Smith had reached the rank of
-<span class="pb" id="Page_66">66</span>
-lieutenant commander by the end of 1942, and Lange, full commander,
-had become commanding officer of a new Navy station
-on the west coast. Two of the public relations men, Lieutenants
-Petrie and Schetter, old airship troupers, followed the fliers into
-uniform.</p>
-<p>The airship service suffered its first casualty in 1942 when Lt.
-Trotter, gallant and resourceful pilot of balloons and ships, was
-killed in a collision, in which Lt. Comdr. Rounds also lost his life.</p>
-<p>The Goodyear fleet passed out of existence with the war. The
-ships being the same size as the Navy training ships, it was a simple
-matter to change them over, paint the new name on their broad
-sides.</p>
-<p>Facilities for ship construction became useful also in the new
-war. An airship hangar is unlike any other structure in the world.
-It must be broad and high and free of supporting girders. There
-were two large airship docks at Akron, half a dozen smaller ones
-over the country. At hand, too, was equipment for helium purification
-and storage, along with radio and weather gear, mobile
-mooring masts and other specialized equipment which only
-lighter-than-air uses. There was the balloon room, too, with a
-wealth of experience dating back to the first World War, and
-which with new jobs like building barrage balloons, rubber rafts
-and assault boats grew to large dimension.</p>
-<p>Wingfoot Lake was more than doubled in size, and the large airship
-dock, occupied at first by heavier-than-air production, had to
-be changed back later for airship assembly, to meet the Navy&rsquo;s
-mounting demands for ships. The bases at Washington and Los
-Angeles were converted to other aeronautic uses; the two-ship
-dock at Chicago and the one at New York were torn down and
-moved to Akron to provide additional space for ship assembly.</p>
-<p>And so the fact that the company had maintained an airship
-fleet for a number of years had the result that in emergency when
-the Navy needed ships and men to fly them, Goodyear was ready.
-All of which was not foreseen when Mrs. Litchfield pulled a cord
-to release a flock of pigeons and christen the pioneer ship Pilgrim,
-at a pasture-airport outside Akron in 1925.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_67">67</div>
-<h2 id="c11"><span class="small">CHAPTER IX</span>
-<br />Vulnerability of Airships</h2>
-<div class="img" id="fig54">
-<img src="images/img038.jpg" alt="Airship and escort warship" width="261" height="212" />
-</div>
-<p>Mention airships and most people will immediately raise
-the question of vulnerability.</p>
-<p>Large, slow moving, a tempting target, airships could
-be shot out of the sky by ship or shore guns, or by hostile airplane
-fire, it is argued, almost as easily as a dinner guest touching his
-cigaret to a toy balloon.</p>
-<p>And this is probably true, with reservations, if enemy ships or
-anti-aircraft batteries or planes were around. But the airship, non-rigid,
-has no more business in such areas than a British airplane
-carrier would have to drop anchor in Hamburg harbor.</p>
-<p>It was because of the imminence of attack from sea or shore or
-air that neither England nor Germany used airships in the present
-war, particularly since they would have to use the inflammable
-hydrogen gas. It was because such attack on American airships
-from any of these three sources was much less likely&mdash;and that we
-have helium gas, which does not burn&mdash;that this country is using
-them.</p>
-<p>Their chief field of operations is not off the enemy&rsquo;s coasts but
-our own, along that broad ribbon of waters used by our coastwise
-shipping, an area roughly marked in the Atlantic by the 100
-fathom curve, the favorite fishing grounds of enemy submarines.
-Thousands of miles of blue water, not the narrow lanes of the
-North Sea or British Channel are between them and the shore
-guns of an enemy.</p>
-<p>An enemy fleet, though likelihood of this seems remote, might
-<span class="pb" id="Page_68">68</span>
-penetrate those coast waters in attempted invasion, attack the
-blimps with anti-aircraft fire. But such an enemy, arriving in
-force, would have either to knock out our Atlantic fleet, or slip
-past it in surprise attempt. In the remote later contingency, the
-information relayed back by airship radio that the enemy was
-moving in would be worth losing airships or any other craft, to get.</p>
-<p>The third hypothesis, attack by airplane, is also conceivable.
