Lighter_Than_Air

LIGHTER THAN AIR TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3 Birth of Lighter-than-Air Aircrafts ----------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3 Lighter-than-Air Contribution to the War --------------------------------------------------------- Page 5 Zeppelins ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 7 Benefits of Lighter-than-Air ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 10 Present Lighter-than-Air -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 10 Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 11 Works Cited ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 13 INTRODUCTION From just ideas and thoughts to man’s first ever flight in 1783 in a balloon, aviation has much evolved from just a dream to reality. In modern society, aircrafts are taken for granted. Often, it is forgotten that the aeroplane is one of “man’s greatest creations.” After all, to be able to imitate a bird and to rule the skies is quite an accomplishment. Flight, once regarded as impossible, became a reality with the help of many great minds and their brilliant ideas. The process was long, treacherous, and full of obstacles; although some of these ideas may have seemed unwise and unworthy at the time, all of them have helped develop modern aviation. Constant innovation was needed; pioneers cooperated with their fellow colleagues to build on each other’s unsuccessful and successful works. One of the most important developments in this long dream to make man fly was the invention of the lighter-than-air aircraft. Although the lighter-than-air aircraft may not be regarded as better than the modern heavier-than-air aircraft, it has definitely contributed to the development of heavier-than-air aircrafts. The lighter-than-air aircraft has proven itself as an important stepping-stone for us to enjoy the convenience of the modern aircraft and commercial travel. These aircrafts have served many great purposes in the past and present, and will continue to do so in the future. BIRTH OF LIGHTER-THAN-AIR AIRCRAFTS Although dreamed of for centuries, flight had never been possible until 1783 with the amazing discovery of the air balloon by the Montgolfier brothers of France. The first ever flight was performed unmanned in June 1783, and then performed again by a rooster, sheep, and duck in September 1783. Although these two previous flights may be argued to be important, the most important one of all was the one conducted on November 21, 1783. Conducted by Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d’Arlandes, this spectacular flight is considered to be the first ever by mankind. In a balloon called the ‘Montgolfière’ named in honour of the two brothers who invented the hot-air balloon, Joseph-Michael Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (Beaubois, 1973, Page 13), the flight spanned 26 minutes, rose to around 3000 feet, and travelled for approximately 7.5 miles. This moment in history marked a very important accomplishment by man – flight. Mankind did not stop with the creation of the hot-air balloon; it came up with many new ways on making this new concept of flight more advanced. Some focused on making the balloon appear better and perform optimally while others worked on making the balloon practical and controllable. For instance, Professor Jacques Alexandre César Charles, an important pioneer who helped make the balloon operate using hydrogen as a lifting gas instead of hot air, helped make the balloon perform optimally. Charles realized the opportunity of using hydrogen as a lifting gas and managed to achieve a flight time of 2 hours and 27 minutes, which was much longer than that of the ‘Montgolfière’. Building upon the successful or unsuccessful works of predecessors in aviation, Charles used the idea of the Montgolfier brothers that lighter-than-air gas will rise, as well as the ideas of the Robert Brothers that impregnating silk with rubber will make something gas tight; Charles managed to improve the balloon in just one month’s time. He achieved his flight on December 17, 1783 (Payne, 1977, Page 15). George Cayley, who contributed little to lighter-than-air aircrafts, but much more to heavier-than-air aircrafts, similarly worked to make the balloon perform more effectively, and did so by streamlining it. On the other hand, pioneers such as Henri Giffard worked on making the balloon manoeuvrable and controllable by humans instead of allowing the balloon be controlled by the winds; this was the next step to modern aviation. Henri Giffard, although not the first to attempt to control the balloon using a dirigible, was the first man to successfully manoeuvre the balloon using a steam engine on September 24, 1852, a form of mechanical power, which allowed him to travel 17 miles at a speed of 7 mph (Payne, 1977, Page 42). Previously, pioneers like S.J. Pauley and Durs Egg of Switzerland worked together to attempt to control the balloon using oars, a form of human power, but only managed to change course (Beaubois, 