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 Forthcornuq istes feature:
Volume 8 Issue 9l l{alf thch of lYorld iTu I1

Modem Tssed AsiAirsaft Weapors

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Airships were the first strategic bombers, AbIe to carry
greater botnbloads over far longer distances than early
aeroplanes, they were soon employedby the Germansto
carry the war b Brttain itself. Most belligerent nations used
airships, mainly fot rcconnaissance and obsewation
missions, but today it is the nids of the German Zeppelins
that are best rememhered,
In the days rmmediately preceding World War I, when aeroplane flrght
had been possible for only 10 years, there exrsted a large body of
opinion that the future of military flying lay as much with lighter{han-air
craft as elsewhere, There seemed to be firm foundations for this since
the first attempt to construct a gmided balloon (a dirigible) had taken
place ln 1816,
Followlng this, there had evolved three types of airshrpr the non-rigid,
which depended on rnflatron for the shape of its envelope; the semi-
rlgid, which was similar but with a strengthening keel; and the rigid, with
a lattice structure of wood or metal surrounding internal gas cells,
In Germany the last proved especially successfui, and the flrst Zeppe-
lln alrship was flown in 1900 The years following had seen certain
factions concentrating on its milrtary development, so that there had
grown up in the public mind the idea of the bombing airship as the
ultimate weapon against which there was virtually no defence,
No. 23 was first of a proposed class of I0 British dirigibles, but arguments
about the design tooksolong to resolve thatby the time shewas completed
s he w as obs olete. I n I 9 l 8 N o. 2 3 w as ex perimentally fitte d with two S opw i th
Camels for defence against hostile aircrafL
In the UK, France, and later the USA, the tendency to concentrate ::
the other forms of construction resulted in smaller vessels put to drffere:_:
use, The swift development of a reliable aeroplane broadly altered :=
whole outlook, although rigrd airships of the German pattern contrnue j
to attract their supporters even after the Admiralty had abandoned the:-
tn 1919, Elsewhere, the US Nar,ry developed the coastal patrol type ::
smaller airship, even using them rn World War IL
L31 flies serenely over the'Helgoland' class dreadnoughtSMs Ostfriesland
TheGerman navy madeextensive use o{Zeppelins for scouting, but
communications problems reduced their theoretical effectiveness..L3J and
her crew perished over England at thehands of aB.E.2c in 1916.
 GERNIANY
Parseval Pt
-:- aew non-rigid airship made its flrst
--ght in Germany rn May 1906: re-
.=---,ely small with a volume of only
::-0 mr (81,224 cu ft), this alrship was
:: :echnical interest rn that the shape of
::e envelope was maintained by
:::eans of pressurized ballonets fore
The craft was to the design of former
.rrny offlcer Augntst von Parseval, Iater
a professor at the Berlin Technical
Academy, and improved models con-
:nued to be produced after their con-
struction was transferred from the
Motorluftschiff Studiengesellschaft to
:he Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft (LFG)
crqanization in June 1913, In this same
/ear an order was placed by the Brtt-
sh qiovernment for a single example of
:he improved type, and Parseval PL 18
was delivered for use by the Royal
Navry where it received the service
designation Naval Airship No. 4 (NA4)
On 5 Augrust 1914 this vessel, by a
strange stroke of irony, was the flrst
British aircraft to carry out an active
'ruar operation when, flying from its
base at Kingsnorth, the flrst RNAS
airship station, it was sent to patrol the
Thames Estuary. It was used again on
10 Augnrst, this time in company with
NA3, the only British airship of the
period td be armed, another imported
design, an Astra-Torres.
The degree to which Parsevai de-
siqns had advanced in a short time was
evident from the fact that the NA4 was
a revised type of vessel, which prob-
ably promoted the order for a further
three before the war, to be buiit under
lrteqce by Vickers at Barrow-ln-
Furndss. These were gdven the sewice
desiqnatrons NAS, NA6 and NAZ at the
beginning of their career, which was
entirely confined to use for the instruc-
tion of airshrp crews,
Meanwhile, the NA4 was still em-
ployed on sterner duties, and the first
months of World War I found it in use
as a submarine hunter, although its
effect was entirely psychologdcal, pro-
viding cover for the convoys ferrying
troops of the British Expeditionary
Force between Dover and Calats
An order.had been placed with the
LFG organization for a further three
airships of similar desiqn which would
have been the PL 19, PL 20 and PL 2l
but the outbreak of war prevented
their delivery. They would probably
also have been used for training a role
to which the NA4 was finally relegated,
I 802
18
but rt is interestrng to note that at the Car desigm and suspensron ofthe British ParsevalPL 18 (Naval AirshipNo.4)
time it was in service as a patrol vessel, was m ore ru Ci-n ent ary than that of the licence-built Vickers versions, Nos 5, 6
the German navy had requ:sitioned and 7. They'*'ere substitutes for three ordered from Germany but not
the non-rigid PL 6 on 9 Augnrst 1914 and delivered due to the outbreak of war in August I 9 I 4.
also obtained PL 19 on loan on 19
September for sea patrol work ovet
the Baltrc from Kiel, This was a duty to
which they were well suited, being
capable ofcarryinq 590 kg (1,301 lb) of
bombs and with a maximum fliqht ttme
ol I I hours.
Specification
Parseval PL 18
Type: patrol arrship
Powerplant: two I 34, 2-kW ( B0-hp)
1
Maybach sx-cylinder water-cooled
piston engines
Performance: maximum speed 72 krn/
h (45 mph); sewice ceiling 4000 m
(13,123 ft); ranqe 1000 km (621 miles)
Weight: useful lift not known
Dimensions:diameter 15,50 m (50 ft
10.2 in): length 94.00 m (308 ft 4.8 in);
volume 10000 m'(353, 147 cu ft)
Above: Although enjoying abasic
similarity, there were some
differences between the Parseval-
designed afsh ips. The car ofPL 12 is
seen here;itwas a passeng/er
version, but its lines were to be
-r echoed in those of the threeVickers
models builtunder licence at
Batrow-in-Furness,
Left: The first Royal Navy airship
station atKingsnorth was the base of
the G erm an- de signe d P ar sev aI
airship, which was ordered in I 9 I 2.
Seen here on 27 August I 9 I 3, it was
not to be tinally struck offcharge
untilJuly 1917.
 GERN,,IANY
I
Ll Schtitte-Lanz SLI I Airships of World War I
'A severe shortage of alumintum in
Germany had forced her to resort to
wood for the construction of her
airships,' When SLll was brought
down by William Leefe Robinson on
the night of 3 September 1916 this
statement was generally acceptqd as
true. since there was no great nletal
skeleton to greet the crowds that ffbck-
ed to Cuftley where the airship fell. In
faci wire-braced wooden structures
had been used by the Schttte-Lanz
company since the design stages of
their imtial SL 1 that had first flown on 17
October 1911,
Conceived from the outset with an
alternative construction to rival the
metal Zeppelins, the SLs wrth their
rigld ply framework were claimed to
be lighter and more flexible than met-
ai-framed airships, and most of those in
German military service were oper-
ated by the army,
The reason for this is not difflcult to
discover, because the nalry, responsi-
ble for most of the rards against the
British Isles, rightly claimed that
wooden vessels were incapable of lift-
ing a sufficiently large bomb load as
their werght would be increased by
moisture absorbed while crossinq the
sea,
SLll was accepted by the army in
June 1916, and after tdals was sent to its
operational base at Spich rn Auenrst, At Specification Above: Souvenir pictures ofSll I's
the end of the month its initial oper- Schi.itte-Laru SLI I wreckage and the victor were
ational sortie proved abofiive because Type:bombingairshrp eagerly sought. That Schiltte-Lanz
of the weather, so the attack at the Powerplant: four 179-kW (240-hp) construction usedwood instead of
beginning of September was its flrst Maybach HSLu six-cylinder water- the m ore u su al aluminium of the
and last, such a brief career resulting cooled piston enqines Zeppelins gave rise to the belief in
in the airship having only one com- Performance: maxrmum speed 95 km/ some quarters that there was a
mander, Hauptmann Wilhelm h (59 mph); service ceiling 54OO m s hortage of metal in G ermany. The
Schramm, who had gained experience (17,717 ft); ranse 3700 km (2,299 miles) s truc ture w as wire- br aced.
in charge ofthree earlier ngids, all of Weight:useful lift 21500 kg (47,399 lb)
Zeppelin desigm, On the night of the Dimensions: drameter 20,09 m (65 ft
SLll's destruction, when Schramm 10,9 in); lensth 1J3,98 m (570 ft 9,6 in); Right: It was reportedly possible to
died with all his crew, both incendiary volume 31900 m'(1,126,540 cu ft) read by the lightfrom thedoomed
and explosiye bombs were dropped. Armament: two 7, 92-mm (0, 3 12-in) SL1 1 . Here il is seen weII alight over
but the airdhips chief claim to-fbme Parabellum machine-gmns on free north London as it appeared at 2 . I 5
now lies in the fact that it was the first mountings in singrle gnrn positron above am to a photographer outside the
enemy aircraft of any kind to be forward hull, plus bombs police station at Walthamstow. The
brought down on Brrtrsh soil. in recog- wreckage at Cuffley was finally
nition of which Robinson was awarded douse d by the crew of a hor se- dr aw n
the Vrctoria Cross, fireengine.

German airship SLl1 cutaway drawing key 32 Shockabsorber

33 Handrail
1 Rudder T2 Keel 21 MaybachHSLuengine 34 Controlcar
2 Uppertallfin 13 Gangway,/catwalk 22 ControlteLegraph 35 Wireless aer al
3 Fin structure 14 Main rlng 23 Radiator 36 Charttable/wireless
4 Elevator 15 ntermedlaterlng 24 Retractableoi radlator 37 Nose light
5 Lowertailfin 16 Braclng wires 25 Bombdoors 38 Nav gator's/bomb almer's
6 Tailplane 17 Gasbags 26 Reversing gear wlndow
7 Outercovering 1B Ladder 27 Transmissionshaft 39 Heim
B Prope ler Tg Spacebetweenbags 28 Waterbailasttanks 40 E evatorwheel
9 Englnecarsupports allowing escaplng gas to 29 Bombracks 4'1 Winch cables
1 0 Englne nacel e exit to vents 30 Upperobservatlon station 42 Telegraphs
1 1 Ladder 20 Protectivecageto adder 3T Gasventlng valveoutlets 43 Switchboard
30

1803
 i

':fffi
t
Decrth of c Zeppelin British experiments to perfect a towed aero-
plane-launchrng platform for use at sea had
gone on for several months; they at last evolved
rnto a lighter 17 I m (56 ft) long with a deck 4 m
(l3ft) broad wrdenlng to almost 6 5m (21 ft)
forward, which was towed by a destroyer'
Zeppelins were originally designed for long;ra47e nSval lgconnal'ssance, a nd many Several types of aircraft had been involved in
tprrt tne Uk of th-eir careersicouting for the High le11 Flee-t-. August l9 I 8 found the trials, as had some famous pilots, and the
combination of Stuart Culleywith a Sopwith 2FI
the mighty L53 high above units of the Royal Navy'1 flotilla at Harwich, but far below
Camel was to make htstory on I I August 1918,
a Sopriitn Camelwas launched into the air from a lighter towed by HMS Redoubt. An when the last Zeppelin to be downed in World
historic interception had begun. War I was destroyed,
The airshrp's number was L53 and it was
under the command of ex fire-chief Kapltdn-
leutnant Eduard Proelss when the airship was
identified at 08.30 while shadowlng the Har-
wich Force, This inciuded the 'R' class des-
troyer HMSRedoubt towing the lighter No H5
with, on its deck, a Camel that had taken part tn
the earlier experiments (N6812), its pilot being
again Irieutenant Culley, a former government
munitions inspector.
Exactly 28 minutes after ihe flrst sighttng,
Culley slipped the qurck-release cltp that heid
the aircraft to the lighter's deck and set the
Camei on its hour's climb to 5485 m (18 000 ft)
where Culley discovered that his quarry was
still 305 m ( I 000 ft) higher; it was a difference in
altitude that took another 28 minutes to close,
putting the Camel at its operational ceiltng in
the process,
Bringing up the Camel's nose so sharply that
it was near sialllng, Culley fired both hts gunsi
the port weapon jammed almost at once, but

