Reference
- DirigiblesFrom the time of the first balloon ascents in France in 1783, the problem of steering airships became obvious because of dependence on the wind for direction and on gas quantity and pressure inside the envelope for altitude control. It would take over a century of experimentation with gas inflation, propulsion, and altitude and directional control for airships to become practical.
The wildest solutions were proposed to solve the problem of dirigibility, but serious, scientific-based proposals also appeared. One of the first was that of Jean-Baptiste Meusnier’s 1783 ellipsoid-shaped balloon, which was never built. His design included the concept of a ballonet, a gas container within the envelope (with the space in between filled with air) to keep the hydrogen and of a mechanical valve atop the balloon intended to release hydrogen on command, thus allowing better control of ascent and descent phases. While both concepts would eventually be incorporated into both balloons and dirigibles, the matter of propulsion remained difficult to solve.
The first steerable airship was flown in September 1852 by Henri Giffard but, like machines other pioneers flew over the next half century, it was handicapped by the heavy weight of the engine and accompanying fuel, to the point where there was scarcely enough space on board for a crew. With the invention of the first gasoline engine in 1896, the situation began to change, and several projects took shape by 1900, thereby defining three main types of dirigible: the nonrigid, the semirigid, and the rigid.
The nonrigid machines were the first ones designed in the nineteenth century and the most commonly in use. The envelope’s shape was maintained through internal gas pressure (with the hydrogen itself placed within ballonets inside the hull). The crew section and engine(s) were attached by ropes to the envelope. Carrying capacity was limited, however, and there was a risk of hull buckling if pressure dropped, a fairly common incident. Cheap to build, such models were the most popular among inventors and armed forces eager to develop new observation platforms to supplement ballooning units.
The semirigid system attempted to solve the buckling problem by attaching the passenger and engine nacelles to a bottom keel on top of which the hull was stuck and inflated. Capable of carrying heavier loads than a nonrigid type, a semirigid airship could still be deflated and carried about the field. This system formed the basis for the “blimps” used for advertising through the twentieth century. - Hot-air BalloonOn June 4, 1783, brothers Joseph- Michel and Jacques-étienne Montgolfier demonstrated the first hot-air balloon flight in a marketplace in Annonay, France. The balloon rose 6,562 feet. The two men had discovered that when a flame was held near the bottom of a fabric and paper bag, the hot air filled the bag and caused it to expand and float. The hot-air balloon proved to be a viable method of transportation just a few months later when French aviation pioneers Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, became the first passengers to man a hot-air balloon flight. Two years later, in 1785, another milestone in the history of the hot-air balloon was achieved when French inventor Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American physician John Jeffries successfully crossed the English Channel in a hot-air balloon.
The English Channel is 21 miles wide at its narrowest point and 112 miles wide at the widest point. History does not indicate exactly where Blanchard and Jeffries made their journey. In any case, they demonstrated the viability of the hot-air balloon as a means of long-distance transportation.
In 1999 balloonists Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones were the first to travel around the world in a hot-air balloon, making the trip in 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes.
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Perspectives
Dirigible Dreams
Here is the story of airships--manmade flying machines without wings--from their earliest beginnings to the modern era of blimps. In postcards and advertisements, the sleek, silver, cigar-shaped airships, or dirigibles, were the embodiment of futuristic visions of air travel. They immediately captivated the imaginations of people worldwide, but in less than fifty years dirigible became a byword for doomed futurism, an Icarian figure of industrial hubris. Dirigible Dreams looks back on this bygone era, when the future of exploration, commercial travel, and warfare largely involved the prospect of wingless flight. In Dirigible Dreams, C. Michael Hiam celebrates the legendary figures of this promising technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--the pioneering aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, the doomed polar explorers S. A. Andrée and Walter Wellman, and the great Prussian inventor and promoter Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, among other pivotal figures--and recounts fascinating stories of exploration, transatlantic journeys, and floating armadas that rained death during World War I. While there were triumphs, such as the polar flight of the Norge, most of these tales are of disaster and woe, culminating in perhaps the most famous disaster of all time, the crash of the Hindenburg. This story of daring men and their flying machines, dreamers and adventurers who pushed modern technology to--and often beyond--its limitations, is an informative and exciting mix of history, technology, awe-inspiring exploits, and warfare that will captivate readers with its depiction of a lost golden age of air travel. Readable and authoritative, enlivened by colorful characters and nail-biting drama, Dirigible Dreams will appeal to a new generation of general readers and scholars interested in the origins of modern aviation.
