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U.S. Army airships

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Between 1908 and 1942 the U.S. Army had a program to operate airships. With few exceptions, they were blimps, the other three were semi-rigid airships. Immediately after World War I the Army tried to purchase a Zeppelin from Germany. During the 1920s, the Army operated more blimps than the U.S. Navy.

History

The Union Army operated balloons during the Civil War.[1] A balloon was used by the US Army in Cuba. These were ad hoc and not part of an established branch of the Army. The use of observation balloons by many nations would continue until early World War II. Balloons must either be tethered, or go where they are blown by the wind. The answer, pursued by nations like France, Germany and Britain, was a powered airship, a streamlined shape, with an engine(s) and controls to allow it to be directed where ever the pilot wished.

In 1908 the Army experimented with its first powered aircraft, the SC-1, or Signal Corps number 1[2]. It was a small semi-ridged airship with a top speed under 20 mph and an endurance of just over 2 hours. Following tests at Fort Myer, the SC-1 was sent to Fort Omaha, Nebraska, where the Signal Corps School was located. While the SC-1 was being tested at Fort Myer, the Signal Corps had built an airship hangar and a plant to produce hydrogen gas at Fort Omaha. Fort Omaha became, for a while, the first permanent military airfield in the United States. The SC-1 was scrapped in 1912, and the base at Fort Omaha closed in 1913.[3]

The US Army operated French observation balloons during World War I, but did not operate another airship until after the war ended.

Following the end of World War I, the U.S. Army acquired a variety of blimps from US, French and British sources. Plans were made for operating airships from both Fort Bliss and Brooks Field, in Texas[4] and Langley Field, Virginia. The first blimp operated by the Army was the A-4, which was operated primarily from Langley until transferred to the new Balloon and Airship School at Fort Scott, Illinois. The Army operated several Navy "(C class blimp) and "(D class blimp)s during the immediate post-WWI era.[5]

Army blimps participated in the "Mitchell" bombing test in 1921. They were used for training, costal patrol and experimentation in the early 1920s. The Army purchased three British "SST class blimps from the British, which were operated out of Biggs Field, Fort Bliss, and Brooks Field, both in Texas for purposes of border patrol between 1920 and 1923.[6]

During the 1920s the Army developed several "Motorized Observation Balloons". The OB-1 and MB were intended to fly to where needed, and then be tethered as observation balloons.[7][8]

The US Army acquired the Italian semi-rigid airship Roma in 1921. The Roma was the largest airship operated by the Army. It was based at Langley Field. With a cruising speed of 50 mph and a range of 7,000 miles, the Roma allowed the Army to consider transcontinental deployments, missions to Panama, the fast transport of cargo and passengers, discovering threatening fleets far out at sea. The Roma was destroyed by fire in an accident near Norfolk, Virginia on 21 February 1922. The Roma tragedy led Congress to decree that all US airship operations would in the future use helium instead of hydrogen as the lifting gas.[9][10]

During the 1920s and 30s the US Army Airship Service was responsible for improvements in airship operation construction. These included the use of internal gondola suspension[11] and the only advanced Semi-Ridged Airship built in America, the RS-1.[12] It also supplied airship pilots and logistic support for stratospheric research flights.[13]

The majority of the airships operated by the US Army during the 1920s and 30s were of the "TC" Classes. These were designed for costal patrol duty.[14] The US Army had long held the primary responsibility for costal and harbor defense of the USA.[15] The airship was seen as capable of searching for hostile ships. Then airships were to track those ships until they could be engaged by costal defenses or Army bombers.[16]

Amongst the most interesting U.S. Army Airship Service experiments was to pursue the ability to operate airplanes from airships. While both the Germans and British had experimented with releasing fighters from rigid airships, it was the US Army which first flew an airplane from the ground and 'hooked' on to a trapeze suspended from an airship. Many tests involving a Sperry Messenger airplane and TC class blimps were made in the mid-1920s. Eventually the technology was assumed by the US Navy on the 'flying aircraft carriers" USS Akron (ZRS-4) and USS Macon (ZRS-5).[17]

The army operated the RS-1, a semi-rigid airship during the late 1920 until the requirement for a new envelope grounded the ship and resulted in it being scrapped.[18] The Army Airship Service developed new designs, and operated a number of blimps, primarily from Scott Field and Langley Field though the early 1930s when competition for funding from the rapidly growing Air Corps started its decline. In 1932 the Army contracted for two blimps significantly more capable than any in service, these were the TC-13 and TC-14. When Army Airship operations were terminated in 1937 a number of Army blimps were conveyed to the USN. Only TC-13 and 14 were operated by the Navy.[19]

The Army had failed during the post World War I era to establish a definite mission, much less a doctrine for accomplishing that mission, for its airships. By 1935 Congress was trying to eliminate funding for the Army Airships, and Chief of the Air Corps Major General Benjamin Foulois, who himself had been a pilot of the SC-1, was recommending the program be terminated. In mid-1937 the Army had finished operating 'airships'.