The great skeletons of Zeppelins brought down

ovei England were studied with awe by civilians
andwith greatinterestby the AirMinistry. This is
the hullof L33, whichcrashed intactandwas
burned by her crew,whowere lucky indeed notto
share the ghastly fate of their comrades in L53.
 ::i::il

&e
Jiesea,
Ias.tta
'Wer.l-

1r
Liiii"'',,:
fire from the other could be seen striktng the
ticirx.,r,{"1i
Zeppelin's hull as Culley broke off the actron '-j
when his arrcraft fell away in a stall, At thls
moment somethrng made him look back, just in
time to see flames leaplng atong the monster's
side, A moment later came a gigantic explosion
that set L53 ablaze from stem to stern as it sank
nose first,
So great was the blaze that all fabric had
gone when the gaunt framework finally struck
the water some 4.8 km (3 miles) below, where
it rmmediately vanished leavrng only a patch of
oil and a smoke trarl to indicate that rt had ever
existed, There were no survivors.
Meanwhile, Cu11ey made for the rendezvous
point off the Dutch coast. He had dlfflculty in
finding the naval force and, then running on
reserve fuel, prepared to ditch near a fishtng
vessel. When just about to do so he caught sight
ofthe destroyers, and at once gave vent to hls
pent-up feelings with a display of aerobatics
before alightinq in the water close to the.Re-
doubt's bows, From here both pllot and plane
were plucked from the water, and the small
amount of damage sustained by the latter was
soon repaired before it was placed on public
exhibrtion, N6812 may be seen to this day in the
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth,

L53 left her hangar for her tirst raid against

England on the evening of 24 September I I I 7
under the experienced command oI
Kapitlnleutnant der Reserve Eduard Proelss.
Although famous as a bomber, 19 of her 23 sorties
were the scouting missions forwhich shewas
desrgrned.
 i,roiz"ppelin Lz4o)
=

Above : The introduction of L I 0,

January l9l5 was the date set for the
introduction of a new type of German
bomber airship, the Zeppelin Typ P, In
point of fact the flrst of the new vessels
was four months late in making its
appearance, the lead ship LIO (buil-
der's designation LZ40) being deli-
vered in mid-May, The ship was sent
on its attack agarnst targets in England
rn the following month with a raid on
London, it being believed at all levels
and on both sides ofthe North Sea that
the selection of indivrdual tarqrets was
possible, In point of fact, the weather
took a hand, and L10 was able to get
only as far as Gravesend, where its
bombs chanced to set light to a military
hospital with a consequent rqaction
against such'friqhtfulness',
Another attackwas mounted 11 days
later when Jarrow and South Shields
were the tarqets, despite healry flre
from the defence batteries on the
coast, Three other occasions found the
new Zeppelin over the British Isles
from a lotal of 28 military excurslons
from Nordholz, The German system of
organization meant that the fliqhts
were usually carried out by the same
crews, so that some became more ex-
perienced than others, but mindful of
the dangrers the men tended to live
only for the day and to endure bomb-
ing trips under thousands of cubic
metres of explosive qas and in numb-
rng cold as best they could,
Stranqely, it was on what should
have been an uneventful flight, a man-
trme reconnaisance on the afternoon of
3 September 1915, exactly a year be-
fore SLI I was destroyed, that the L10's
career ended. While the airship was
makrng ready to land back at Nordholz
near Crxhaven, the order to valve off
gas was grven as a normal preliminary
to making landfall, Unfortunately a
thunderstorm happened to be raging
and the naval airship was struck by
Iiqhtning, There was a violent explo-
sion before the vessel plunqed into the
shallow waters below, where it bwned
for several hours, AII aboard perished,
Kapitanleutnant Hirsch the comman-
der and his crew of lB, Total produc-
tionof the Typ P was 10 units, LI0 t0 t19
(builder's designatrons L240, I'24I,
L243, L243, Lz46, L248, Lz,50, L253,
LZ52 and 1,254 respectively),
together with L I 1, placed the
German navy on an equal footing to
that of the army with regard to its
ability to mount raids against targets
in the British Isles.
Specification
LI0 (Zeppelin LZ40)
Type: strategic bomber airship
Powerplant: four 156, 6-kW (2 I 0-hp)
Maybach CX sx-cylinder water-
cooled piston engJines
Performance: maximum speed 95 km/
h (59 mph); seruice ceiling 3900 m
(12,795 ft); range 2 150 km ( 1,336 miles)
Weights: empty 21 100 kg (46,518 1b);
useful lift 26200 kq (57,760 ]b)
Dimensions:diameter 18,70 m (61 ft
4.2 in); lensrth 163,50 m (536 ft 5 in);
volume 31900 m3 (1,126,540 cu f0
Armament: two 7. 92-mm (0. 3 12-in) L) 1 (in the foreground) was one of 191 5, and again on 17 August. Behind
Maxim machrne-guns on free the Zeppelin fleet participating in the r's lO once used fo fake Slrasser as an
mountinqs in single gmn position above first pemitted raid London that
on observer, but it was torced back by
forward hull, plus bombs suffered no restrictions on )0 August engine trouble.
Above: Peterson's Ll2 passed over
Margate, Ramsgate and Deal on 9
August 1915 before bombing Dover
in mistake for the naval base of
H arwich. All but three of the I 2
bombs droppedlandedin the sea,
and the Zeppelin was damaged by
the 7 6-mm (3-in) naval gruns of the
defences.
ffrelil:lll;;1:lltlll*l;ll
li:iliiill:ii9lXli!ll:liirr:liiel:llli:l!lllii9llr:li9ll;i9lll
Right: On the night of I August I I I 5
L9, under thecommand of Odo
Loewe, had to takeevasive action
over Flamborough Head despite a
severed rudder cable, before
managing to bomb Goole.

GERMANY
I
L53 (Zeppelin L2100)
-
Apart from the historical factors sur-
roundinq the last operation carried out
by L53, ths Zeppelin Tlpe V airship
rras also of some technrcal prominen-
:e. Thrs lay in the fact that her con-
siructron embodied an increased
spacing of her main frames, which
-i,-ere
now 15 m (49 ft 2,5 in) apart com-
pared with the previous norm of l0 m
:32ft 9,7in), Measures such as these
serued to lighten the L53, contributing
.: the fact that her useful lift was some
62,7 per cent of the total, so that on her
maiden ratd an altitude of 6300 m
(20,670 ft) was attarned,
Alternatively known by the works
designation LZI00, this airshtp made
its first flight on 18 Augmst l9l7 from
Friedrichshafen where she had been
built, and became the command of one
of Peter Strasse/s most senior o{hcers,
Kapitdnleutnant der Reserve Eduard
Proelss. He first brought his new
chargTe over the British Isles on the
night of 24125 September l9l7 when
raids were directed against targets in
the Midlands and north east, 17 months
after his first bombing sortre in L13, his
previous command.
However, it would be wronq to give
the rmpressron that Zeppelins were
entirely direcied ro bombing missions
against land targets. L53 is an illustra-
tion of this fact since of the 23 oper-
ational sorties made by this vessel be-
tween her commissioning date on 2l
Auqmst 1917 and her flery end oi -,
Augnxt of the following year, only -:--:
were bombing attacks. The remar.:=:
were scoutinq missions over the N:::-
Sea where the endurance of liqr::::'
rhan-air craft made them super::: :
any conventional aeroplane ofthe :=1
Small wonder therefore that L53 .-:
her nine sister craft (t55/tzi01, i,o'e
IZr03, L58/LZI05, L60/L2108, L:-
LZr06, L62/r,2I07, L63iLZ1I0, L31
LZl09 and L65/LZIII) were rec.r:::

':_:
L53 (Zeppelin LZ I00) (continued) Airships of World War I
as a standard scout type. AIl after L56
were fitted with Maybach motors of the
supercharged Mb IVa type.

Specification
L53 (ZeppelinLZI00)
Type: strategic bomber and patrol
airshrp
Powerplant: flve 179-kW (240-hp)
Maybach HSlusue<yllnder water-
cooled piston engines
Performance: maxrmum speed
106 km/h (66 mph); service ceiling
6400 m (20,997 ft); ranqe 468O kn (2908
miles)
Weights: empty 24500 ks (54,013 lb); First of the V-type Zeppelins to have
useful lift 40460 ks (89, 199 lb) new supercharged motors and
Dimensions:diameter 23,90 m (78 ft fourth of the class to be built, L58 was
4.9 in); length I96.495 m(644 ftB m); eventually to be destroyed in a
volume 55990 m' (1,977,27 1 cu ft ) mysteriou s e x p losion which
Armament: two 7, 92-mm (0, 3 l2-in) wrecked four hangars and four other T\vovictims ofsabotage, L42 and L63 loyal to the old regime on 23 June
Maxim machrne-guns on free airships atAhlhorn. lie in their shed at Nordholz after the l9 I 9. L42 had been rh use as an
mountings in single position above tim ber sup ports and suspension advanced training vessel, while L63
forward hull, plus bombs gear had beenremoved by those had been Gerhold Ratz' command.
GERMANY
I
hd L59 (Zeppelin LZl04)

While being built as a Zeppelin Typ V, First introduced by the Zeppelin company in August 19 17, L59 and jts c/ass represented the /a fest desr'grn
the L59 (LZI04) was hurriedly ieng- techniques and established a pattern thatwas to persistfor almost ayear, 10 being envisaged by the parent
thened as the second Zeppelin Typ W. company when the first appeared.
This was to replace the L57 which had
been chosen for a special mission jn
November 1917 and, as the L2102, con-
verted from a Typ V to the first TVp W
before being damaged ln a storm rn
October, L57 was intended to fly to
German East Afnca to aid General von
Lettow-Vorbeck's forces rn the theatre
by flying out a sizeable quantity ofsup-
plies; the vessel was thereafter to be
used as a bomber.
Toqether with the best men of his
crew (the cream of each usually
moved with the commander) Kapitiin-
leutnant Ludwig Bockholt from L57
took charge of L59 without delay, and
such was the urqency of rhe mission
that when a member of the crew was
discovered to have sold a large pad of
the rations and made up the cases with
the equivalent weiQtht, there was no
trme to re-provision and the deficit had
to be made up with emergency self-
heating foods.
Aithough crews for bombinq mis-
srons were sometimes reduced to l5 to byan desert where the heat made the with the vessel and after a lengthy dts- WhenL57, a Zeppelin of theW-type,
aliow an enlarged offensrve load, the vessel difficult to control after Qtas had cussion it was decided to reburld her was severely damaged in a storm in
full complement of 21 was carrred been lost through the automatic valves; for attacks against targets in the Mid- October 1 9 I 7, L59 was placed in the
rvhen the vessel set out in November soon after this one enqine began to dle East and Italy, and for these she charge of the same commandet as a
However, the airship was forced to give trouble, was back at Jamboli (from which the replacement. After being rebuilt
twn back twice, on the second occa- The vessel was beyond the Nile African trrps had begmn) in February following th e Afric an flight, s he
slon as a result of damage caused by when one of the recall signals was 1918. It was flyrng from here on 7 April bombed British naval installations on
dle flre from Turkish railway guards, finally heard and the lonq retum trip 1918 that L59 mystenously blew up not Crete. Amonth later U-boatU-53was
s3 that a 32-hour return journey re- began, The tropically-kitted crewmen far from the heel of Italy the sole witness of her end.
s,:lted in the next attempt beinq de- were by now not only exhausted but
-ayed until suitable weather on 20 suffering from the cold at the height 8200 m (26,903 ft); ranqe 8000 km
licvember. where the flight was takrnQr place, but Specification (4,971mi]es)
in pornt of fact a large portron of von the final leg of the journey was suc- L59 (Zeppelin LZl04) Weights: empty 27625 kq (60,903 1b);
- cessfully completed and rightly hailed Type: strategic bomber and patrol useful lift 52100 kg (1 14,86 I lb)
ettow-Vorbeck's forces had been
::lced to surrender on the same day as a triumph by the German Naval airship Dimensions: diameter 23,95 m (78 ft
:e commander escaping with a small Airship Service which was still re- Powerplant: five I 79-kW (240-hp) 6,9 in); ]ensth226.50 m(743 ft 1,3 in);
I a:ly to contlnue the fight after captur- garded as experimental with the Maybach HSLu six-cylinder water- volume 68500 m3 (2,419,059 cu f0
:-l: Porruguese supplies, but the recall officers and men undergoing 'on the cooled piston engines Armament: provrsion for up to 10 7 92-
:'.':adio failed to be picked up in L59. job'trainlng Performance: maximum speed mm (0, 3 I 2-in) Maxim machine-Euns
---.:ead course was set across the Lt- The problem remained what to do 108 krn/h (67 mph); service ceiling above hul1, plus bombs