Falling Upwards
**Kirkus Best Books of the Year (2013)** **Time Magazine 10 Top Nonfiction Books of 2013** **The New Republic Best Books of 2013** In this heart-lifting chronicle, Richard Holmes, author of the best-selling The Age of Wonder, follows the pioneer generation of balloon aeronauts, the daring and enigmatic men and women who risked their lives to take to the air (or fall into the sky). Why they did it, what their contemporaries thought of them, and how their flights revealed the secrets of our planet is a compelling adventure that only Holmes could tell. His accounts of the early Anglo-French balloon rivalries, the crazy firework flights of the beautiful Sophie Blanchard, the long-distance voyages of the American entrepreneur John Wise and French photographer Felix Nadar are dramatic and exhilarating. Holmes documents as well the balloons used to observe the horrors of modern battle during the Civil War (including a flight taken by George Armstrong Custer); the legendary tale of at least sixty-seven manned balloons that escaped from Paris (the first successful civilian airlift in history) during the Prussian siege of 1870-71; the high-altitude exploits of James Glaisher (who rose) seven miles above the earth without oxygen, helping to establish the new science of meteorology); and how Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jules Verne felt the imaginative impact of flight and allowed it to soar in their work. A seamless fusion of history, art, science, biography, and the metaphysics of flights, Falling Upwards explores the interplay between technology and imagination. And through the strange allure of these great balloonists, it offers a masterly portrait of human endeavor, recklessness, and vision. (With 24 pages of color illustrations, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.)
Piggles' Guide to Airships
Airships are self-propelled aircrafts that are lighter than the air itself. Readers of this captivating volume will learn all about how these amazing flying machines work. Handy diagrams and illustrations accompany accessible text, making for an insightful book that readers of many ages and levels can benefit from. Young aircraft enthusiasts, as well as those who are new to the subject, are sure to gain valuable insight from this engaging, high-interest book. It is sure to be a popular addition to any library or classroom.
Ballooning
The hot air balloon has a fascinating history of much trial and error, scientific research and bold adventure. This book chronicles the development and advances in the endeavor and also provides insights into the people who developed the sport--many of whom lost their lives in the process. The book traces the history of ballooning from the Montgolfier brothers' first experiments with a paper balloon in Annonay, France, in 1782, through the next several decades, when the sport's waning novelty forced aeronauts to develop bigger, better and more dangerous tricks. It concludes at the beginning of the 20th century, when the age of the airplane rendered hot air balloons all but obsolete.
Online Resources
- Airships: Dirigible idea takes floatDirigible idea takes float
- Airships rise : the next generation of dirigibles takes flightThe article discusses the design and construction of several blimps including a Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) by global aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman, a hybrid airship by British company Hybrid Air Vehicles, and one by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA).
- A brief history of the ... airship: from glorified balloons to high-tech military vehicles, we look up the flighty past of dirigiblesThe article presents a chronological history of the development of the airship. It cites that in 1785, inventors Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries became the first to cross the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon. In 1852, Henri Giffard flew 17 miles using a steam-powered steerable airship. In 1895, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patented a rigid airship.
- Dirigibles Macon, Akron were aircraft carriers in the skyMoffett became a naval air observer and was the first commanding officer of the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics, predecessor of today's Naval Air Systems Command.
- Dirigibles on the riseA number of companies now have plans to re-introduce airships into the commercial aviation passenger and cargo freight markets. The article discusses the history of airships and examines a number of the new airships being developed.
- Hot air balloons : how to get up there using hot air balloonsThis article provides an overview of the history of balloon flights and explains how balloons can be used to teach the theory of flight to young students.
Streaming Media
- AirshipsFirst there were balloons and blimps. Then, visionaries enlarged, reinforced, and motorized them and the airship was born. The biggest aircraft ever flown, they remain one of the most romantic aerial creations. In all, 161 rigid airships were built before spectacular crashes, including the Hindenburg, put an end to the era.
- The Competition of the Hot Air BalloonsThe Montgolfier Brothers come to understand that it is hot gases that lift their balloon into the sky. They spark balloon fever and many attempts are made to improve on their invention. The new gas of choice is hydrogen. A BBC Production.
- Hindenburg: The New EvidenceThis authoritative investigation of the 1937 crash of the Hindenburg examines new evidence that shows the airship’s final seconds from a fresh angle and in unrivaled clarity.