Airships

Airships


        INDEX

        PROLOGUE                                                       2
        TYPES OF AIRSHIP                                               2
        RIGID AIRSHIP                                                   2
        NONRIGID AIRSHIP                                               3
        HISTORY OF RIGID AIRSPS                                         3
        HISTORY OF NONRIGID AIRSHIPS                                   4
        AIRSHIPS   TODAY                                               5
        HINDENBURG                                                     6
        HINDENBURG DISASTER                                             7
        PROLOGUE

An airship is a type of lighter-than-air aircraft with propulsion and steering
systems,   it is used to carry passengers and cargo.   It obtains its buoyancy
from the presence of a lighter-than-air gas such as hydrogen or helium.   The
first airship was developed by the French, called a ballon dirigible, it could
be steered and could also be flown against the wind.

TYPES OF AIRSHIP

Two basic types of airship have been developed:   the rigid airship, the shape of
which is fixed by its internal structure; and the nonrigid blimp, which depends
on the pressure created by a series of air diaphragms inside its gas space to
maintain the shape of its fabric hull.   Inventors sought to combine the best
features of these models in a semirigid type, but it met with only limited
success.   Today only the nonrigid airship is used.

Rigid Airship

The rigid airship's structure resembled a cage that enclosed a series of
balloons called gas cells.   These cells were tailored to fit the cylindrical
space and were secured in place by a netting that transmitted the lifting force
of their gas to the structure.   Each gas cell had two or more valves, which
operated automatically to relieve pressure when the gas expanded with altitude,
the valves could also be operated manually so that the pilot could... [continues]

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