1807
Zeppelins over Englcmd:
Sfrasser3 Last l{ission
The career ofPeferSfrasser parallels the story of the German airshipservice.
Promoted Leader of Airships in 19 J,3, he led the first strategic bombing campaignin
history. The defences eveitually mastered the Zeppelin thieat, but as Germanl s
defeat loomed near in August J 9 J 8 Strasserpers onally led another raid. His chosen
vessel:L70, the latest and most powertul Zeppelin built.

At the outbreak of World War I it was confid-
enLlv believed in offrcial circles that the 'rerror
weapons' oJ the day. Cerman Zeppelrn
arrships, could not fly durjng the hours ofdark-
ness, and any that crossed the North Sea in
daylight would be destroyed with 1ittle difficul-
ty by aeroplanes of the Royal Flyrng Corps.
The fact that arrshrps had been tlyrng sorties
after dark for several years made nonsense of
the first belief, but theie is a rrng oitruth in the
fact that the last Zeppelin to be destroyed by
ihe defences was shot down in daylrght ar the
end ol a glorious August aflernoon ihe finesL
Bank Hohday rn England lor seven years it was
ciaimed. the doomed airship taking ro his death
the revered Fregattenkapitain Peter Strasser,
Leader of Airships srnce 1913.
The formal portraits of this officer, with hls
heavy mouslache and goatee beard of almost
theatncal cut above an archaic unrform wrng
collar, have left to us littie impression of what he
was really like But ri among a leaders chref
quairues is a readrness to share Lhe cJangers ol
his men, then it is easy to see why Strasser
qurckly gained their respect, and it is certainly
true that he was the driving force behind the
airship section of the German navy.
Strasser was born on 1 April 1876at Hanover
and at the age of35, aiter a career in the Kais-
er's navy he volunleered lor aviation duly, a
move that in 1913 reheved him from serving as
a gunnery specialisr in the Naval Airship Divr
sion's shrpboard ordnance department,
Strangely, it was the accident to the navai
airshi[ L'l that gave Peter Suasser his firsL rea]
chance for when this airshrp, o-herwise known
by its maker's designation LZl4, crashed into
ihe sea off Heligoland in September 1913,
among those who perished was Korvettenka pi-
tain Friedrich Metzing, whose loss left a vacan-
cy frlled by Strasser, The leader's role now
embraced not only the normal duires of his
command, but also participation in design im-
provements on which first-hand knowledge
gained while flying wrlh hrs men enabled hrm
to comment. There is no doubt that even when
the final days ol lhe war casl the shadow of
rnevitable defeat over Germany Slrasser
showed little loss of enthusiasm for the airshrp
rn which he still fervently believed, Thus E
Ausust 1918 found him aboard the very latest
type oi Zeppelin prototype of the X type
heading for the UK
Thrs vessel was L70 (L2112) under the com
mand ol the inexperienced and impulsrve
KaprtdnieutnanL Johann von Lossniizer, and
was then part of the first arrshlp rard to be
mounled lor four rnonths. It was in company
wrth L53 (L2100) L56 (LZIj2l L63 (LZIIO) and
L65 (L2111) flying in a rough 'vic' formation
over the North Sea at 5000 m (16 404 ft) at 18 30
only some 100 km (62 miles) from the Engllsh
coasl anC thrown inlo sharp silhouetle by lhe
light of the late afternoon
This is how lhe crew oi the Leman Tail Lrqhl-
shrp saw them when 48 km (30 miles) from the
coast of Norfolk, and is also how one of the
Zeppe[ns appeared to Major Edgar Cadbury
Z5-year'oid heir to a confectionery empire, as
he raced along the sea front at Great Yarmouth.
He had been called from watchinq hrs wlfe
who was singrng at a charity concert at the
Nava] Air Station, but his mind was fiiled now
with only two thoughts: surprise at the German
appearance in dayhght and how quickly he
could reach his car and report to the aero-
drome where a two-seal de Havrlland DH.4
sLood ready to do duty as an intercepror
Bringing his Ford to a screaming ha1t, Cad-
bury almosL fel] out of the car. and dt.empting ro
put on the helmet and jacket he had seized in
his rush he sprinted lor the biplane in company
with another running ngure made awkward by
flyrng krt namely Cap'ain Robert Leckie who
was to act as qunner in the rear cockpit.
Meanwhile, the German arrship lormation
continued on course, heading firr targets spe-
cihed in their orders as being 'on the south or
middle' after a journey that up to then had
lasted for aboul 4Vz hours, The commanders
were mjndlul thar no bombs were lo be crop-
ped on London without orders from Peter
Strasser, who was rn the leading vessel wrth 1ts
long hutl almost entirely covered in an incon-
qtruous coat of black, unsurtable ior conceal-
ment in dayhght. Strasser seemingly sub-
scribed to the theory that there was no need to
fear being shot down over the sea if one was at
an altitudl between 4500 and 5500m (i4765
and 18,045 lt)
The camouflage finrsh oi the airshLps rn facr
served some purpose when the interceptors
caught up with them, lor it was now 22 20 and
Zeppelins Ll0 (Wenke); Li I (von Buttlar); Ll2
(Peterson); andLl3 (Mathy) cross theNorfft Sea on
9 August 19l5.LI1 dropped 12HE bombs on
Pefer,Sfrasser, Leader of Airships, poses fora
Iormal portrait wearing thePourle M6rite alhjs
throat, an award receiied from Admira! Scheer at
Ahlhorn on 4 September I 9 J 7 after commanding
ar'rslups since / 91 3. This photagraph may have
been taken to mark the occasion.
the summer light was fadrng. Even so Cadbury
and Leckre had no drrficrity in picking out the
whole formation and havinq done so the pilot
flew in the opposLle direclion Lo qarn extro
heighi reducing the H 4 s load by pulLng rhe
D.
release to dump rnto the sea the pair of bombs
ir was carlyrng
Approachrng the monster lrom almosL head-
on, Leckie, after some ranging shots that went
wrde since his Lewis gun had no sights, Dut in a
Iengthy burs'oIhre al 550-m (600-yard) range
the burst exhausted a whole drum of Pomero /
explosive ammunilion and succeeded in b.ow-
ing a large hole in rhe Zeppelin s iabnc starlin,r
a fire that swiftty ran rhe leno-h o1 rhe hull. In
"
moment the airship hlted rts nose before turn-
Sheppey, butMathy had towithdraw. Ll2 was :::
by Dover AAfireand force-Ianded in theChar.:.z
half was Iater recovered.

8r8

AZeppelin caught by searchlights. This may be the
raider which appeared over the easfern coun ljes
on the night of B September I 9 I 5. If so, it is L I 3
which penetratedAs far as London. dropping I 5
high-explosive and 55 incendiary bombs before
returningvia Norfolk.
This is thegondolaof LS4,whichwas to take partin
the famous raid by I3 Zeppelins on I9 October
1917, only to be scattered by highwinds.Von
ing over and plunging into the sea as a mass of
fla-me, a smailer f,re"bail being seen to drop
away as a fuel tank became detached to make
its own meteor-llke course into the waves be-
low
The wreckage drd not sink immediately, bur
iay on the swell a greal burning pyre for rhe 2 t
men who had been its crew and for whom
there could be no escape. It rested thus for the
besl part of an hour and if any of the crew
members of the airshlps that accompanied L70
had been ignorant of their leader's rmmediate
fate, none could have failed to see the holocaust
now. Their commanders, horrifled at what had
taken place, abandoned the operation and
turned the bows of their Zeppelins towards
home, the water ba]last of each pouring out as it
was dumped to carry out the only manoeuwe
that could strll qrve a margin of safety, the raprd
garn ol herghr
That the raiders were within reasonable dis-
tance o[ each other is shown bv rhe facl that
Cadbury and Leckie were able ro close on a
second arrshrp L64, despite an engine that was
giving trouble, and Leckje opened fire, he be-
heved that he scored hits, and even that a fire
had been started, but was wrong. However, the
weather began to deteriorate and ihe two re-
turned to base to flnd not only that they were
welcomed as heroes, but also that the bombs,
believed to have eorle :flIo the sea Lo lighLen
the load, were stjll in place, so lhat a very
diiterent homecoming mLght have resultedl
it was 7 August when the remains of L70
were found by the trawler ,Scomber. They
were promptly buoyed where they 1ay rn only
erght fathoms (14.6 tn/48 ft) of water, and later
Once caught by searchlights itwas difficult for a
Zeppelin toconceal its massive bulk from the guns
and aircraft seeking to destroy it. Their only real
defencewas to shed ballast and climb to altitudes
outof harm'sway.
Airships of World War I
Buttlar's L54 escaped by abandoning the raid, only
to be destroyed in its hangar atTondern after a
strike by Sopwith Camels from HMS Furious.
were salvoqed over a penod ol a,most -hree
"greater
weeks, the pari being beached at Im-
minoham. In this mass of twisted metal was
disc6vered the bodies of many of the crew,
includtng that of Peter Strasser from whose
clothing some documents, rnclLiding srgn.l
codes, were salvaqed and rushed to Naval In-
telligence; hke th6 corpse from which they
were taken Lhey were undamaged and no:
murilateo rn any way.
Ln the davs rhat lollowed about anorher half-
dozen bodibs were washed ashore on the Lin.
colnshLre coast. and these, includrng the ones
recovered lrom the wreckage and that ol Perer
Strasser were taken out to s'ea; there, as befit-
ted naval men, they were commrtted to the
deeo al'ho.igh seemrngly^wilh scon cere-
monv. What remarned of L7O was sub;ec-ed tc
an examination which revealed such interest-
ing facts as the especia[y light qauge of scme
of the metal parts and that silk was substituted
for the usuai cotton covering; with nothing more
to be drscovered rhe wreckage was then
dumped into the North Sea.
At home in Germany, the authorrties were ai
first unsure ol the fate of Peter Strasser:
although reahzing rhe slmness of rhe chances
of escape for the Leader of Auships, several
newspapers published tenlative obiiuanes
Few ol these farled to mention the respect in
which he was held. This was no empty plaii-
tude, for Strasser's readiness not only to invesii-
gate technical problems, but generally to ad-
vance lhe airship cause, had together wrth hrs
readiness to share the dangers of operaiional
sortres endeared him to his men, a fact re-
flected in the manner rn which his demise was
heard by some A Leutnant entered the room
where a group of officers was gathered and
stood silent with a look of dumb despair, 'Stras-
ser?' asked one bolder than the others. The
Leutnant made no reply, merely noddtng.
Without a word the company removed their
caps and stood lo silent artention
Zeppelins over England