-But if long-ranging enemy planes were able to get that close to
-our shores they&rsquo;d have more important business in hand than
-wasting time and powder on a helium bubble bobbing in the air,
-10,000 feet below&mdash;which in any event would already have radioed
-the news ashore.</p>
-<p>In the fairly remote contingency that the airplane did choose to
-attack the blimp, it would find the position of that moving target,
-flying at an indeterminate distance below, much more difficult
-to calculate than a fixed target ashore, no easy thing to drop
-bombs on.</p>
-<p>If it swung down close, it might riddle the bag with machine gun
-bullets but without necessarily sinking it&mdash;as witness the case of
-Trotter&rsquo;s ship in Oklahoma leaking gas for 72 hours from 14 gaping
-holes and still able to fly 400 miles for repairs. The plane would
-have almost to cut the blimp in two with a spray of bullets to destroy
-it&mdash;if it chose to use its precious far-borne ammunition in such
-fashion&mdash;and would find it better to attack from below, on the
-chance of a lucky hit into the airship structure or controls, or one
-which disabled its crew. But in that event the airship, also armed,
-shooting it out from its more stable gun platform above would
-have as good a chance as the plane.</p>
-<p>The airship is vulnerable&mdash;as are all other military craft&mdash;but
-used as the Navy proposes to use airships, it may be said to have
-an acceptable degree of vulnerability, in view of its potential
-usefulness in its special field&mdash;defense against submarine attack on
-convoys or coastwise shipping.</p>
-<p>The airship&rsquo;s advantages have been pointed out, but may be repeated.
-These grow out of its speed range, from zero to a maximum
-of 65 knots or so. Its slow speed, as compared to the airplane has
-the compensation that it does not have to circle around to maintain
-altitude, can keep any suspect object under continuous observation.
-Its high speed enables it to reach a given point much
-sooner than the fastest surface scout.</p>
-<div class="img" id="ill45">
-<img id="fig55" src="images/img039.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="458" />
-<p class="pcap">Barrage balloons&mdash;spiders who spin out webs of steel as they ascend&mdash;but these
-spiders are out to catch fliers, not flies, enemy fliers who threaten our democracy.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill46">
-<img id="fig56" src="images/img039a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="448" />
-<p class="pcap">Modern armies towing a few of these pocket sized barrage balloons along,
-might not be too much concerned over attacks by strafing airplanes.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill47">
-<img id="fig57" src="images/img040.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="466" />
-<p class="pcap">This Strata Sentinel will fly at 15,000 feet, twice the height of other barrage balloons. By
-that time the lobes will be completely filled out by expanding pressure of the lifting gas.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill48">
-<img id="fig58" src="images/img040b.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="342" />
-<p class="pcap">This airship, silhouetted against the afternoon sun might be pacing a peaceful
-cruiser race through the surf off Long Beach, on the Southern California coast.
