British Airships, Past, Present and Future | Page 6

non-rigid made thoroughly reliable, are the most valuable types for future development. The larger non-rigids, with the possible exception of the North Sea, do not appear to be likely to fulfil any very useful function. Airship design introduces so many problems which are not met with in the ordinary theory of structures, that a whole volume could easily be devoted to the subject, and even then much valuable information would have to be omitted from lack of space. It is, therefore, impossible, in only a section of a chapter, to do more than indicate in the briefest manner a few salient features concerning these problems. The suspension of weights from the lightest possible gas compartment must be based on the ordinary principles of calculating the distribution loads as in ships and other structures. In the non-rigid, the envelope being made of flexible fabric has, in itself, no rigidity whatsoever, and its shape must be maintained by the internal pressure kept slightly in excess of the pressure outside. Fabric is capable of resisting tension, but is naturally not able to resist compression. If the car was rigged beneath the centre of the envelope with vertical suspensions it would tend to produce compression in the underside of the envelope, owing to the load not being fully distributed. This would cause, in practice, the centre portion of the envelope to sag downwards, while the ends would have a tendency to rise. The principle which has been found to be most satisfactory is to fix the points of suspension distributed over the greatest length of envelope possible proportional to the lift of gas at each section thus formed. From these points the wires are led to the car. If the car is placed close to the envelope it will be seen that the suspensions of necessity lie at a very flat angle and exert a serious longitudinal compression. This must be resisted by a high internal pressure, which demands a stouter fabric for the envelope and, therefore, increased weight. It follows that the tendency of the envelope to deform is decreased as the distance of the car from the gas compartment is increased. One method of overcoming this difficulty is found by using the Astra-Torres design. As will be seen from the diagram of the North Sea airship, the loads are excellently distributed by the several fans of internal rigging, while external head resistance is reduced to a minimum, as the car can be slung close underneath the envelope. Moreover, the direct longitudinal compression due to the rigging is applied to a point considerably above the axis of the ship. In a large non-rigid many of these difficulties can be overcome by distributing the weight into separate cars along the envelope itself. We have seen that as an airship rises the gas contained in the envelope expands. If the envelope were hermetically sealed, the higher the ship rose the greater would become the internal pressure, until the envelope finally burst. To avoid this difficulty in a balloon, a valve is provided through which the gas can escape. In a balloon, therefore, which ascends from the ground full, gas is lost throughout its upward journey, and when it comes down again it is partially empty or flabby. This would be an impossible situation in the case of the airship, for she would become unmanageable, owing to the buckling of the envelope and the sagging of the planes. Ballonets are therefore fitted to prevent this happening. Ballonets are internal balloons or air compartments fitted inside the main envelope, and were originally filled with air by a blower driven either by the main engines or an auxiliary motor. These blowers were a continual source of trouble, and at the present day it has been arranged to collect air from the slip-stream of the propeller through a metal air scoop or blower-pipe and discharge it into an air duct which distributes it to the ballonets. The following example will explain their functions: An airship ascends from the ground full to 1,000 feet. The ballonets are empty, and remain so throughout the ascent. By the time the airship reaches 1,000 feet it will have lost 1/30th of its volume of gas which will have escaped through the valves. If the ship has a capacity of 300,000 cubic feet it will have lost 10,000 cubic feet of gas. The airship now commences to descend; as it descends the gas within contracts and air is blown into the ballonets. By the time the ground is reached 10,000 cubic feet of air will have been blown into the ballonets and the airship will have retained its shape and not be flabby. On making a second ascent, as the airship rises the air must be let out of the ballonet instead of gas