J
 Airships of World War I

lf]!r-ii:ri1ir::ifi::,.f!::::f'.:-:{..'t:.:u,,i.5:::t;::1tirii.;itrj::'ri.,it;

luftschiffe TO
Above and right: ZeppelinLT0, also
known by its constructor's
de s ignation LZ I I 2, w as considered
an outstandingvessel and the final
version of the'S uper-Zeppelin'. I t
had been built to a specification
which enabled it to climb to an
altitude where it might be
considered immune from
interception. AIso, being capable of
taking an increased fuel load, it
could approach over the coast of
ScoUand from the circular route
across the Atlantic and at the same
time provide support for U-boats by
remaining in the air for several days.
,[

Lef t : N ewly completed, L7 0 is walked

back into Factory Shed II. Less than a
nonth later she was to crash into the
sea off theNorfolk coast, avictim of
Cadbury and Leckiein their
ntercepting Airco D.H.4, despite
fuing powered by motors adapted
: or high- altitude work.
 i,?o'Cz"ppelin Lzttz)
=
The L70 (company desrgnation L2112)
represented the final type of milrtary
Zeppelin (Zeppelin Typ X), and was
conceived around the importance of
makinq an entry to the Atlantic round
the north of Scotland and having swift
climb characteristrcs, the emphasis
therefore being put on fuel capacity
and a lightened structure.
Four airships of this type were plan-
ned, of whrch L70 was the prototype
and the only one to be powered by
seven enqfnes, unique among naval
Iighter-than air craft, It was work over
the Dogger Bank that found L70 on its
frrst operatron, a routine patrol durtnei
which units of the British fleet were
reported Despite the heavy cloud
course was altered and the tarqets
identified, 10 bombs being dropped
on the ships desplte concentrated anti
. ", 3:; e-* -s -- s;
"-
;;"j--"1" ";
.- -;J'"e :+d-
.----t-:..-:-.-----1":""-"--*-.**-*u---.:*.,...-q.'l.:;--.a-:'.
,;6..-,..;___".-".
ffi iirvln No. I (Rt) Mayrly
The UK's first rigid airship was pro-
posed in l90B as a means of evaluatinqr
the naval airship as a weapon of war
alonq German lines, and an order was
placed with Vickers,The work was to
be undertaken by a joint civilian/naval
team, few of whose members had
much experrence in the type of work
involved.
Srnce the vessel was to be flown
rom water her gondolas were given
planing bottoms, although alternative
mooring to a mast anticipated German
iCeas. C,onstructron was to be of the
:.ew alloy duralumin as a compromise
bet!,/een those factions who wanted
-aocd or steel,
Enqne tests were beEnrn
February 1911, and 1t was hoped that
'-re maiden fllght might coincide with
'-a'-2
arrcraft fire, an example of the type of
action in whrch lighter borne intercep
tors would have been of use.
Zeppeirns of this type were nol plan-
ned for patrol work alone, however
and desprte the fact that by 1918 aero-
planes were exhibiting much greater
usefulness for attacks on targets in the
Britrsh isles, the day of the airshtp was
not completely over. Thus the L70 was
committed to a ratd on 5 August, an
attack that some thought foolhardy
srnce rt was planned to take place be-
fore it had grown completely dark.
This is the action which cost the hves of
not only the enttre crew including the
commander Kapitdnleutnant von Loss-
nitzer who had been responsible for
the attack on the naval vessels, but also
Peter Strasser
Of the planned four units of the TYP
q";
.-... _-_
;*#****',';:,,*lffi*
the Coronation Review ofthe fleet by
Krng Georqte V, However, the extrac-
tion of HMA No. I (RI) from its floating
shed called on the resources ofa num-
ber of tugs and a haulinq party of 300
sailors on the ropes, a difficult task
since the airship, now nicknamed
Mayfly, proved much heavier than ex-
pected. This combined with misdirec-
tion ofthe handling party or (accordtng
to some reports) a sudden cross-wind,
caused the arrship to strike one of the
uprights of the shed entrance, some
damage resulting. This was unfortun-
ate, since an earlter sojourn in the open
had seen the airship successfullY
moored to the short mast provided as
in mid- the superstructure of a naval vessel
(the first use of such equipment in his-
tory) and reports speak of the RI thus
X variants, only two others were built,
though only one was commissioned
into the Germany navy. Thrs was the
L7l (LZII3) later handed over to the
UK, The L72 (LZll ) was completed
after the Armistice as the Dxmude
and was delivered to France as part of
war reparations, These vessels dif-
fered from the L70 in having sx Mb IVa
engines and a volume of 68500 m3
(2,419,059 cu ft) in a hull lengthened to
2265m(743ft 1.3in).
Specification
L70 (Zeppelin LZI i2)
Type: strategic bomber and patrol
airship
Powerplant: seven 93, 9-kW (260-hp)
1 tended to compromise the black
Maybach Mb IVa srx-cylinder water-
cooled piston engines
Performance: maxrmum speed
riding out a storm with winds rtstnq to
as higrh as Tzkrnlh (45 mph),
Even so, the damage now sustained
had to be repaired and the airship's
return to its shed also provided an
opportunity to lighten the structure. It
was not until late September that the RI
next appeared, fully loaded with hyd-
rogen after a lO-hour inflation of the
gas cells and ready for flight, The
method of handling was as before, and
rt was necessary for the airship's nose
to be turned, Hardly had the strain
been taken on the ropes than a loud
crashing was heard from within the
centre of the vessel as its back broke.
Understandably the crew began to
leap overboard as ordered, and with
the weight relieved from the rear gon-
dola the stern rose up to complete the
130 km/h (Bl mph); sewice ceilinqt
7000 m (22,966 ft); ranqe 6000 km (3728
miles)
Weights: empty 28260 kg (62,303 lb);
useful lift 43500 kq (95,901 Ib)
Dimensions: diameter 23.95 m (78 ft
6.9 in); lenqth211,5O m(693 ft 10,8 in);
volume 62200 m3 (2,196,576 cu f0
Armament:up to 10 7.92-mm (0.312-in)
Maxim machine-guns on free
mountrngs above hu1l, plus bombs
L70 was the ZeppelininwhichPeter
Slrasser was fo die on 5 August 19 I 8.
In the interests of weight economy
the unshrouded engine exhausts
dopewhen they spatflame. She is
seen here in J uly at Friedrichshafen,
where shewas built.
-t;ffi
.:r=q|::* "'
British Naval Airship No. I , the rigid
RJ Mayfly, was seriously overweight
from the start, and attempts to
lighten the structure only succeeded
inweakening it. For security reasons
the findings of the investigators were
neverpublished.
destruction. The Mayfly never flew
and was later scrapped.
Specification
HMANo. I
Type: expenmental naval airshiP
Powerplant: two t 19.3-kW ( 160-hP)
Wolseley eiqht-cylinder water-cooled
piston engines
Performance: (estrmated) maximum
speed 64 krn/h (40 mph)
Weight: (estimated) useful lift 20321 kg
(44,800lb)
Dimensions:diameter 14,63 m (48 ft
0 in), lensth I 56.06 m (5 I2 ft 0 in):
volume 18774 m3 (663,000 cu fr)

'C' class
l::-;nated the'C' class from its antict-
;=.:j use as a coastal type ('Coastal'
class was an alternative name), this
:-::--rgnd type was of medium size and
:-:-::ructed with a trefoil envelope
.-:-cn, ftequently known as the Astra
--:::s type, The flrst of the pattem
l;- ordered in June 1915 from Kings-
:,,:-: where rt was assembled in the
.- -:-,'rrnq september.
- :e choice of envelope construction
;,,::d problems that were overcome
-r-::- rnterestinq manner. Amonq these
;- ire method ol car suspension: the
,-.=:les for this purpose were attached
='::l the tntersection line of the lobes
--: rom here ran through the bottom
- --:,e covennq to the car. And it is
:,, :worthy that though the gtas cells
-.';::e contained in a non-rigid struc-
-:=. it was possible to site one of tvro
::=rsive gun positions on top,
?embroke was the first naval air sta-
--,: to have the type, and the first
'-;::G took place from here in June
,: -3. other bases being Pulham, How-
r::- Mullion, East Fortune and Long-
. i.-- The seas that came under the
:.-: of the 'Coastal' class airship pat-
:-i were those off the Norfolk coast,
--,ds End, the mouth of the Humber,
-': Firth of Forth and Aberdeen.
-:Jihouqh the work of these vessels
':,'.: largtely unspectacular, one was
-: subject of an interestinet set of ex-
:e:-rnents which were carried out on 6
Se::ember 1916. These were made
''..:r -he firsi of the type. CL in conjunc-
-:: mth the ligtht cruiser HMS Canfer-
'-:-_z and were conducted offshore to
::-< into the question of future de-
;:-:pments, whereby an airship might
:e lefuelled from a surface vessel.
l- total ofonly 26 airships of this class
...-:s delivered, although these re-
::,: lred in servrce for lengthy pertods,
-:-:s they enjoyed a reputation for
-::-genty as well as for extended fligtht
j::es, the endurance of the design
:=-::q as much as 12 hours.
lre crew ofthese airships consisted
-- :r,e men, four of them tn the car
'.i-rn aiso conlarned the lwo engines.
Airships of World War I
.i-s**l"T"frt
. €da<, ll I F
W
Right : The nos e r ing w as a vestigial
naval marking onC23 before it
crashed at Folkestone on 21 MaY
1 9 1 7 , only to be rebuilt and re-enter
service as C23A. The type had small
variations of airscoop position and
car details.
lore and aft, dnvrng uactor and pusher
propellers respectively, The men's
accommodation was very consrder-
ably more comfortable than that of the
flfth man, the upper qnrnner who had a
special climbinq tube through the en-
velope to reach his lofty positton. 'C'
class airships gave good and reliable
service once the problems of cooling
for the rear engine and blowtng in of
the nose cone had been solved,
When engines of differing Powers
were fltted in any one ship, the more
powerful was normally that at the rear,
while it is interesting to note that the
cars were construct-od from a pair of
Awo 510 fuselagres. C1 alone differed
foom the others in having a 57.9-m (190-
ft) envelope with a 3964.4-m3 (140,000-
cu ft) capacity,
Specification A' C oas tal' clas s air s hip on conv oy origin al m odel, whic h w as s et
'C'class patrol shows the later locationof the forward immediately behind the
Tlpe: sea patrol atrship ballonet airscoop in the aft position. front propeller. Only 27 of this class
Powerplant: two I I 1,9-kW (l5O-hp) This differed from that on the were delivered before 19 I 8.
Sunbeam sx-cylinder water-cooled
piston engines, or one 179-kW (240- h (50 mph); service ceiling 2134 m lensth 59.66 m (195 ft 9 in); volume
hp) Frat and one 82.0-kW ( I 10-hP) (7,000 ft) 4813,9 m3 (170,000 cu ft)
Berhet waler-cooled pLston engLnes Weight: useful lift L60B kq (3,545 lb) Armament: two 7,7-mm (0.303-in)
Performance: maximum speed B0 kr/ Dimensions:width 12,04 m(39 ft6 in); Lewis machine-guns, plus bombs

