![]() ![]() All of this found its culmination, perhaps, in this idea: "The Aerial Landing Field" from Modern Mechanix, October 1934:Īlso check out this screwy-looking dirigible from Modern Mechanix (August, 1930): revolving spiral vanes propel it through the air, while the ENTIRE gas shell revolves around the stationery aluminum framework! -įuturistic air wars gain a whole new dimension if fought with giant airships and weapon-outfitted Zeppelins. "Akron" could carry four airplanes, "Macon" could carry five, and the further models were designed to carry up to 22 airplanes!. You can see them on the archival photos shown below: these tiny dots at the bottom are people!. US Navy actually built two zeppelin aircraft carriers: USS Macon ( info) and USS Akron ZRS-4. (bottom image: war-time blimps wait in the hangar images via) It clearly illustrated how "bigger is better" applied to airship really made sense to designers (note little airplanes underneath them): To browse through "scale progression" of airships (many of them hypothetical), head over to this site. There is something about "Zeppelins over Manhattan" images.Īs a symbol of the bygone era, these image hold a certain mystique: the airborne giants made a perfect picture floating over Manhattan as a counterpoint to all these skyscrapers, and many photographers recognized it: Brainerd in 1931 note the Zeppelin in the middle dock:įor more info, see the "Zeppelins Through the Ages" catalog here - a wonderful site, full of info and trivia, collected by Daniel J. Or check out this gargantuan idea: the Airport Docks, envisioned by architect Harry B. (left image credit: Arthur Radebaugh right image: original unknown)Īirship Skyport from the November, 1939 issue of Popular Science, required a much bigger skyscraper to be built than the puny Empire State Building, shown for size comparison in the right corner of this fabulous image: This idea has made its way into some futuristic illustrations: The observation tower at the top of the Empire State Building was originally intended to be a dock for mooring airships (read more about "how the engineers crowned world's tallest building"):Īirships were mooring to the skyscraper dock even while the Empire State Building was under construction! Here is the rare archive photo to prove it: (screenshot from the movie "Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow") As was so skillfully shown in the movie "Sky Captain", these airships were designed to moor at the most prominent skyscrapers: ![]() In the early 1930s airships "Graf Zeppelin" and "Hindenburg" flew regularly on transatlantic routes between Germany and America. (images via 1, 2, Newport Historical Society)Įntirely in line with the general luxury trend of the Era of the "Titanic", the Graf Zeppelin's interiors were as glamorous as inside any prestigious hotel: Navy hangar, its nose hooked to the mobile mooring tower, at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 9, 1936" -Ĭompare the size of these airships with hangars needed to accommodate them, or with (puny by comparison) mooring towers: To properly appreciate the grand scale of these beasts, compare their size with puny humans: here is the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, for example. Now largely extinct, the ponderous "islands in the sky" (how "airships" were sometimes called in popular magazines) were all the rage during the dawn years of aviation, firing up the public imagination and getting lots of financing from the politicians of the time. Looking along the axial gangway from the nose of LZ-126 under construction: See people working on top of the giant fire ladders used in construction of LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin: (interiors of airships during construction, images courtesy Brian Lockett, ) Even the process of construction of such huge airships is beautiful to observe, a process sophisticated and intricate enough to warrant attention today and dream about building even larger "Kings of the Air": Leviathan-like airships (especially the gargantuan, biggest ones) have always held human imagination in thrall, and have been inspiring myriads of engineers to come up with something feasible and lovely to behold, to gracefully soar to the skies, haul lots of cargo and cover large distances. (Lockheed Martin's HALE-D airship in a hanger, image and more info via) ("Up, Up and Away" by the Fifth Dimension) We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky. The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon. We could float among the stars together, you and I. "Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon. Glorious Retro Airships and New Extreme Dirigibles for the Modern Age Send us your topic ideas, suggestions, etc. ![]()
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