RIGID, SEMI-RIGID, AND FLEXIBLE BALLOONS

Count Zeppelin always held that the dirigible balloons must be rigid, so that they could be driven through the air readily and would hold their shape despite variations in the pressure of the hydrogen. The French, on the other hand, used a semi-rigid airship; that is, one in which a flexible balloon is attached to a rigid keel or body. The British clung to the idea of an entirely flexible balloon and they suspended their car from the gas-bag without any rigid framework to hold the gas-bag in shape. In every case, the balloons were kept taut or distended by means of air-bags or ballonets. These air-bags were placed inside the gas-bags and as the hydrogen expanded it would force the air out through valves, but the hydrogen itself would not escape. When the hydrogen contracted, the air-bags were pumped full of air so as to maintain the balloon in its fully distended condition. Additional supplies of compressed hydrogen were kept in metal tanks.

Giant British Dirigible built along the lines of a Zeppelin

One of the engine cars or "power eggs" of a British Dirigible

In the Zeppelin balloon, however, the gas was contained in separate bags which were placed in a framework of aluminum covered over with fabric. Count Zeppelin did not believe in placing all his eggs in one basket. If one of these balloons burst or was injured in any way, there was enough buoyancy in the rest of the gas-bags to hold up the airship. As the Zeppelins were enormous structures, the framework had to be made strong and light, and it was built up of a latticework of aluminum alloy. Aluminum itself was not strong enough for the purpose, but a mixture of aluminum and zinc and later another alloy known as duralumin, consisting of aluminum with three per cent of copper and one per cent of nickel, provided a very rigid framework that was exceedingly light. Duralumin is four or five times as strong as aluminum and yet weighs but little more.

Photograph by International Film Service

Crew of the C-5 (American Coastal Dirigible) starting for Newfoundland to make a Transatlantic Flight

The body of the Zeppelin is not a perfect circle in section, but is made up in the form of a polygon with sixteen sides, and the largest of the Zeppelins used during the war contained sixteen compartments, in each of which was placed a large hydrogen gas-bag. A super-Zeppelin, as the latest type is called, was about seventy-five feet in diameter and seven hundred and sixty feet long, or almost as long as three New York street blocks. In its gas-bags it carried two million cubic feet of hydrogen and although the whole machine with its fuel, stores, and passengers weighed close to fifty tons, it was so much lighter than the air it displaced that it had a reserve buoyancy of over ten tons.