>K ts'class

The original'SS' class atships flew

In later models the qas capactty was
increased first to 1699 m3 (60,000 cu f0
ano later to L9B2 mr (20 000 cu ft) from
rhe orisinal 580.5 mr (20,500 cu ft).
Other more radical variations wele In-
troduced to produce the 'SST' class,
which had twin engines but of which
only six were constructed, and the
'SSP' class (the last letter indicating
pusher propulsion) that was even less
with a dorsal fin, while the vental
one ofSS40 was extended in area.
Anticip ated wor k w as ag ent -
dropping, but itwas actuallyusd for
successful, only tvro berng built. night reconnaissance.
As might be expected these
airships, which gave to the English lan-
quage the word'Blimp', had the capa-
bility to stay aloft for many hours, the
normal flrghi duration bejng seven
hours although records exist claiming
up to twice this flgure. The type served
througthout the war on the same duties
and certainly had a deterrent effect on
'SS'class (continued)
engirne being partrcularly associated
-with the Maurice Farman nacelles.
Production was about 150 'SS' class
airships,
Specification
'S5'class
Powerplant: one 55.9-kW (75-hp)
Renault V-B or Rolls-Royce Hawk six-
cyhnder water-cooled piston engi ne,
or one 74,6-kW ( 100-hp) Green water-
cooled piston enqine
Performance: maximum speed 48 km/
h (30 mph) with Renault or Rolls-Royce
engine, or B0 km/h (50 mph) with
Green engdne
f isz'class
The final variant ofthe 'SS' class airship
was the 'SSZ' class (Z indicating the
ultimate or zero form), of which no less
than 93 were ordered although only 63
of these went to the Royal NaWl SSZ23
and SSZ24 were sent to the United
States where the latter became A5472,
while SSZ2I and SSZ22 went to France,
The type was introduced late in 19 16
and although the engine was usually
the Rolls-Royce Hawk, two were fitted
with the Renault V-B of stmilar rating,
and all were used for similar work to
that performed by the earlier 'SS' type,
The main visual difference behveen
the two classes was the specially de-
sigmed car that took the place of the
aeroplane iuselages used formerly.
In fact the 'SSZ' was not originally
intended for sea patrol, being de-
signed to be towed by surface vessels
of the Belgian coast patrol and by
monitors, when their role would have
been no more than adrial platforms ior
eunnery spotting after release and
under their own power.
The very ffst airship of this type was
ur fact built at Capel (Folkestone) and
later flown to the Dunkirk area, where
it was based at St Pol on 21 September
1916, three months after it had been
contructed,
Perhaps the chief claim to history
enjoyed by the 'SSZ' is the fact that,
despite being of non-rigid construc-
tion and therefore capable of being
ilown only if the weather was suitable,
they were responsible for spottlng 49
submarines, of which 27 were claimed
as sunk, To do this it was necessary lor
lhe airships to remain aloft for lengthy
SSZ37 flies trom its station at
Pem.broke above a minelaying sloop.
The cylindrical tuel tanks slung at the
sides of tie envelopewerenot
:l
Weight: usetullift 300I kq (6,6 t5 lb)
Dimensions: diameter 9.75 m (32 ft
0 in); lenqth43,59 m(143 ft0 in);
volume 1982.2 m3 (70,000 cu f0
Armament: one 7. Z-mm (0. 303-1n)
Lewis machine-qnrn, plus bombs
An unmarked'SS' class airship is
seenwith twinventral fins and a
B.E.2c-type car. A similar envelope
was fitted with one of a pair of
complete aircraft of this type, in
experiments to take an aetoplane
alott to wait for raiding Zeppelins.
But thesewere abandoned when the
crewwaskilled.
Particularly on SSZ airships the
a p plic a tion of i dentity m ar king s
penods and the record for this goes to varied. 55265 is seen fiere as if
the crew of SSZ39, who remained in the appeared at Longside in I 9 I 8,
air during the summer of 19lB for a although some operations were
continuous period of50 hours. This was carried out from Auldbar.
more than double that ofthe accepted
'long patrol', whrch was in the region of
24 hours, although the average was 12,
Specification
'SSZ'class
Type: sea patrol airship
Powerplant: one 55.9-kW (75-hp)
Rolls-Royce Hawk sx-cylinder or
Renault V-B water-cooled piston
engme
Performance: maxrmum speed 77 km/
h (48 mph); service ceiling 2400 m
(7,875 ft); normal endurance 12 hours
Weight: useful lift 3300 kq (7,275 lb)
Dimensions: diameter 9.75 m (32 ft
0 in); lenqth 43,59 m ( 143 ft O in);
volume 1982,2 m3 (70,000 cu ft) Details of the car of SSZ27, which was suspending the bomb load for anti-
Armament: one 7. 7-mm (0. 303-in) based at Polegate before moving to submarinework. These and other
IrewG qnrn for the obsewer, plus Mullion, show the snug crew airships were handled behind vast
bombs accommodation and the methodof screens to prevent wind damage.
always in evidence. The type was still SSZS with its ground party served increased area. SSZ3 here lacks the
in production in I 9 I 8, when orders both at Pulham and East Fortune. envelope roundel of many, but has a
for the final I 5 were cancelled at the .Ltke ffi e'SS' and'SSP' vessels, some naval nose ring and flies theWhite
endof thewar. werc fitted with ventral fins of Ensign behind the scoop.
ffi irnnn No. 23
October andNovember l9l8 sawR23 inits best-known role, thatof air-
taunching Sopwith Camefis N6622 and N68 I 4. Although used mostly for
baining, it had carried out North Sea patrols and later participated in the
vidory celebrations of I I I L
-,';hen
His Majesty's Airship No. I
(IIMA No. 9) was delivered in the clos-
:g months of 1916 it was almost obso-
-ere as a result of the lengthy political
';cissitudes that had bedevilled its
;roduction, It sewed a useful purpose,
l^,cwever: it had become the basic pat-
:em on which the four rigid airships for
-:e Admiralty were later to be based,
lhe flrst of these '23' class airships,
HMA No. 23, was subsequently delt-
-,'ered from Vickers Limited, Barrow-
r-Furness, to Pulham on 15 Septem-
;^Y totT
Design work had stafied in June of
re previous year, the frrst flight being
planned for that autumn, but consider-
abie redesign had to be carried out
','ihen the original specification re-
sllted in a vessel that was something
lJ<e 3493kq (7,700 lb) too heavy, the
g[eater part of this excess being attri-
outable to the choice of engtnes.
The flrst tial flight of No, 23, four
Cays after delivery, turned out to be
something of an anticlimax, for it was
clear that she too was at least obsoles-
cent, as might be expected from the
cnginal design source, and her mod-
en counterparts had a lifting capacity
some nine times grreater than that of
which she was capable, It is hardly
surprisinq, therefore, that the planned
:otal of ]0 airships of thrs type was final-
ly cut back to sx, while No, 23 was
relegated to training duties. The other
'rruts of the class were HMA No. 24
iBeardmore), HMA No. 25 (Armstrong
-iVhitworth),
HMA R26 (Vickers), HMA
l{ithan observation balloon in the
djstance, R26 passes over the City ot
-andon in I 9 1 8 . She was the first of
!;e additionalvessels of the'23'
Airships of World War I
R27 (Beardmore) and HMA R29 (Arm-
strong Whrtvrorth), the last par being
of the lmproved '23X class without an
extenor keel, No. 26 was the first to
receive the 'R' prefix for rignd airships.
Mindfirl that rn the mid-months of
l9l8 there was a possibility of aerial
confoontations between airships of the
opposing nations, experiments wete
carried out wrth Sopwith Camel air-
craft suspended beneath the envelope
of No, 23; the plan in the event of an
attack was for the two flghters to be
released to defend the mother vessel,
There was no pronsion at the time for
the aircraft to be reclaimed,
In the springr of 1919 No, 23 was Basedon the earlierNo.9 of 1916, the the N avy at Pulham on I 5 S eptember
strengthened for lests at a mooring No. 23 and its successors were I 9 I 7. I t is seen here with a Sopwith
mast, but before they could be Carried constructed by Vickers at Barrow-in- 2F. 1 C amel underneath and a
out she was broken up in September. Furness. The R23 was delivered to partially stripped upper fin.
Specification
HMANo.23
Type: naval traimng airship
Porverplant: four 186. 4-kW (250-hp)
RolJs-Royce Eagle III 12-cyltnder
water-cooled piston engines
Performance: maximum speed 84 km/
h (52 mph); sewice ceiling914 m
(3,000 ft); range 32i9 kn (2,000 miles)
Weisht: useful lift 6000 ks (13,228 Ib)
tncluding four 45-kq ( 1001b) bombs
Dimensions: diameter 16. 15 m (53 ft
0 in): Ienefih I 63.07 m (535 ft 0 in):
voiume 26674.4 m3 (942.000 cu ft)
Armament: provision for 7. 7-mm
(0.303-in) Lewis gun on free mounting
above forward portlon of hull, plus
bombs
class ordered for the Royal Naval Air In 1918,No.23 wasusedfor aseries thatwere echoed in the United States
Sewice in J anuary I I I 6, to be built by of experiments whereby a pair of and the Soviet Union. The British
Vic ker s at Barr ow- in-F urness. Sopwith Camel aircraft were air- aircraft involved were drawn foom
launched from under the hull, trials No.2I2 Squadron, RAF.
Observation Bcilloons
As the rival armies facedeach otherfrom their trenches,both
sides begran to employ captive balloons for reconnaissance.
Enemy positions could be studied in minute detail, officers
could see the terrain over which they were to attack, and
artillery fire could be zeroed in. Inevitably, the balloons
themselves became targets for attack.

The use of balloons to gather inf ormation is old, f or such devices were employed
during the French Revolution and later by Napoleon on some of his campaigns,
Experiments had been conducted in the USA as early as 1784, but it was not
until 1840, during the Seminole War, that anything rn the nature of an organized
balloon corps was planned, and it is interesting to note that in 1863 a youthful
Count von Zeppelin made his first flight in the USA.
ln the UK, a small balloon lactory was established at the Chatham School of
Military Engineering as a result of trials that had been begun in 1B7B at Woolwich
Arsenal. and one year later the British Army had five balloons on charge,
complete with winch waggons and horse-drawn gas carts, Smallwonder there-
fore that observation balloons were to be seen above the battlefields of South
Africa. Bechuanaland and the Sudan before the end of the century.
At much the same time, experiments in Germany resulted in the Drachenbal- Destroying the heavily-defended balloons called for a high degree of
lon combining the principles of both balloon and kite, a design thatwas used in courage, some pilots specializing in the work. One such was Heinrich
numbers to observe and direct artillery fire in the opening months of World War Gontermann, who accounted for I I before being killed.
L British reaction was to copy the design or use the unsuitable spherical type;
the same type was used by France, which had decided to abandon the use of
military balloons in 1912. The final solution was the work of a French officer, Caquot balloons were soon adopted by France's allies, and over land were
Albert Caquot, who designed a new type, albeit based on the German pattern, capable of being flown to an altitude of 1000 m (3,280 ft) even in
a wind of Force
equipped with three stabilizing f ins that enabled it to be used in winds of speeds 9 (about '1 00 km/h/62 mph) if the work demanded, both day and night. The
up ro 100 krrrh (62 mph). observers were very simply equipped, with binoculars and an ordinary field
There were four standard types of Caquot balloon with varying capacities: the telephone with which to report to the grolnd what they saw, and since, as might
smalle^st was the Type P o' 150-nr (26,486-c^u ft), followed by tne Type P2 o' be expected, captive balloons provid-ed a tempting targer'or enemy a.rcr5+t,
820-m"128,958-cu ft), the Type M2 o' 930-m' \32,842-cl ft) and the Type R o' those aboard also carried parachutes hung over the side of the basket tb provide
'1
000-m' (35,314-cu ft). The first three could each carry aloft two men, while the a means of escape. The parachute was opened by a static line as the wearer
Type R could support three men in its basket. The iirst two types were used by jumped.
the French army and also by the French navy from smallvessels, while the Type The Germans generally carried out their observation work in the early morn-
R was capable of being f lown from capital ships at altitudes up to 1000 m (3,280 ing, the British and French in the afternoon. ln this way the Germans had the
ft), and the smaller M2 to something like half that figure. Five months before the advantage of the morning sun behind them, the afternoon sun fulfilllng the same
end of World War I the French navy had 200 of all types of balloon on charge, function for the Allies, who as time passed thankfully bade farewell to their
although only 24 vessels were equipped to fly them. Drachens, which more than one observer later recalled as'damnably unsteady'.