1973, Page 24). With the first controlled balloon flight of Henri Giffard using mechanical power, airships were born; an airship is simply a balloon or lighter-than-air vehicle that is controlled using a dirigible, a controlling mechanism such as the steam engine used by Henri Giffard. LIGHTER-THAN-AIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE WAR On August 1, 1914, the world experienced heavy warfare for the first time with the outbreak of World War One. This war is known for being a brutal war between the Allied Power of Europe, which included Great Britain and its colonies, France and its colonies, Italy, Russia, Portugal, Serbia, and other smaller European nations, and the Central Powers, which encompassed Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. During the war, from 1914 to 1918, aviation experienced drastic growth for the first time, especially in heavier-than-air sector of flight. Nonetheless, lighter-than-air aircrafts also experienced growth and were used during the war for many purposes. When the war began, three nations possessed airship capabilities: Great Britain, France, and Germany; Italy possessed airship capability as well, but did not join the war until later (Horton, 1973, Page 42). Of these air powers, Germany was considered to be the best equipped nation in airships with 9 Zeppelins; Great Britain and France had 7 each, but these were not as advanced as the Zeppelins (Beaubois, 1973, Page 89). The airship and lighter-than-air aircraft had many practical purposes during the war, such as for aerial observation of enemy troops and plans, and to attack the enemy using bombs. Aerial observation was an important use of the airship; the airship having the ability to fly low and high to the ground, being extremely large, and having the ability to move slowly made it an ideal weapon for artillery spotting, enemy troop movement spotting, and strategic reconnaissance. Along with the airship, stationary balloons were also set up along war fronts to observe enemy activity. The very first allied airship to cross into German territory for observation was the ‘Fleurus’ on August 9, 1914 (Beaubois, 1973, Page 90). As seen with the crossing of the ‘Fleurus,’ airships were used early in the war since flight using both heavier and lighter-than-air aircrafts was regarded as the future of wars. A lot of aerial bombings and raids were also performed using airship during the war years, although they could not perform to the best of their ability when used for this purpose. There were both successful and unsuccessful with this task, most problems arising because of its massive size for easy spotting and aiming by the enemy, the airships inaccuracy in bombing the selected targets, and as well as its inability to move fast and escape when under attack. During the war years, Zeppelins being the best airship during WWI, had attempted to attack London in response to the command given by Kaiser; the Zeppelin first attacked London on September 8, 1915 and managed to bomb textile warehouses, which caused a fire, and then later attacked on October 13, 1915, killing 71 and wounding 128. The Zeppelin can somewhat be used as a weapon only during daylight hours since during the twilight hours, it loses its already horrible accuracy to aim; an example of such event was the bombing conducted by the 9 Zeppelins of England in January 1916 when they only managed to kill 70 English people (Horton, 1973, Pages 46-50). Airships had both advantages and disadvantages during the Great War. Lighter-than-air aircrafts now slowly start to lose ground to heavier-than-air aircrafts resulting in the decrease in its use in later wars. The Second World War used airships, in the form of blimps, which are non-rigid airships, only for patrolling instead of bombing. Evidently, lighter-than-air aircrafts were getting replaced, but helped developed trust in heavier-than-air aircrafts (Horton, 1973, Page 125). ZEPPELINS Over the years, many of the advanced nations of Europe and North America developed their own airships, examples of which include the R-34, R-100, and R-101 for Great Britain, the Shenandoah, Akron, and Macon for the United States of America, and all the different types of Zeppelins for Germany. Airships at those times were believed to be the future of aviation since it was considered more practical for commercial travel. Airships could cross the Atlantic as of July 1919 with the R-34 crossing and they could transport passengers very easily unlike the heavier-than-air aircrafts which had a hard time crossing across the ocean. Transporting itself over the Atlantic was an even bigger challenge than transporting passengers; Charles Lindbergh had to strip down his entire aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, of unnecessary equipment so that he can cross with enough fuel on his non-stop flight across the Atlantic on May 20, 1927 from New York to Paris (Hood, 1997, Page 1). Airships differed from country to country, but to date, the greatest of them all were the Zeppelins of Germany. These