III. Non-rigid.
This type is dependent for its maintenance of form on the pressure of the gas inside the envelope. It is all-important that the envelope of a navigable balloon should not lose its shape—that it should be kept distended with sufficient tautness, so that it may be driven through the air with considerable velocity. On this account the non-rigid type depends entirely on the ballonet system, which consists of having one or more small balloons inside the outer envelope, into which air can be pumped by means of a mechanically driven fan or ventilator to compensate for the loss of gas from any cause. The ballonets occupy about a quarter of the whole volume of the envelope. Such a type is exceedingly well suited for the smaller-sized airships, destined rather for field use than long-range offensive service. Such airships are quickly inflated and deflated. They are also easily transported. Even the Lebaudy or Gross semi-rigid types, though not so clumsy or difficult of transport as the Zeppelins, require more wagon service than the absolutely non-rigid.
PARSIFAL AIRSHIP LEAVING ITS HANGAR.
PARSIFAL AIRSHIP,
showing one of the fixed horizontal planes, steering rudder, and car.
The British Government have evolved several non-rigid airships of moderate dimensions which have been exceedingly useful as ballons d’instruction. For obvious reasons it is not desirable that particulars concerning them should be published at the present crisis.
(i.) Parsifal (German).—Very numerous examples of non-rigid airships could be cited, but it will suffice now to mention two, the German Parsifal and the French Clement-Bayard. The Parsifal is the only type that the German nation has allowed to be supplied to foreign countries. For instance, our Navy possesses one. It has also been supplied to Austria, Italy, Russia, and Japan. On account of its portability it is perhaps the most generally useful type of airship that has been designed, if we exclude long-range service. It has been exceptionally free from accidents on account of its subtleness. The originator of the Parsifal seems to have thoroughly grasped the sound idea that to attain success in navigating a subtle medium like air the machine should be correspondingly subtle—as, indeed, are the animal exponents of flight.
In the Parsifal the exclusion of the element of rigidity has been carefully studied. All that is rigid about it is the car and motor, and this can be conveyed in one cart.
The size of the Parsifals has been advisedly limited. The majority of them are not more than a third of the cubic capacity of the Zeppelins. A distinctive feature is the distance of the car from the gas-bag. This in the first types constructed was nine metres, though in more modern forms the figure is less. Owing to the distance of the car from the main body the attaching cords are distributed with equal tension over the whole length of the envelope. In the Parsifal airships there are two ballonets, one at the front and one at the back of the gas-bag. They are not only used for keeping the envelope rigidly expanded, but also to facilitate rising and falling, air being admitted into the one and expelled from the other, as the case may be. Another distinctive feature is the four-bladed propellers. These have fabric surfaces, and are weighted with lead. When at rest the blades are limp, but in revolving, owing to centrifugal force, they become endowed with the necessary rigidity. The dimensions of the Parsifals vary considerably, the smallest made had a capacity of 3,200 cubic metres (1908), the largest more recent ones have a capacity of 11,000 cubic metres. A very useful size is the P L 8 (1913), station Cologne, of which the dimensions are:—