A balloon is used here to train officers in parachute training. Mastery of this A row of tethered Caquot balloons clearly show their outlines. These were
'a<as essential if the Caquot could not be winched down sufficiently swiftly in more elongated fore and aft than those of the World War II barrage balloons
che event of an attack by aeroplanes. Such a victory was considered equal to used to protect land targets, although these and the present-day parachute
:hat over an aircratt. training balloons are all related.

:,-
 Airships of World War i
-iat the work made extreme demands on the occupants of the frail sus-
: =-:Ced baskets is easy to overlook. not only were the duties carriedori rnOJr
:':'emes o'f temperatJre and, if tne light was good enough, ro ihl
, : ja'es or tne weather, but there was always the danqer ""pos"O
of attack bv oooosino
';^:e.5.
:: cons, both sides developed specialists in this *ei"
Despite tne fact rhar severe measures ta<en io iir"i".i-ir.',E
rvpe of attack. tn" a"lol"n
.'. y Co.ppe.ns and ihe German Heinrich Gontermann being Lwo'piir"
::s "rZr-
lndeed, the demands of the balloon observers, joO hid some surpiiSng
'=:..:lts, such as the off icer who was surprised at the co'arseness of his tJrlgulgE
:':3r a stint aloft, which was accompanied by a stammer and comptete Oeaineii
-:: lasted some five minutes after Ianding. ln an attempt to 6ounteract the
:-ects of a swift descent from altltude, Some wings cJeveloped ttreii o*n
:::rnrques such as that employed by No 2 Wing, whicliwas to pduse at 4270 m
'l 000 ft) even if the balloon was being winch-ed down under'attuct; the *ui
n nervrng practice f or passengers u nused to balloon work. such as ihe
-_.']
. senioi
:-
rers taken alott to become familiar with the terrain over which thev were
:-:rtly expected to advancel
3bservation balloons were flown at first from a variety oJ motor vehicles,
:':rce using either the 32-hp (23 g.-kw) or 6O-hp OelahayeLngmd
:' , ng d S,aconney winch, althougn +rorr 1 9 1 7 rhese\447-kW)
were replaced Oy wincirei
:- :aquot's own manufacture driven by a 70-np 152.z-kw) de D on Bouton that
,'.as capable of bringing its charge down at a speed in the region ot O m (ZO fii
-^. ^^^^^A

'vith the Allied observatio-n line running practically the entire length of the
,",3stern
Above: A Belgian Drachen-type kite
Front, the demand for crews was of course high, and to me6t this ttre balloon isseen in Flanders ii I g I 4.
i sh,army set u,p^a series of depots and schools n En{land ut srCn Gntiesui
-:
T he.s im ilar P arsev al-S ig s leld p a ttern
-,-<nirl, LVdd and Roehampton, wh;le for a t me evenlhe Oval cric<et oround had beeninuse by theGerman army
..,s used. At these, and at the artillery schools attended by some obs6rvers, srnce i 898 desp ite its attendant
-::: ai techniques (such as thar dema;deo by rhe reed to ri"ep on"ti olasr"i handling problems, in order to direct
: - ; target,however much the balloon m,ght ;o l, jerk, leap, sobr or sin[) weie gunfire and to report its effects.
=:'.ed. Other techniques.(such as tnat oI ta<'ng ine teleirhone cable .tp ovei
- : :'apeze before.running it to the grou
^d, so rnai it o d not fou I tne parachute of
.
Righ t : Wiily C oppens, B elgian
:- loserverescaping from a balloon setalight byattack on the caqubt) had to be b alloon - a tt ac king specralsf, stands
=.'red at the front as caquots repaced t-^e Diacrens in whicn itre tereonbne infrontof hisHanriotHD.l of gdme
-=s were taken direct from the basxer ro tre main cable.
Escadrille. Severe injuries from the
dum-dum effect of an incendiary
A Caquot captive observation balloon is seen above ruins on the ypres salient bullet received while attacking a
c n 2 7 O ctober I 9 I 7. T o train personne l, th e R oy al F lying C orp s h ait
opened balloon in October I gl I cost him a
:1o training schools inJuly 1916, plus a balloon deiot.Ther6were pfans to leg. He had accounted for 26 enemv
icrm two new ba,lJoon sectjons per week. balloons.

w €

::,
ffi ii{s'"1"r,
Another trefoil-section vessel, the
'North Sea' or 'NS' class was the last
non-rigid airship type to be burlt for the
Royal Narry, the ffust bernq ordered in
January 1916 and delivered to the nav-
al ar station
at Pulham ln Februry i917.
The original rdea had been for an
arrship which could carry out convoy
duties and also co-operate with naval
surface vessels, a concept that was
never put into practice, the whole 'NS'
fleet being used for patrol duties,
One reason for thrs decision was the
trouble that was experienced with the
Rolls-Royce engines first fitted, the
problem lying with the overJong shaft-
ing, about 3,05 m (10 ft) in lenqth, Itwas
only when this complicated transmis- An instructionalvessel for the US Navy, NS7 flew at one
ion and the engines had been ex- time with a small upper fin. Early exatnples of the type
changed for drect-drive Flats, that the carried a row oftuel tanks along the envelope, while NSI
t]-pe was able to prove its usefulness; had an enlarged fin and rudder. iVS3 refained such a tin
previously only 18 were delivered, a but the rudderwas discarded.
mere 12 being with operational units.
Although a variety of car conflgura- make up the aerial force with the Bdt-
tions was encountered, all of them ish fleet sent to accept the swrender of
were of similar lines, with the power- the German naval forces on 2I Novem-
plant mounted in a separate nacelle ber 1918, All convoy protection and
joined to the crew quarters by a coastal patrol airships carried about
wooQen catwalk, This forward part of lB1 kg (400 lb) of bombs with which to
the car had been designed with some attack U-boats, but the useful load
consideration to the comfort of its occu- varied with the water ballast carried.
pants. Such additrons as a chart table Earlier models of the 'NS' class were
and bunks were now essential, since powered by a parr of 186.4-kW (250-
the l0 men aboard were expected to hp) Rolls-Royce engines, while latterly
operate as two watches, five being on NSI2 to NSIS received 223,7-kW (300-
duty while the remainder rested, hp) Fiats,
From July I9I7 the small number of
North Sea airships then in use were all
based on the Firth of Forth at East For- Specification
tune, but by the end ofthe war over 100 'NS'class
had seen service. An early example Type: convoy escort airship
(NSl4) had gone to the United States Powerplant: two i86, 4-kW (250-hp)
and become A5580, while NS6 be- Rolls-Royce Eagle III V-12 or 193,g-kw
came a famrliar sight to Londoners as a (260-hp) Fiat A. l2 sx-cylinder water-
result of its frequent appearances over cooled piston engrnes
the capital; and in 1919 NSll estab- Performance: maximum speed 93 km/ IVS(Nortfi Sea) non-r igid N o. 4 desrgn, somefi aving anunfaired
Itshed an endurance record for a non- h (55 mph); service ceilinq about sewed at both East Fortune and connection to the motors. They were
stop crurse of 6437 ]<rn (4,000 miles) in 7010 m (23,000 ft); ranse 4B2B km Longside airship stations. There larger than the'Coastal' type but had
101 hours, (3,000 miles) were detaildifferences in the car a tretoil section in common.
Although its primary duty was to Weight: useful hft 38i0 kg (8,a00 b)
attack U-boats wrth its cargo of bombs, Dimensions: width 17.30 m (56 ft 9 in); 10194 m3 (360,000 cu ft) in) Lewrs machrne-gnms on free
an historic use for NS7 and NS8 was to length 79.86 m (262 ft 0 in); volume Armament:four or f,ve 7.7-mm (0.303- mountirgts, plusbombs