Zeppelins are so influential in human history that society now coins the term Zeppelin for any rigid airship partly because Zeppelins operated in the world’s first airline service, the Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (DELAG) acronym for German Airship Transport Corporation. The Zeppelin Company was originally founded by the innovative mind of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and later continued under the direction of Dr. Hugo Eckener (Payne, 1977, Pages 199). The Zeppelin Company built many airships, but the most influential ones in lighter-than-air development were the LZ-1, Graf, and the Hindenburg. The LZ-1 was the first ever Zeppelin built, and had its maiden flight on July 2, 1900; this flight was an important stepping stone for the company. The early LZ-series were greatly used in the war by Germany for the attack of the Allied countries (Payne, 1977, Page 75, 103). Although the early LZ-series Zeppelins were greatly useful during the war, when it came time for the Zeppelins to be used for commercial travel, the company needed a new revolutionary Zeppelin and in turn developed the Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127). The Graf began its service in 1928 and is considered to be the most successful airship ever to be built; it was a lucky airship and is the airship that flew the longest and the furthest with the least amount of problems. Some critics say that the Graf is not lucky, but the person who flew it, Dr. Hugo Eckener, was the man behind the success of this great airship. This airship was greatly significant because it has been through many significant events such as the polar exploration, and the voyage around the world. From the beginning of the Graf’s service, it had operated in the DELAG and then in 1935, it operated as part of the state-sponsored airline Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (DZR) (Payne, 1977, Pages 169-192). The Zeppelin Company, under the direction of Dr. Hugo Eckener, did not want to stop with its creation of the Graf Zeppelin airship; the company felt that it had a lot more potential and decided to create the massive Hindenburg (LZ-129), which entered service in 1936. The Hindenburg, named after a German General during WWI and President between 1925 and 1934, was a marvellous creation and was the “passenger airship that made no compromise to its mode of travel” (Horton, 1973, Page 111). The Hindenburg is the Zeppelin Company’s greatest creation and accomplishment; it was the largest, fastest, and most comfortable airship ever created for passengers in the world. Despite people’s expectations of the Hindenburg to be similar or better than the Graf Zeppelin in success stories and lifetime, the Hindenburg burst into flames on May 6, 1937 at 7:25 p.m. over Lakehurst, New Jersey on its first scheduled round-trip between Europe and the United states (Horton, 1973, Pages 115-123). The airship killed 22 crewmen, 1 ground crew member, and 13 passengers leaving only 61 passengers and airmen surviving; the entire explosion only took 32 seconds before the Hindenburg came down (Payne, 1977, Page 232). The reason for this tragedy is that all Zeppelins were filled with hydrogen. The Hindenburg was eligible to use helium just like Dr. Eckener wished, but unfortunately, the US government and President Roosevelt refused the sale of helium to the Germans at this time. Hydrogen, a flammable gas, exploded and caused this devastating tragedy even though it was not expected by Dr. Hugo Eckener since the airship was made to absorb lightning during harsh stormy conditions. There is still debate today as to the exact reason why the Hindenburg burst into flames (Horton, 1973, Pages 122-123). This horrifying event marked the end of the development of passenger airships; it was the last major rigid airship disaster. All countries that were interested in expanding upon the idea of making the dirigible the new method of transportation abandoned it and most of the focus then went on the current method of air transportation, heavier-than-air. Just two years after the destruction of the Hindenburg, the first paying passenger heavier-than-air service was established over the Atlantic (Payne, 1977, Page 236). Lighter than air supporters along with the Assistant Secretary of the US Navy, Charles Edison, believed and argued that airships were unfairly not given another chance after the crash of the Hindenburg; they believed that one of the biggest technological failures of the century was the failure to develop a successful lighter-than-air program (Andrews, 1993). One of the biggest arguments of that time was that although the Titanic represented a similar icon to the Hindenburg, steamships were not abandoned after it sunk. BENEFITS OF LIGHTER-THAN-AIR Lighter-than-air aircrafts, especially airships, have both advantages and disadvantages when compared to the modern commercial heavier-than-air aircraft. There are some things that an airship can only do that the airplane can never attempt to do and vice-versa. Such