As Congress refused to authorize expenditures for Army 'Airships" but did allow funding of 'Observation Balloons" the army resurrected the "Motorized Observation Balloon" concept abandoned a decade before.[20]The Motorized Observation Balloon continued in use for several more years. There were even new 'pony blimps' constructed. These were the five C-6, seven C-8 and four C-9 class airships.[21] Two of the TE-3 class were re-designated C-7s. The last US Army airships were the two C-7s which were turned over to the USN in 1943.[22]

Following World War II, the War Assets Administration put up for sale sixteen Motorized Observation Balloons of the C-6, 8 & 9 classes. One was briefly operated by the Douglas Leigh Sky Advertising Company between 1948 and 1950, the C-6-36-11 made its last flight on 14 June, 1950.[23]

The US Army and the rigid airship

During World War I the Joint Airship Board assigned the US Navy the role of acquiring and developing rigid airships. This did not dissuade the Army from pursuing its own course. Colonel William Hensley flew as an observer on the return voyage of the R34 (airship) from Long Island, New York to Britain in the summer of 1919. Hensley was then sent on a confidential mission to contact the Zeppelin Company with intent to purchase the remaining undelivered wartime Zeppelin, the LZ 114, which was to have entered German Navy service as the L-72. Behind the scheme was almost certainly, General "Billy" Mitchell. Hensley visited the Zeppelin plant, inspected the LZ 114 and flew on a small passenger Zeppelin. The Inter-Allied Commission of Control ordered the L-72 turned over to France. In November 1919, the US Army contracted with the Zeppelin corporation for construction of the LZ 125, which was to be larger than the R38 class airship which the USN had contracted to purchase from Britain as the ZR-2. This attempt to performing an end run around the Joint Airship Board would have encountered legal problems as the US Senate refused to ratify the Allied Peace Treaty with Germany until October 1921.[24] Complaints by the Secretary of the Navy resulted in the Secretary of War ordering the contract terminated in December 1919.[25][26] The US Army continued to show interest in the acquisition and operation of rigid airships well into the 1930s.[27][28]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Hoeling, Mary. Thaddeus Lowe America's One-Man Air Corps, New York. Julian Messner, Inc., 1937, p. 110
  2. ^ Jane, Fred T. Jane's All the World's Airships 1909, Reprinted New York. Arco Publishing Company, Inc, 1969, p. 305. Library of Congress No. 69-14964
  3. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 20. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  4. ^ Bilstein, Roger and Miller, Jay. Aviation in Texas, Austin, Texas. Texas Monthly Press, Inc., 1985, p. 54. ISBN 0-93201-95-7
  5. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 38. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  6. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, pgs. 38. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  7. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, pgs. 59-62. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  8. ^ "Use Motor To Fly Army Balloon" Popular Science, January 1937, article middle of page 45
  9. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 71. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  10. ^ Allen, Hugh. The Story of the Airship (non-rigid), Privately Printed, Akron, Ohio and Chicago, by the Lakeside Press, R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, 1943, p. 63
  11. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 63. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  12. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 73. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  13. ^ DeVorkin, David H. Race to the Stratosphere, New York, Berlin, Heidelberg, London and Paris. Springer-Verlag, , 2989, p. 142. ISBN 0-387-96953-5
  14. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 93. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  15. ^ Kaufmannm J. E. and Kaufmann H. W. Fortress America the forts that defended America 1600 to he Present, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Da Capo Press, 2004, p. 142. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  16. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 93. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  17. ^ Smith, Richard K. The Airships Akron and Macon, Annapolis, maryland. United States Naval Institute Press, 1965, p. 22. Library of Congress Card No. 65-21778
  18. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 79 ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  19. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 162. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  20. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, pgs 153-158. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  21. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 153, 154. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  22. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 160. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  23. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 168. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  24. ^ Schock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 22. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  25. ^ Robinson, Douglas H. Giants in the Sky, A History of the Rigid Airship, Seattle, Washington. University of Washington Press, 19732, p. 188. ISBN 0-295-952409-0
  26. ^ Meyer, Henry Cord, Airshipmen Businessmen and Politics 1890-1940, Washington and London. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991, p. 124. ISBN 1-56098-031-1
  27. ^ Smith, Richard K. The Airships Akron and Macon, Annapolis, maryland. United States Naval Institute Press, 1965, p. 13. Library of Congress Card No. 65-21778
  28. ^ Shock, James R. US Army Airships 1908-1942, Edgewater Florida. Atlantis Productions, 2002, p. 31. ISBN 0-9639743-9-4

References

  • Allan, Hugh. The Story of the Airship (non-rigid)', Privately Printed, Akron, Ohio.
  • Bilstein, Roger and Miller, Jay. Aviation in Texas, Texas Monthly Press, Austin, Texas, ISBN 0-932012-95-7.
  • DeVorkin, David H. Race to the Stratosphere, Springer-Verlag, New York, ISBN 0-387-96953-5.
  • Hoehling, Mary. Thaddeus Lowe: America's One-Man Air Corps, Kingston House, Chicago, 1958, LCC 58-7260.
  • Jane, Fred T. Jane's All the World's Airships 1909, Reprint, Arco Publishing, New York, Library of Congress Card No. 69-14964.
  • Meyer, Henry Cord., Airshipmen Businessmen and Politics, Smithonian Institution Press, Washington and London, 1991.
  • Shock James R.. U.S. Army Airships 1908-1942, Atlantis Productions, Edgewater, Florida, 2002, ISBN 0-9639743-9-4
  • Robinson, Douglas H., The Zeppelin in Combat, G.T. Foulis & Co Ltd., London, 1962.
  • Robinson, Douglas H., Giants in the Sky, University of Washington Press., Seattle, 1973.
  • Higham, Robin, The British Rigid Airship, 1908-1931, G.T. Foulis & Co Ltd., London, 1961.
  • Smith, Richard K., The Airships Akron and Macon US Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, 1965, LCC 19962002.
  • Shock James R.. American Airship Bases & Facilities, Atlantis Productions, Edgewater, Florida, 1996, ISBN 0-9639743-3-5

External links

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