-Or it might be leading units of the mosquito fleet to sea off Cape Cod, to
-hold an enemy U-boat in check till ships of heavier armament could arrive.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill49">
-<img id="fig59" src="images/img040c.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="463" />
-<p class="pcap">Helium-inflated, fast, long ranged, the modern K-type Navy patrol ship is a far cry from
-the primitive airships of World War I. They are armed with bombs and machine guns.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="ill50">
-<img id="fig60" src="images/img041.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="385" />
-<p class="pcap">In brilliant sunshine, or overcast, in fog or rain or snow, the blimps take off from their bases
-day after day, on guard against any enemy who may invade the coastal waters. A faint
-smoke screen, miles distant over the endless waters, may turn out to be a peaceful merchantman&mdash;or
-a vessel with grimmer purpose, seeking the advantage of surprise attack.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig61">
-<img src="images/img041a.jpg" alt="Airship over cargo ship" width="600" height="400" />
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_69">69</div>
-<p>The detection of a submarine even on the surface is largely a
-matter of looking in the right direction at the right time. The open
-windows on all sides of the airship, without obstruction by wings
-give it special value in this field.</p>
-<p>A submarine submerged is still harder to find as its tell-tale
-feather is not easy to spot from a speeding plane or from the crow&rsquo;s
-nest of a surface craft.</p>
-<p>A non-rigid airship throttling down to the speed of its prey, and
-having the altitude of the airplane, has a much better chance of
-sighting the submarine, before it can launch its torpedoes.</p>
-<p>Taking off in fog, flying in low visibility, compelled to fly close
-to the water, these factors do not worry the airship or handicap its
-usefulness overmuch, and might under given conditions prove extremely
-useful.</p>
-<p>The airship appears to have some advantage too in the length of
-time it may remain on station, ranging from 30 hours at high
-speed to undetermined days at low. Indeed its endurance is not so
-much a matter of fuel capacity as of the ability of crews to stand
-long watches without relief.</p>
-<p>There might be emergencies where airship scouts were wanted on
-continuous duty over a considerable period. Commander Roands&rsquo;
-experiments point out interesting possibilities in this respect,
-through the transfer of fuel and supplies from a surface ship, and
-the taking on of fresh crews.</p>
-<p>This generally was the case men saw for the airship up to 1941,
-as having potential usefulness, in the event of war, against attack
-by sea.</p>
-<p>Then came Pearl Harbor, and America&rsquo;s entrance into a new
-war. German U-boats, larger, faster, more deadly, moved swiftly
-in to attack, as if waiting for the signal. The Japs made reconnaissance
-raids along the West Coast.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Wolf packs&rdquo; of submarines in new under-water tactics stalked
-convoys, picked off stragglers. More than 600 coast-wise ships,
-merchantmen from the Caribbean and South America, and tankers
-<span class="pb" id="Page_70">70</span>
-from the Gulf, were sunk in the first year of war. The loss of
-tankers brought serious complications ashore, the rationing of gas
-along the eastern seaboard to conserve supply for military purposes.
-Despite a quickly expanding program of ship construction
-merchantmen were being sunk faster than they could be built.</p>
-<p>The Navy&rsquo;s sea-frontier defense moved to meet the attack. Non-rigid
-airships were assigned a place in that program, wherever
-they could be utilized and with what ships were on hand, and new
-airship construction was rushed.</p>
-<p>Under authorization from Congress, a program of airship and
-base construction, together with helium procurement, was accelerated,
-and by the end of the year, stations were in commission or
-being built at key points along both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
-<p>Akron expanded its facilities many fold for the building of new
-airships, which were flown to the various bases with increasing
-frequency during the year. Large classes of officers, aviation
-cadets and enlisted men went into intensified training at Lakehurst
-and Moffett Field, preparing themselves to man the ships
-as fast as they were delivered.</p>
-<p>The blimps which have been available to the sea-frontier forces
-have rendered valuable service in patrol and escort missions.
-Their exact record of performance, including number of submarine
-sinkings, obviously cannot now be published.</p>
-<p>On sighting a submarine, or finding indication of its presence,
-the tactical doctrine might call either for attack, or to stand by,
-summoning airplanes and surface craft in for the kill, keeping the
-enemy under unsuspected surveillance the while, and saving the
-blimp&rsquo;s own depth bombs for another action.</p>
-<p>The airship is capable of carrying on patrol and escort missions
-day after day under a wide range of weather conditions, going for
-months at some stations, even in the winter, without missing a day.</p>
-<p>Though no detailed summary of airship activities is possible
-now, it is no secret that, just as in the last war, the submarines
-avoided attack upon convoys where airships were on guard. The
-German high command tacitly admitted that this was one type
-that the U-boats did not want to meet, an enemy immune to its
-torpedoes, whose presence the sub&rsquo;s under-water detectors did not
-<span class="pb" id="Page_71">71</span>
-reveal, and which might appear overhead without warning. Admiral
-Doenitz, commanding the German submarine force, testified
-in a press interview to their respect for our blimps.</p>
-<p>The battle against the submarines will be long and difficult,
-and ships will still go down and men will be lost, but the chase will
-be relentless as long as the menace exists. Airships, non-rigid, have
-taken their place in that phase of America&rsquo;s war effort.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_72">72</div>
-<h2 id="c12">References</h2>
-<p>Little is available in the way of bibliography on lighter-than-aircraft,
-their history and characteristics. Among the
-best works dealing with this subject are Captain C. E.
