Tango in the sky: How we flew in airships and why this transport was abandoned

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The beginning of the twentieth century was given many expressive names, and one of them is the era of airships. Maps were made from them and bombs were dropped, cargo was transported on them and passengers flew. True, for the latter it was not a cheap pleasure - but an unforgettable one. Have you ever danced tango to the sounds of a piano at a height of a kilometer or two from the ground? And to some - yes.

Sky ships

In the twenty-first century, the layman has a very vague idea of what flying an airship looked like. It is clear that he moved smoothly and slowly, and, probably, the passengers inside were sitting in the same way as on an airplane, in rows of chairs.

In fact, since most of the airship's volume was made up of containers with light gas, its balance, unlike the balance of the aircraft, was difficult to disturb, and people in the passenger and work compartments of the airship moved calmly. As for the speed, it was not impressive by modern standards: for example, it took four days to fly from Europe to America. But the alternative was only weeks on the ship, which, moreover, was constantly rocking.

Each airship was serviced on the ground and in the air by a total of a hundred or two people. This automatically made him an expensive form of transport. People with thick wallets at that time did not agree to fly even for twelve hours (to cover a distance of a thousand kilometers or a little more), sitting in cramped chairs. Depending on the model of the airship, they either floated through the air on sofas, for a short time playing loto, for which there were tables, or smoked, read, dined, played charades, danced and lay in their cabins.

The airship usually "rested" and was loaded with passengers in the hangar, and moored to a huge mast. It housed a platform for receiving passengers. When an approaching airship was seen on the mast, a special rope was thrown to the ground. The same rope was thrown off the airship when it was near the mast. People on the ground connected the ropes and, with the help of a winch, brought the airship with its nose to the docking station. Of course, the passengers then had to climb down from a fairly decent height.

Aerial "Titanic"

The most famous airship is the "Hindenburg" built in the Third Reich. Usually he is remembered because of the disaster: at the end of the next flight, the hydrogen in the airship exploded, and the ship was engulfed in flames. Of almost a hundred people, thirty-five died - two were burned, the rest fell to the ground from a great height.

However, this is not the only reason why it is compared to the Titanic. The Hindenburg was the most luxurious of the airships. On two decks inside, there were double and four-berth cabins for seventy-two people.

The cabins themselves, located in the middle, along the airship, in two rows, were cramped. The beds were located on two floors, at the end of the cabin there was a folding table and a chair, opposite the beds in the double compartment there was a washbasin. It was assumed that in the cabin, passengers would only sleep, and spend the rest of the time in common areas.

On one side of the airship, along the cabins, there was a dining room. It served food that had previously been prepared in a well-equipped galley. On the other side one could find a reading room and a salon. In the cabin there was an aluminum piano covered with pigskin - a wooden one would be heavy. In addition, popular games were played in the salon. From everywhere through the large observation windows one could admire the scenery below. The walls were painted with drawings.

There was also a smoking room, trimmed with asbestos, and toilets, and a shower on the airship. True, the water pressure in the shower was very weak - there, rather, it made sense to rub with a damp towel, according to the fashion of the time.

All this luxury burned out in 34 seconds. One of the reasons for the fire was that Germany did not have its own helium and the airship was filled with flammable hydrogen. Any spark could be enough for trouble. However, in our time, analyzing several disasters with airships, it is also assumed that they all could have been blown up. The developing aviation passenger needed customers, and customers did not like to fly sitting for several hours in one seat. Some airlines could decide to eliminate competitors.

Airships in Russian

The Russian Empire began purchasing Airships a little less than ten years before the outbreak of the First World War. The country was not interested in airships as a passenger transport, the military department purchased them. I must say that the airships were later successfully used in both world wars, but to begin with, the military created a large aeronautical park in St. Petersburg - for twenty ships. For comparison, the richest country in airships, Germany, had eighteen airships.

On some airships, the new Russian air fleet learned to operate aircraft, while others were immediately adapted to possible military operations - they were equipped with machine guns, in places with bombs. The military department tried to build its own airships. Even successfully, but remember of all Russian airships is usually one - "Giant". He was to become the pride of the fleet - the largest aircraft built by Russia. On the first flight of the "Giant" they saw off very solemnly. In the second, they were not seen off at all, because even during the first, he crashed.

Crashes happened later with planes, and even more often than with airships. The story of a schoolgirl who fell into the jungle from a height of 3200 meters and survived happened precisely after the plane crash.