The Blimp - Stories of an aerial vehicle whose onomatopoetic name is at least 100 years old.

How does one launch a blimp? The answer is "slowly"…blimps do nothing rapidly. I became aware of that years ago when The Ohio State University Airport was visited on occasion by the Goodyear blimps that covered major sports events in the Columbus area. When the flight schedule permitted, the OSU Department of Aviation folks were welcomed aboard for a low-altitude, low-airspeed tour of the city. That blimp ride was a first-time experience for me and given my zero knowledge of airship operations I wondered how this bagful of helium would get off the ground.
 

 

The neutrally bouyant blimp was resting lightly on its single wheel and anchored, so to speak, by the ground crew holding the mooring lines attached to the nose. There was a hand rail running completely around the bottom of the gondola and when the pilot was ready the launch crew lifted the blimp to arms' length then pulled it down briskly.

The wheel strut compressed when it contacted the ground and the gas bag sagged a bit around the gondola, resulting in an upward rebound (Newton's third law of motion at work—equal and opposite reaction) whereupon the pilot opened the throttles and the blimp climbed away…an AVTO (Almost Vertical Takeoff). The entire procedure took place in graceful, ponderous slow motion.

 

Sailing through the sky…literally

 It took human beings a long time to discover a way to overcome gravity and one of the fundamental processes involved was the creation of lift. In 1663 Francesco Lana de Terzi proposed a "flying ship" that could carry six passengers; the lift would be produced by four copper-foil spheres from which the air had been evacuated.

Signore de Terzi's theory was sound but the application was doomed from the outset…there was no way to steer his proposed airship and the differential pressure would have crushed the thin-skinned copper globes.

In general, hot-air free-flight balloons ruled the aviation roost until 1872, when Frenchman Henri de Lorme flew a somewhat streamlined balloon with a hand-cranked propellor. The second edition of de Lorme's airship was steerable and featured a 2-hp engine that pushed the balloon through the air at about 8 miles per hour.  

Henri de Lormne's powered airship, 1872

In 1900, American aviation enthusiast Thomas Baldwin built a cigar-shaped balloon filled with hydrogen, propelled by a motorcycle engine and piloted by a brave young man. The open-air cockpit consisted of a light wood framework with the propellor at the forward end and a large rudder behind.

Christened The California Arrow, she was demonstrated at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. Baldwin's demo pilot stood on the frame, walked back and forth to control pitch and hauled on the rudder lines as required to turn the airship. The pilot managed to maneuver the airship directly over the crowd, most of whom stared upward in disbelief…a man was actually flying. All went well until the little engine went belly up; the Arrow drifted away and landed on the other side of the Mississippi River. Baldwin's powered balloon was neither fast nor pretty but it may have been a forerunner of today's lighter-than-air vehicles.

Believe it or not, Baldwin's first airship was propelled by a one-manpower engine pulling on a pair of large oars.

Row, row, row your balloon...

The Navy gets an airship fleet

The progression of airship technology in the early years of the 20th century resulted in a US Navy contract for 15 airships, the first of which was designated DN-1. The envelope was made of rubberized fabric—much stronger than previous materials—and the propellors could be swiveled to provide horizontal or vertical thrust; the package also included a custom-built floating hangar.

The first flight was planned for early 1917 but ended when the overloaded airship was moved out of its hangar…and promptly sank. Following recovery and considerable lightening the DN-1 flew a series of tests but barely met the 35-mph speed requirement; two days later the star-crossed airship was damaged and it was subsequently scrapped.

Naval airships were designated in classes, beginning with the B group (apparently A-class was lost in the shuffle) and proceeding through the alphabet to K-class, which turned out to be the most popular in the fleet; 135 K's were built during WWII and served effectively in the Navy's anti-submarine program in both Atlantic and Pacific theaters.

K-class airship shepherding a convoy

                  
Airships in civilian dress

The Goodyear Tire Company's aviation department began aerial advertising in 1925 with the Pilgrim, a 105-foot long airship that served as a flying billboard.

The Pilgrim, acting as "The Santa Claus Express"

The Pilgrim was Goodyear's first civil airship and the first to use helium instead of highly flammable hydrogen. Conceived as a "pleasure cruiser" Pilgrim soon became the first promotional vehicle in the long line of Goodyear blimps that survives to the present. Major athletic events, parades and other mass gatherings are ideal subjects for aerial videography, an art form that has evolved into high-definition live images. 

You may have noticed I used the term "Goodyear blimp" for the first time in the previous paragraph. Although other manufacturers are turning out similar lighter-than-air vehicles, almost anyone who spots an airship in flight will likely proclaim "Oh, look…the Goodyear blimp!"

But Goodyear has not rested on its laurels. The size, speed, aerodynamic and electronic features of the current three-ship fleet make their airships hard to beat. The most recent addition is Wingfoot One; 246 feet long, 65 feet wide, maximum weight is just short of ten tons and the top speed is 73 mph. Even though this airship is actually a semi-rigid dirigible, it will continue to be known as one of the "Goodyear blimps."



Wingfoot One

Where did the word "blimp" originate?

 

The answer requires a couple of ten-dollar words…"onomatopoeia" and "colloquial." The former refers to a word that suggests the source of the sound it describes such as "oink" or "meow." In 1915 a British balloon inspector drummed his fingers on the taut fabric envelope of an airship, producing a noise he pronounced as "blimp"…that's a stretch, but "blimp" became the nickname for all small non-rigid airships. Another derivation could be the military designation of certain early airships as "Type B limp bags" that translates easily to "blimp."

 

The latter term—colloquial—describes a word that pops up in everyday, informal conversation, a practice that will no doubt continue whenever blimps are discussed.

Finally, I feel obligated to set the record straight for those who think the B. F. Goodrich company (an Akron, Ohio-based rival of Goodyear) never built a blimp. According to an article in the Reading, PA Eagle in 1978 "…there were at least three Goodrich blimps. One never flew, one never landed, and one had a short, but illustrious career." Goodrich blimp #1 sank on its first attempt to fly (see Navy blimp DN-1 earlier in this post), #2 was built in 1917 and was last seen over the Great Lakes in 1919 and #3 wound up as a training vehicle at the Navy's Great Lakes Naval Air Station. So there, you unbelievers.