-Rosendahl&rsquo;s, &ldquo;What About the Airship?&rdquo; (Scribner&rsquo;s), and &ldquo;Up
-Ship&rdquo; (Dodd Mead); Captain Ernst Lehmann&rsquo;s &ldquo;Zeppelin&rdquo; (Longman&rsquo;s)
-and Captain J. A. Sinclair&rsquo;s &ldquo;Airships in Peace and War&rdquo;
-(Rich &amp; Cowan, London).</p>
-<p>Copies of &ldquo;The Story of the Airship (Non-Rigid),&rdquo; may be
-procured through The Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co. at Akron,
-Ohio; or at Los Angeles, or branch offices.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_73">73</div>
-<h2 id="c13">Index</h2>
-<p class="center"><a href="#index_A" class="ab">A</a> <a href="#index_B" class="ab">B</a> <a href="#index_C" class="ab">C</a> <a href="#index_D" class="ab">D</a> <a href="#index_E" class="ab">E</a> <a href="#index_F" class="ab">F</a> <a href="#index_G" class="ab">G</a> <a href="#index_H" class="ab">H</a> <a href="#index_I" class="ab">I</a> <a href="#index_J" class="ab">J</a> <a href="#index_K" class="ab">K</a> <a href="#index_L" class="ab">L</a> <a href="#index_M" class="ab">M</a> <a href="#index_N" class="ab">N</a> <span class="ab">O</span> <a href="#index_P" class="ab">P</a> <span class="ab">Q</span> <a href="#index_R" class="ab">R</a> <a href="#index_S" class="ab">S</a> <a href="#index_T" class="ab">T</a> <a href="#index_U" class="ab">U</a> <a href="#index_V" class="ab">V</a> <a href="#index_W" class="ab">W</a> <span class="ab">X</span> <span class="ab">Y</span> <span class="ab">Z</span></p>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_A"><b>A</b></dt>
-<dt>Alcock (and Brown) Atlantic Crossing, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_B"><b>B</b></dt>
-<dt>Ballast recovery, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> et seq.</dt>
-<dt>Bases, airship, world war, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</dt>
-<dd>peacetime, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Baldwin, Major Tom, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Bennett, James Gordon, races won by Goodyear pilots, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</dt>
-<dd>by Westover, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</dd>
-<dd>Van Orman, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Barrage Balloons, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, illust. opp. <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Blimp, origin of name, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Blanchard, Jean Pierre, channel crossing, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Boettner, Jack, pilot, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Boyd, Lt., <a href="#Page_19">19</a>-20.</dt>
-<dt>Brannigan, Charles, photograph opp. <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>;</dt>
-<dd>pilot, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</dd>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_C"><b>C</b></dt>
-<dt>C-5, illust. opp. <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</dt>
-<dd>Atlantic crossing, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Charles, J. A. C., first hydrogen balloon, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</dt>
-<dd>drag rope, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Chatham, U-boat attack, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Consolidated, planes, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Curtiss planes, early flights, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</dt>
-<dd>Goodyear part in construction, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Crum, H. W., pilot, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_D"><b>D</b></dt>
-<dt>Defender, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</dt>
-<dd>at Havana, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</dd>
-<dt>De Rozier, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Drag rope, developed by Charles, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</dt>
-<dd>use at sea, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</dd>
-<dd>with mast, at sea, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</dd>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_E"><b>E</b></dt>
-<dt>Eckener, Hugo, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_F"><b>F</b></dt>
-<dt>Fickes, Karl, pilot, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</dt>
-<dd>record flight of K-5, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Finger patch, illust. opp. <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Franklin, Benj., observations on aeronautics, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Fulton, Captain Garland, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Furculow, Pilot, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_G"><b>G</b></dt>
-<dt>Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Greene, Col. E. H. R., dock at New Bedford, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Grosse Ile, hangar, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Grumman, planes, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_H"><b>H</b></dt>
-<dt>Hawker (and Greene) Atlantic Crossing, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Helium, characteristics, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</dt>
-<dd>discovery of, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Hockensmith, pilot, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Hydrogen, first use in balloon, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</dt>
-<dd>characteristics, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</dd>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_I"><b>I</b></dt>