FRANCE

Chalais-Meudon Fleurus
When war broke out in 1914, French
airship equipment was entirely of the
non-rigid pattem, and it was one of
these that made history in becoming
the flrst Allied airship to cafiy out an
arr raid, This, despite its age, was the
Fleurus, which had been built (like al1
French army craft of the lighter+han-
air type) in the workshops at Chalais-
Meudon two years earlier, being re-
garded as a smaller sister shrp to L'Ad-
jutant Vincenol (C, B. IV),
Interestingly, the FJeurus (or C.B.V.
as it was officially known), had for the
period a good aerodynamically
efficient shape as it had been de-
srgned as a result of wind tunnel tests
conducted at the Eiffel laboratory.
While these results were applied to
the contours of the envelope, Cl6ment-
Bayard was responsible for the design
of the motor and the qondola, hence
the initials of the alternative designa-
tion,
During the last year ofpeace, grreat
use was made of the vessel, whrch par-
ticipated in the army manoeuvres of
that summer, It also left its base at Pau
on 23 September at the beq[nning of a
flight to Saint-Cyr, a journey which it
completed in 16 hours, averaging a
speed of 54km/h (33,7mph), rather
less than its maxrmum, for the distance
of 680 km (423 miles) at an altitude nev-
er more than 1000 m (3,281 ft).
When making its historic raid from
Verdun, the FJeurus was offictally an
army auship, there beinq no equiva-
lent naval at arm; but with effect from
January 1917 this was rectifred and the
army vessels were handed over to
establish the new branch of the navy.
Of the srx non-rigids involved, four
were at once deployed for sea patrol in
much the same manner as the British
i
.id,';j
;i
'North Sea' and srmilar types, but by
now the C.B,V was flve years old and
obsolescent, so that with another
airship it was relegated to trarning
duties, The base for this work was far
from the area where the newer
l airships operated - North Africa's
Medlterranean coast - beinq instead
no further afield than Rochefort, lt was
here the Fieurus ended its days when
France's most historic non-rigid of
World War I was destroyed in a flre as
a result of an air raid in June 1918.
, if N.tion.l insignia had not been
adopted at the time oI the first flight
to be m ade by Flewus, bu t when it
was introduced this vessel was one
of the earliest inFrance to be thus
marked.
Specification
Chalais-Meudon F Ie ur u s
Type: army bombing airship
Powerplant: hvo 59. 7-kW (80-hp)
Cl6ment-Bayard four-cylinder water-
cooled piston engines
Performance: maxrmum speed 58 km/
h (36 mph); service ceiling 1000 m
(3,281 ft); range 680 km (423 miles)
Weight:useful lift 5200 kg (11,464 lb)
Dimensions:diameter 12,40 m (40 ft
8.2 in) lenqth 77.00 m (252 ft 7,5 in):
volume 6500 m3 (229,546 cu ft)
 ITALY
'M' class
}e'M'class airships of semi-rigid de-
igm were extensively used by both
:-e anny and nalry in Italy, and with
-:-em a total of almost 600 wartLme sor-
--:s of various types were flown. A
.rgle example, later desigrnated the
ffi..I, was ordered by the Admiralty for
.e by the Royal Navy in i91B and
-i:-nn from Italy on 28 October of the
year, but it was used only for
=rne compartson with various
=rperimental
-lnsh non-rigid coastal types,
Criginally conceived for attacks on
:rgets in Austria-Hungary, the desigrn
::ceived special attention with regtard
:: its altitude capability, since the rail
--rctions and docks which wouid be
-=*acked were well defended by anti-
::craft guns, Additlonally, several rn-
:::rations were incorporated, such as
--:-e manner in which the keel was laid
: -: to support the tailplane and also to
::-=et the bows; wrres from the keel
:::rnected it to canvas girdles, while
.ands about the circumference of the
=:velope rn conjunctron with parabolic
nires took the weight of the car.
As a precaution against excessive
-:akage the envelope was divided into
internally, and the entr-
=r sections
--ce of air to maintain the shape of the
::;'ering was through the nose, vra a
-.-{ve containing shutters operatinq on
:e principle of a venetlan blind. A
::ature of the motors was the lonql
::-aftinq to.the variable-pitch reversi-
:-e propellers, something of an
-:hievement srnce the history of
:-otors mounted on outriggers at each
of a gondola (with a consequent
=Ce
:emand for complex linkage) had not
:een happy.
'M' class airships operated by the
-:aiian army were of the standard
-::cuting version, but those with the
:-airy were regarded as special rn that
-:ey were equipped for bombing; the
-:ad of 1000 kg (2,205 lb) was a useful
:::e which might have to be carried on
: sortie of six-hour duration, this being
-:e reason why no partrcular attention
-ras pard to achreving a higher max-
Airships of World War I
r 1--
''. {
'--r' a:l
..1
qG@jr
Above: Marked by their prominent
nose reinlorcement,' M' clas s
airships had biplane horizontal
surfaces ald ejevatols supporting
outrigged rudders. P hotogr aphs
show that the navy later marked SR.I
with i8 number aftof the cockade.
imurn speed. Meanwhrle, the SR, I in
British service was the tarQiet of much
critrcism, not so much for its capability
as for the lugh costs involved in the
lrials. The type remained the sole ex-
ampie il the UK, and was not adoPted
fcr general use; its designation indt-
caied &e type of design, namely semi-
ngnd a-nd it was powered by one 149-
kw (200-hp) SPA 6A and two 164-kW
(22:-hp) Italia D,2 engtnes, all of them
v..aier-cooled.
Specification
'Mclass The Royal Navy's semi-rigid No. I navy during the waryears. British
Ty?e:bombhqairship (SR. 1 ) was similar to those of the xperiments with thls were
e ve s sel
Powerplant: two 186,4-kW (250-hp) or same (M) class thatwere used desigmed to compare it with non-
i.',o 20B B-kW (280-hp) Itala-Maybach extensively by the ltalian army and rdd'blimps'.
fow-rylinder water-cooled piston
Weight: useful lift 3800 kg 378 ]b)
(8, Armament: one 7.7-mm (0,303-in)
Performance: maximum speed B0 krn/ Dimensions:drameter 17,00 m (55 ft Lewis gmn or equivalent on free
h (50 mph); service ceihng 2000 m 9.3 in t; length 83 00 m(272 ft 3 7 in): mounting above nose of envelope, plx;
(6.562 ft); range 840 km (522 miles) volume 12500 m' (441 434 cu ft) bombs

ITALY

'Forlanini' class
l,lanufactured by the Societd Leonar-
i: da Vinci ln Milan, the 'Forlanini'
class airships (designed by Enrico
iorlanini and the flrm's engineer LuiEri
Jrescentini) may be regarded as the
:.cst successful of the ltalian semi-
:-Eid vessels, wtnning a number of re-
::rds duringr the years immediately
::eceding World War L
Early versions had carried their
:luctural girder externally, but this
-,';as eventually
placed within the hull
:s a truss from which the central car
-,'ith its crew compartment, motors and
fctairon bags protruded, the leading
:dge berng glazed and an unusual tri-
plane set ofcontrol surfaces beinq car- Special constructional features o{ the
::ed at each side of the F.3, To the rear Forlanini F.3 were the triplane
:i the car the propellers, arranged as control surlaces at each side ofthe
pushers, were carried on outriggers car, andfiverudders ateach sideof
-;ath an.qxtended linkage to the en- the stern containedwithin biplane
;r,nes, the reversrble propellers being horizontal surtaces above and
:apable of varrable pitch. below, together with a prominent
An interesting design feature of the central fin underneath.
envelope was its double surface wrth a
space between the inner and outer There were flve initial 'Forlanini' course of which the average altitude the tail, This did not terminate in the
:abric, which served as a ballonet to airships with progressively improved maintained was 3960 m (12,992 ft) conventional cruciform pattern but
:raintarn the shape of the envelope, In performance, the best showtnq a rate although at one time 5335 m (U,503 ft) had rnstead a robust ventral fin ofthrck
addition a climbing well was included of chmb of 1000 m (3,300 ft) per minute, was attained. section. To each side ofthis and below-
:cgether with a ladder by which to gain One such airshrp setting up an endur- Perhaps the most unusual feature of the centreline a series of high aspect
iccess to a platform on top of the hull. ance record of eight hours, tn the the Forlanini was the construction of ratio rudders was carried (flve to a

tB t9
'Forlanini' class (continued)

side) with biplane horizontal surfaces
above and below,
A considerably smalier Forlanini
airship was the 'P' class (Piccolo, or
small) with a fixed vefiical fln and out-
riqqed rudders at the ends of very
wide span elevators. This model was
63.0 m (206 ft 8.3 in) in length, wrth a
diameter of i2.0 m (39 ft 4,4 in),
Specification
Forlanini F.3
Type: sea patrol and bombing airship
Powerplant: two 74.6-kW (100-hp) Fiat
A si.-cylinder water-cooled piston
engmes
Performance: maximum speed B0 kn/
h (50 mph); sewice cerling 5480 m
(17,979 ft); range 650 km (404 mrles)
Weight: useful lift 2720 kg (5,997 Ib)
Dimensions: diameter 20,34 m (66 ft
8,8 in):]ength90.51 m (296 ft 11 4 in);
volume 13800 m'(487,343 cu ft)

USA

Goodyear/Goodrich'B' class
It was in 1915 that the US Navy took on
charqe its flrst non-rigdd coastal patrol
airship, a type that was based on the
rnformation coming out of Germany
and built by the Connecticut Aircraft
Company as the DN-l. The 'B' class
r,vhich foilowed the farlure of this first
design was more closely based on that
of Britrsh airships used for similar
work, the flrst orders going to
Goodyear in March 1917, However in
all farness it should be sard that the'B'
ciass was in no way concerved as a
replacement for the earlier type,
whrch had in fact not flown when de-
sigm work had begnrn on the Goodyear,
The Goodyear B-20 had an increased cubjc
Although the 'B' class shared some of capacity, and the rope lines of earlier models were
the Britrsh featwes, such as the use of replaced by cable. Three frnswerefitted instead ot
an aeroplane fuselage as its car, there the five of the earlyvariants, although the carwith
were differences such as the absence tines was unchansed'
of an upper fin, though some 'B' class It is interesting to note that the later of Goodyear/Go"o,'"n,",j5i?i::';^TJ:ififi
vessels did have thrs feature. There variants (of which two only were built were delivered between June 1917 GoodrichB-l0
were several other differences be- by Connecticut) were the shortest of for-
and July ofthe following year, the Type:coastaipatrolairship
tween individual airships withrn the all but with a greater-diameter en- mer date markrng something of a re- Powerplart:one74.6-kW(100-hp)
same class, velope, and that the belly-bands which had
cord since the flrst of the 'B' class Curtrss OXX-2 eight-cyltnder water-
Further variations took place after had replaced the finger-patches on made its maiden fliqht at the end of cooledprstoneng'Lne
the first nine examples (B-l to B-9) had the Goodrich were retained, May, only two weeks after the declara- Performance:maximum speed 80 lcn/
been burlt by Goodyear, production The B-10, in common with others of tion of war on Germany by the United h (50 mph); servrce ceilhg 2134 m
then being undertaken by the B,F, its class, proved a sound and reliable States, The total number of vessels of
(7,000 ft); endurance about 16 hours
Goodrich Co, The earlier airships had vesseli the two-man crew were fairly this type delivered was only 16, but Weight:usefulliftabout2268kg
employed the finger-patch method of comfortably accommodated in the in- three were later reconstructed and (5,000 1b)
iasteninq the car lines to the envelope, drvidual cockplts of the suspended given new numbers B-17 to B-19, The Dimensions:diameter 10,06 m (33 ft
-."vhLrch
measured 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in) rn fuselagre, on which the landing qear final B-20 was sufflciently drfferent, 0 in); ]engrh50.90 m(167 ft0 in);
diameter, and 4E,77m (160ft 0in) in had been replaced by riqidly- with increased gas capacity and an volume2265,3m3(80,000cuft)
length, but the 'B' class from B-I0 to mounted air-fllled flotation bags, OXX-3 motor, to be considered a new Armament: one or hvo 7,62-mm (0,30-
B-14 were lonqter and of greater girth, The B-10 was among the first batch desrgn, in) Lewrs machrne-gmns

USA

Goodyear'C' class
=
The Goodyear 'C' class airshrp was a
type which must be counted the most
stccessful desrgn ever produced for
the type of work envrsagred: the C-7
became part of technical history and
Lhe type as a whole, although of non-
nqrd pattern, influenced the next gen-
eration of rrgid vessels,
The flrst fllght of a 'C' class airship
took place on 30 September 1918, this
ard the subseguent five airships berngr
produced by the Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio,
where a training establishment and a
hydrogien plant had already been set
up under contract with the US Nalry on
29 May 1917; the 20 trainees in each
mtake hgd the advantages of perma-
nent baracks,
The six vessels produced were
numbered C-l to C-8, the omitted de-
signations C-2 and C-6 being used for
some reason with C-9 and C-I0 for the
quartet of airshrps of the type ordered
from the Goodrich company.
Although the work performed by the
'C' class units proved it an outstanding
aLrship desiqn, the type came rnto use
at a time when World War i was near-
rnq its end, so it is to the design fea-
tures of the class that one must look for
mterest, Most obvious of these was the
four-crew streamlined car with an en-
gnne and pusher propeller mounted at
each side, The C-7's claim to history
rests on a single incident when, on l
December 1921, it became the first
airship in the world to fly with helium
substituted for the normal hydrogten
lifting gas, The test was so successful
that it was decrded that henceforth all
US airshrps would use this inert qas as a
fire precautlon despite the small loss of
lift in comparison with that provided by
lighter but inflammable hydrogen,
Other records held by the 'C' class
include its use for the first successful
release of an aeroplane from a non-
rigrd airship, and by becoming the first
airship to make a coast{o-coast US
crossing, this being achieved by one of
the parr that were given over to US
Army control in 1921. On the other
hand the C-5, earmarked for a pro-
jected transatiantrc crossing attempt,
was lost in a storm when it was ripped
from rts moorings
Specification
Goodyear C-7
Type: coastal patrol and convoy escort
airship
Powerplant: two i49, l-kW (200-hp)
Hall-Scott L-6 eight-cylinder water-
cooled piston enginesl reports also
Production of the'C' class was
divided between Goodrich and
Goodyear, the type proving highly
successful for convoy protection and
coastal patrol and exerting a strong
influence on future United States
design. A boat-like car distinguished
aJI lfteseries.
mention the I I 1,9-kW (150 hp) Wright-
Hispano as an alternative but
supportive endence is lacking
Performance: maxmum speed 97 km/
tr (60 mph); service ceiling 2438 m
(8,000 ft); range about 4B2B km (3,000
miles)
Weight: usefui lift about 2.404 kg
(5,300 rb)
Dimensions:diameter 12,80 m (42 ft
0 in); Iength 58,5? m (192 ft 0 in),
volume 5125,3 m" (181,000 cu it)
Armament: one 7,62-mm (0,30-in)
Irewis machine-gmn

