{"id":2477,"date":"2017-06-18T11:52:28","date_gmt":"2017-06-18T15:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zrsthemovie.com\/?page_id=2477"},"modified":"2019-06-06T19:00:12","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T23:00:12","slug":"lta-in-the-usa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/zrsthemovie.com\/?page_id=2477","title":{"rendered":"LTA in the USN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong>Noting American motor-balloons as early as 1904, the U.S. Army contracted its first airship in 1908 and the Navy ordered its first airship in 1915. Neither effort was repeatable, so America entered the Great War without airships of its own. Shipped to Europe in 1917, American officers and men trained to operate French airships and British \u201cblimps\u201d against German U-boats. Flying the single-engine British \u201cSubmarine Scout Z,\u201d as well as the French Astra-Torres AT-ships, Zodiac \u201cZD\u201d and Chalais-Meudon \u201cT-2,\u201d sailors learned the art of overwater flying in most any weather. British deployment bases were literally hewn out of coastal forests with airships routinely deflated and re-filled with hydrogen in the field. Eventually given European bases with hangars, Americans flying ASW airships successfully escorted convoys and located crashed airplanes. Many submarine attacks were logged; one crew was credited with sinking a U-boat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An advanced French anti-submarine airship flown by Americans in the Great War was the <\/strong>Chalais-Meudon T-2. Twin air-cooled radial engines propelled the heavily armed torpedo-shaped car under the hydrogen-filled envelope of some 335,000 cubic foot volume.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No American airships flew in Europe, but several British, French and Italian airships were purchased and brought back to America. These airships are detailed in James Shock’s US Navy Airships<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

American sailors crew the SSZ-23 (left). More than 150 British SS type airships were built, scouting for U-boats, reporting sightings by wireless and attacking with depth bombs and machine guns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inspired\u00a0by British airship\u2019s successes with their quickly assembled \u201cSS\u201d types, production of effective pressure airships began in America. Following the hapless “Dirigible, Non-Rigid -1,” the first \u201cscout dirigible,\u201d designated model \u201cB,\u201d consisted of a lengthened Curtiss aeroplane fuselage suspended under hydrogen-filled envelopes made by Goodrich, Goodyear, and Connecticut Aircraft. Since there was no suitable hangar in the country, the first ships were erected in a Chicago shed\u00a0home to early \u201crubber cow\u201d showmen and airship ride operators.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

American \u201cB\u201d type with the standard steel hangar erected at both ends of Long Island, in San Diego, Massachusetts, Panama Canal, Virginia, New Jersey, and two in Florida.\u00a0Complete hangar specifications and photos are part of James Shock’s<\/span> American Airship Bases and Facilities<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company erected its own hangar near Akron, Ohio, and was contracted to train the first class of Navy airshipmen. A series of airship bases, each equipped with a standard steel hangar and hydrogen generator, were constructed at strategic locations on the American coasts. \u00a0As B-ships were delivered late in 1917 and early 1918, their patrols established duration records for safe operations envied by early seaplanes. Two B-ships and crews were thought lost in separate submarine hunts. Stranded but adrift on the water, both were towed home\u00a0by passing merchantmen. Experiments showed that the small airship could launch a torpedo as B-15 dropped one and valved off a matching amount of hydrogen lift. \u00a0A \u201cstretch\u201d variation was introduced, allowing another crewman and more fuel to be carried. During thirteen thousand, six hundred hours of coast patrol covering four hundred thousand square miles, there were no major accidents or fatalities. Only one of the eighteen B-types could claim sighting any of the five German U-boats that attacked shipping along the American seaboard.<\/p>\n

The success of larger European airships lead the Navy to order its first twin-engine airship, the \u201cC\u201d type, which established new records on its first flights.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The twin-engine C-type\u2019s envelope held 181,000 cubic feet of hydrogen for useful lift of 4000 pounds. Motion pictures of B, C, and D-type airships are included in the DVD “The Early Days.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Click on\u00a0 >\u00a0 for a clip from the DVD.<\/p>\n