-<dt>Iron Horse, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_J"><b>J</b></dt>
-<dt>Jutland, battle, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_K"><b>K</b></dt>
-<dt>Kenworthy, Commander J. L., <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_L"><b>L</b></dt>
-<dt>Lange, Karl, pilot, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Lawrence, Lt. John, pilot, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Lindbergh, flight, effect of, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Litchfield, P. W., first air meet, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</dt>
-<dd>starts blimp fleet, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</dd>
-<dd>mast experiments, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Little, Lt., pilot, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Los Angeles, airship, illust. opp. <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</dt>
-<dd>why built, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</dd>
-<dd>mast studies, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</dd>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_M"><b>M</b></dt>
-<dt>Macon, USS, size, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Martin, planes, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Mast, mooring, <a href="#Page_36">36</a> et seq.;</dt>
-<dd>illust. opp. <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Mills, Commander, G. H., <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Minnesota, damaged by mine, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Moffett, Admiral, W. A., photograph opp. <a href="#Page_iii">iii</a>;</dt>
-<dd>report on value of airships, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Montgolfiers, first balloon flight, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Morton, Walter, pilot, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_N"><b>N</b></dt>
-<dt>NC-4, Atlantic flight, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</dt>
-<dd>illust. opp. <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Norge, airship, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_P"><b>P</b></dt>
-<dt>Parsevals, airships, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Peck, Commander S. E., C-5 flight, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Pilgrim, airship, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</dt>
-<dd>launching, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Pony Blimp, airship, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Preston, R. A. D., pilot, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_R"><b>R</b></dt>
-<dt>R-34, Atlantic Crossing, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</dt>
-<dd>size, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</dd>
-<dt>Radio, first use of, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Reichelderfer, Commander F. W., chief U. S. Weather Bureau, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Rieker, John, pilot, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Roma, Italian-built airship, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Rosendahl, Captain, C. E., photograph opp. <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Rounds, Lt. C. S., ballast pick-up, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</dt>
-<dt>RS-1, army airship, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Rubber, use of synthetics, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_S"><b>S</b></dt>
-<dt>San Diego, USS, sunk by mine, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Santos Dumont, illust. opp. <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</dt>
-<dd>first flights, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</dd>
-<dt class="pb" id="Page_74">74</dt>
-<dt>Settle, Commander T. G. W., photograph opp. <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Sewell, A. T., pilot, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Shenandoah, USS, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Sheppard, S. H., pilot, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Smith, Alfred E., <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Smith, Verne, pilot, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_T"><b>T</b></dt>
-<dt>TC-14, airship, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Trotter, F. A., pilot, bullet holes in ship, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_U"><b>U</b></dt>
-<dt>Upson, R. H., pilot, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_V"><b>V</b></dt>
-<dt>Van Orman, W. T., balloon pilot, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Volunteer, airship, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</dt>
-<dd>cross country trip, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</dd>
-<dd>masting out, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</dd>
-</dl>
-<dl class="index">
-<dt class="center" id="index_W"><b>W</b></dt>
-<dt>Westover, General, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Wilson, R. D., pilot, Everglades rescue, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</dt>
-<dt>Wright brothers, first flight, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</dt>
-</dl>
-<h2>Footnotes</h2>
-<div class="fnblock"><div class="fndef"><a class="fn"  id="fn_1" href="#fr_1">[1]</a>See U.S. Navy Publication, &ldquo;German Submarine Activities on the Atlantic Coast
-of the United States and Canada,&rdquo; 1920, also the book, &ldquo;German Subs in Yankee
-Waters&rdquo;&mdash;Henry J. James, 1940.