"820
Armed Forces of the World

SovietAir Forces
Part I
:s one of the two most powerful ie: :-s :^ tne
; rbe, the Soviet Union possesses a' z ":':e oi
-a'rense proportions, armed with a-:-a-: ,',^.se
:=:rnological level is rapidlyincreasing. -:,i:.:-. i
.'.:lld be more correct to credit these ::-43: :^tr
:-cport machines to several air forces =:- S:r ei
--:-i:tan/ aviation has developed along e :a:r : -e-
from that normally found in the Wes:.
-rus, there is a Strategic Rocket Force ia<e'i-
- ,'.'e Voyska Strategicheskovo Naznacner \: .cer-
;: ^_r long-range missiles; an air defencear- ,', :. a
-,-.ed ;nterceptor component, as v,e :s -.^l -
; -:'aft weapons;a 'traditional' air force. ',.' :^ :3--
::- tactical and transport elements; a se- -
:-:r''romous army air force; and a sizab e 'a,z a.
':-:e with such components as nuc ez'-z'-=i
-::,,'y bombers.
S nce 198'l , some of these forces ha\ e 'e- ::e.
.-.s gned in a new plan which more close v 'esern-
: :s what is expected to be the Soviet n'c: zai on
-: ^+iguration, At its apex is a new corn.rarc ::ead-
r-31ers of the Air Armies of the Sov'et -: o.. .e-
-::rsible for co-ordination of strategic arc :aci cal
':-:es. Below this stratum are Theatres r= l"! ;tary
l::rations, designated as the baslc rever c'ccrn-
*:id in war, each with an AirArn'y. Tre.e a'e five
: - +rmies, each equipped with a strateg c ccober,
.- :rr defence and a transport elemen:. D JS be-
:/.:en three and five Air Forces oj the fv1 tary ) s-
:-::. perhaps better described by tne'r' pr-evo.rs
-:-e of 'Tactlcal Air Armies'.
. r defence has always been a preocc,rpat cn of
-^: Soviet Union (particularly since the devastating
l:'man assault in 1941), and so this iunction is
=-.s
gned to a separate foTce known as the Troops of
: - Jefence (Voyska Protivovozdushnoy Oborony),
',^ :n is directly responsible to the Minister of De-
-=-:e. Voyska PVO, now with some 500,000 per-
=:^-el, has expanded with the needs of the day,
.-; rg the Zenith Rocket Troops (Zenityye Reket-
- ,'"= Voyska) with their 'l 0,000 surface-to-air missile
l':.'.r t lau nchers ; Radio-Technical Corps (Radiotek- direct their fighters as before. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 'Flogger' now
- :-:skiye Voyska) to operate the vast and compre- A profound upgrading programme is now under represents the mainstay of the Soviet air forces,
-=-sve detection and communications network way for Aviatsiya PVO to transform its current with over 2,700 of all versions inservjce. The type
is employed as amulti-role tighter, being able to
,,, :- is 5,000 radars; Anti-Space Defence (Protivo- strength of some 1,250 alrcraft (this f igure excluding
fill the air-defence and ground attack roles well,
=- cheskaya Oborona); and Anti-Rocket Defence
: Frontal Aviation's tactical interceptors, of which ab- although v arious versjons are specifically
:-:: voraketnaya Oborona). ln 1980, as part of the out 2,000 are available to defend the USSR). There produ ce d for these roles.
---.:'.rcturing of Soviet forces, it added the army's remain about 500 Sukhoi Su-'1 5 'Flagons' and Yakov-
:l'.' and anti-aircraft gun force, Troops of Air De- lev Yak-28 'Firebars' from earlier generations of
'=-:e of the Ground Forces (Voyska Protivovoz- fighters, of which all will disappear during the next
r --i^ ioy Oborony Sukhopputnykh Vosk), two or three years. Competent for the interception sary's Mach 3 performance, the 'Foxbat' is :^:
S+M production is at the level of about 50,000 of high-level intruders, they (or more accurately, world's fastest armed combat aircraft in squac':-
* -.s ies per year, providing for replacement of the their radar) have been rendered obsolete by the servrce. ln the MiG-25M 'Foxbat-E', the original a^:
-:sl ete SA-1 and augmentation ofthe ageing SA-2 lowJlying threat. very powerf ul) Fox Fire radar has been replaced','. :-
=-: SA-3. Giant SA-5s provide long-range defence Today's requirement is for the look-down/shoot- a modified unit which provides look-down sr::--
-: :o 300 km/1 85 miles) and introduction is prog- down capability provided by modern, pulse-Doppler down performance equivalent to that of the ::- ''
-:ss ng of the SA-1 O and SA-1 2. The former, a Mach radars and associated air-to-air missiles (AAt\4s). ger-B'. Four AAMs are carried, being a m xtur: :i
i ,veapon, is claimed to be effective against the First steps in this direction resulted in the Mikoyan- AA-7s, AA-8s or the 37-km (23-mile) range 4A-6 -
:', se missiles which currently form one pillar of the Gurevich MIG-23 'Flogger' and MiG-25 'Foxbat', radar-guided or infra-red homing forms.
.', est's deterrence, whilst the sA-1 2 will engage a some 700 of which are in Aviatsiya PVO service. While Aviatsiya PVO will retain its 450 'Fiogge's
.:-get at any height from 30 to 30500 m (100-
-,0,000 ft) up to 100 km (62 miles) from its laun-
Air-defence versions of the 'Flogger' augment their and 250 'Foxbats'for the foreseeable future, s:-:
internal 23-mm cannon by a typical AAM fit of four 600 modern fighters are expected in the inve^.:-,
:-31-. R6Os (NATO designation AA-Btand two short--ange, by 1988. The first of these, the MiG-31 'Foxho--:
',{anned interceptors are flown by a further sec- heat-seeking R23s (AA-7s). The AA-7 exists in both entered service in 1983 and has probablv b:=-
- :r of the Voyska PVO, designated Avlation of Air radar-guided and heat-seeking (inf ra-red) forms, and issued to at least three 30-alrcraft regime-:s:,
l:'ence (Aviatsiya PVO). Once autonomous on a has a range of some 32 km (20 miles). now. Evolved from the MiG-25, t has lead ng-e:;:
-=: cnal scale, this now has its aircraft controlled by Earlier versions of the 'Foxbat' lacked the abilrty to root extensions for increased agility, but is exc3::::
-: Theatre of Military Operations HO. Below this engage low-level targets, because the aircraft had to operate in the same mode as the RAF's Pz^2. =
j: - 1;strative level, lhe structure remains ..rn- been hastily designed to combat a threat which Tornado F.Mk 2: striking down at targets f ror :-;-
--:rged, and the several air defence zones within failed to materialize, namely the North American range, high-level cruise flight, perhaps n cc-.,--'
==:r of the 20 Soviet Military Districts contrnue to B-70 Valkyrie. Almost matching its potential adver- tion with an AWACS aircraft.
 Soviet Air Forces il
The largestfighter ever to see service, Tupolev's
mighty Tu-28P'Fiddler' has a combat range of
49 8 9 l<m ( 3, I 0 0 miles) and rs us e d principally for
interception over the Arcticwastes of the North.
T his e arly' F iddler-A' carrie s two of the AA- 5' As h'
air-to-air missiles which can be produced in both
radar homing and IR rounds.

ware at its own prodigious rate. Soon. the West's

lead will be almost eliminated as the Voyska PVO
deploys the new SA-10 SAM and the AA-XP-1 and
AA-XP-2 AAMs further to lncrease its capability
against the fast, low intruder. Security of the home-
land remains the f irst objective of any air force, and it
is clear from limited information available in the
West that the Aviatsiya PVO is in the process of
'Foxhound' is a two-seater, whose rear occupant provement over the existing Tupolev Tu-126 taking an immense step forward in that direction.
handles the pu lse-Doppler radar with its multi-target 'Moss', whose overland detection capability is poor.
tracking capability. Up to eight radar-homing AA-9 Annual production of five 'Mainstays' is expected to
AAMs are carried, and the fact that they have (under result in a force of 30 by the end of the current
decade, these having the ability to direct offensive
Current air defence version of the MiG-23 is the
experimental conditions) been launched from MiG-23MF, known to NATO as 'Flogger-G'. This
6100 m i20,015 ft) and destroyed a target 20 km operations as well as co-ordinate defence. differs from other versions by having a shorter
(12.5 miles) distant at 6'1 m (200 ft) is a clear warn- The gap through which Western aircraft could dorsal fin, new sensors and a lighter radar.
ing to NATO interdictors. penetrate to maintain deterrence is closing rapidly 'Flogger-Gs' have made several trips to F inland
Also from the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau, as the Soviet Union translates technology into hard- and F r ance on frie nds hip j ou r neys.
the MiG-29'Fulcrum' joined its first operational reg-
iment early in '1 984. Of the combat aircraft now in
Soviet service, the 'Fulcrum' may best be said to
reflect the intense efforts made by the USSR to
equal the West in aviation technology during the
past decade. lt has a new track-while-scan, long-
range radar with pulse-Doppler look-down/shoot-
down system, plus infra-red search and tracking, a
head-up display and digital data-link to HO.
A twin-engine aircraft having a thrust:weight ratio
in the region of 1.1 :1, the 'Fulcrum' is similar in size
and weight to the McDonnell Douglas F/A-1 B Hor-
net, and its agility in combat is reckoned to be close
to that of the benchmark in modern f ighter design,
the General Dynamics F-1 6 Fighting Falcon. Arma-
ment is believed to comprise a 30-mm cannon and
up to six AA-X-10 medium-range, terminally-guided
AAMs, but may be changed for alr-surface weapon-
ry in the aircraft's secondary role. Here lies the
strategy behlnd closer links between three once-
separate tactical and air defence arms, for having
swept an adversary from the skies in an initial
onslaught, the Soviet air forces are designed to
switch emphasis to ground attack to hasten the
enemy army's collapse.
lmminent service-entry is expected of the Sukhoi
Su-27 'Flanker', a larger (though no less manoeuvr-
able) interceptor which is viewed as the Soviet
equivalent of the McDonnell Douglas F-'1 5 Eagle.
Naturally, it also has the latest radar and supporting
avionics, together with eight AA-X-1 0s. lt can detect
targets at up to 240 km ('1 50 miles) and track those
within '185 km (1 15 miles) whilst still searching for
additional contacts.
lmproved co-ordination o{ these new interceptors
against all low-level threats is being provided by the
llyushin ll-76 'Mainstay', first examples of which are
belleved just to have entered service. The 'Main-
stay'is an alrborne earlywarning and control system
(AWACS) similar in concept to the BAe Nimrod
AEW.Mk 3 and Boeing E-3 Sentry, with the latter's
'saucer' rotodome. Able to remain on station for up
to seven hours at a distance of about 1,500 km (930
miles) from base, it represents a conslderable im-

Possessrhg rarra ble-geometry, inflight-refuelling

and Mach 2 capabiliV, the Tupolev Tu-22M is the
Soviet Union's principal strategic bomber. It is also
employed on maritime duties, and several of the
navy's 'Bacffiire-Bs' have posed for pictures over
theBaltic. Escorted by aSwedishDraken, this
'B ackfire' carries an AS - 4' Kitchen' mksile.

iv