examples include the ability of the airship to overrule the airplanes in the sense that no airplane can carry the same amount of cargo weight, have a long unrefueled range, be able to land at an unimproved site, be able to work equally well on land and water making the airship amphibious, and land or take-off at extremely low airspeeds (Gordon, Holland, Wilhelm, 2005). Other benefits for the airship include the ability of the airship to remain very fuel-efficient, its ability to remain in active service in the air for weeks compared to the several hours of the airplane, its ability to not impose severe environmental hazards with its low emissions into the atmosphere, its ability to be difficult to detect using a conventional RADAR when performing operations, its ability to allow mechanics to service the airship in-flight when problems arise, as well as the ability of an airship to not fall from the sky when an engine fails compared to an airplane which loses altitude rapidly (Dolman, 1981, Page 24). PRESENT LIGHTER-THAN-AIR The abandoning of lighter-than-air aircrafts did not occur completely when the Hindenburg burnt into flames since non-rigid airships, blimps, were still used in WWII for aerial observation. The WWII blimps surplus were later bought by a company called Mobilgas for $30,000.00 from the US military and was used for advertisement for big corporations such as Wonder bread, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Mobil Oil This marked the beginning of using the airships for advertising purposes (Payne, 1977, Page 246). Goodyear blimps, in 1975, tried greatly to reintroduce lighter-than-air airships to carry cargo instead of passengers but this idea was soon abandoned as the airplane took monopoly over all air travel in these years. Today, lighter-than-air aircrafts available to be seen in the air are blimps used for advertisement purposes as well as balloons that are used to give people short sight-seeing trips or long luxury tours for rich passengers. Other modern uses of lighter-than-air aircrafts include surveillance missions for civil and military reasons, countering cruise missiles by attaching large antennas, radars, and sensors to the airship, and border control by countries (Windischbauer, Richardson, 2005). One thing is for sure, humans have learned their lesson from the Hindenburg disaster and have stopped the use of hydrogen gas in modern lighter-than-air aircrafts; they now use helium instead. CONCLUSION Lighter-than-air vehicles, whether it is a balloon, a rigid airship, or a blimp have played an important role in the history of aviation around the world. From its beginning in France by the Montgolfier Brothers to present, these vehicles have served humans great use in entertainment, aerial observation, destroying enemies during wars, and passenger transport services. For some uses, it has been proven to be successful and for others it has been proven unsuccessful. Either way they have performed those specific tasks and tried to succeed to the best of its abilities. The lighter-than-air has indirectly helped heavier-than-air in the sense that it sparked interest in flight during early times; it entertained crowds in the past much like airplanes do now at airshows. Airships have also performed war tasks such as bombing enemy territory, which the heavier-than-air aircraft later took over, and has transported people from one destination to another even across the Atlantic Ocean, which we experience today in commercial airplanes. The lighter-than-air aircrafts indirectly laid the groundwork for the heavier-than-air aircrafts and acted as an important stepping stone for modern aviation and commercial travel, a service that we take granted today. WORKS CITED Andrews, Peter. "LIGHTER THAN AIR." American Heritage of Invention & Technology 9.1 (1993): 8-23. America: History & Life. EBSCO. D.B. Weldon Library, London, Ontario. 12 Nov. 2008 . Beaubois, Henry. Airships: An Illustrated History. Great Britain: Macdonald & Co. Ltd., 1973. Dolman, Anthony J. The Airship: Past, Present, and Possible Future. Rep.No. Industrial Development Organization, United Nations. Vienna: United Nations, 1981. 2-34. Florian Windischbauer, Jacques Richardson. "Retrostrategy: Is there another chance for lighter-than-air vehicles' " Foresight : the Journal of Futures Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy 7.2 (2005): 54-65. Research Library. ProQuest. D.B. Weldon Library, London, Ontario. 12 Nov. 2008 Horton, Edward. The Age of the Airship. Great Britain: Henry Regnery Company, 1973. Payne, Lee. Lighter Than Air. Boston: A. S. Barnes & Company, Incorporated, 1977. Robert E Hood. "Lucky Lindy's great adventure. " Boys' Life 1 May 1997: 52-55. Research Library. ProQuest. D.B. Weldon Library, London, Ontario. 12 Nov. 2008 Walter O Gordon, Chuck Holland, Karen S Wilhelm. "Back to the Future: airships and the revolution in strategic airlift. " Air Force Journal of Logistics 29.3/4 (2005): 46-56. Research Library. ProQuest. D.B. Weldon Library, London, Ontario. 12 Nov. 2008