-</div>
-</div>
-<h2>Transcriber&rsquo;s Notes</h2>
-<ul><li>Copyright notice provided as in the original&mdash;this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.</li>
-<li>Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged.</li>
-<li>In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)</li></ul>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Airship (Non-rigid), by Hugh Allen
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF THE AIRSHIP (NON-RIGID) ***
-
-***** This file should be named 51547-h.htm or 51547-h.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/5/4/51547/
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan, Paul Hutcheson
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
-States without permission and without paying copyright
-royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
-  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-
-Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-</body>
-</html>
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/cover.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f7be5cc..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/cover.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img001.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img001.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 860380b..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img001.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img001a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img001a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index cb16cb8..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img001a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img002.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img002.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f1765e2..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img002.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img003.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img003.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4694be8..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img003.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img004.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img004.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 1b9024f..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img004.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img005.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img005.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 3950461..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img005.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img006.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img006.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 0d16c37..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img006.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img007.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img007.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 3e9d941..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img007.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img008.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img008.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 7af17cb..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img008.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img009.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img009.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index fd42147..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img009.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img010.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img010.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index d450538..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img010.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img010a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img010a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4ec2e82..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img010a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img011.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img011.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index fce30ee..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img011.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img012.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img012.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 76bb179..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img012.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img013.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img013.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 8b89913..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img013.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img014.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img014.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 7e7913d..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img014.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img014a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img014a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 3259dd2..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img014a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img014b.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img014b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index a266ba9..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img014b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img015.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img015.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 2cb5111..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img015.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img016.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img016.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ce478e3..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img016.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img017.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img017.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 55c0811..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img017.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img017a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img017a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 0a9ca4d..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img017a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img018.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img018.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index e0237bb..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img018.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img018a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img018a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b0bba4b..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img018a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img019.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img019.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index de03f02..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img019.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img020.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img020.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 9dbbbda..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img020.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img020a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img020a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 32e9981..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img020a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img021.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img021.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ab727e2..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img021.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img021a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img021a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 919d66e..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img021a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img022.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img022.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 996b9b9..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img022.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img023.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img023.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 347e911..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img023.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img024.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img024.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ab41886..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img024.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img025.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img025.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 1ebee06..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img025.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img026.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img026.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 9bbedab..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img026.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img027.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img027.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 2c77819..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img027.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img027a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img027a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index bf0be3f..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img027a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img028.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img028.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 8c53c63..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img028.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img028a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img028a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b49cc31..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img028a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img029.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img029.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 60da298..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img029.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img030.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img030.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 02d9865..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img030.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img030a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img030a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 31dc60f..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img030a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img031.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img031.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b72560d..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img031.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img031a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img031a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 29eb6e1..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img031a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img031b.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img031b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 86cf0bd..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img031b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img032.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img032.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 67a30fd..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img032.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img033.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img033.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b33155b..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img033.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img034.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img034.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 6631932..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img034.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img034a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img034a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4807df8..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img034a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img035.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img035.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f5b55b8..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img035.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img036.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img036.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 8abec7e..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img036.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img036a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img036a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index afbbbfb..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img036a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img037.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img037.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 15d16ec..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img037.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img037a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img037a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4b5012a..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img037a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img038.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img038.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 1200477..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img038.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img039.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img039.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 50385db..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img039.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img039a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img039a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b6f4be7..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img039a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img040.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img040.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b7e5593..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img040.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img040b.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img040b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 8f24447..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img040b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img040c.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img040c.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 9bb41ac..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img040c.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img041.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img041.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 1374465..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img041.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51547-h/images/img041a.jpg b/old/51547-h/images/img041a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 23822ae..0000000
--- a/old/51547-h/images/img041a.jpg
+++ /dev/null