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Zeppelin Pictures GalleryAdvanced Photoshop Pictures Gallery - 11 image entries
Contest Directions: Photoshop this zeppelin image (click to download) any way you wish. Some examples are: re-designing this zeppelin, merging the zeppelin with other objects or animals, putting the zeppelin into some unusual environment, using this zeppelin image in advertisements, movies, paintings, etc. These are just some ideas.
Many thanks to Esra Su and
Stock Exchange for providing the source photo. Tag funny pix zeppelin
Top 11 Contest Gallery Pictures
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| | A Zeppelin is a rigid type of airship, built by Count Zeppelin and the German firm “Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH”. The airships are named after their inventor and founder Ferdinand Zeppelin. 119 Zeppelins were constructed during 1899-1938 and were designated LZ as per the dockyard, for example, LZ 127. Zeppelins were massive and modernized representatives of the rigid-type dirigibles. Zeppelins, supplied to the army and navy, were, as a rule, named accordingly in their respective defense departments; for example, dirigible LZ 104 (according to the shipyard) in the navy is renamed as L 59. Sometimes, the word Zeppelin is not precisely used as the synonym of rigid dirigible.
A rigid airship – a type of airship, the basic peculiarity of which is the distribution of carrier gas along separate closed compartments, arranged inside the metallic (very rarely – wooden) skeleton, covered with cloth. The skeleton bears entire loads and releases excess pressure of the carrier gas if required by means of air bags (ballonets) (unlike soft and semi rigid airships). Air ships of this type were massive dirigibles: some of them had a length of almost ¼ km and had a maximum diameter of more than 40m. Around 150 rigid air ships were constructed from the end of the 19th century till the end of the 1930s. The small rigid air ship D. Schwarz, with a metallic covering was constructed in 1897. Sometimes every rigid airship is incorrectly called a Zeppelin.
Design:
The metal skeleton of rigid airships was manufactured, as a rule, from duralumin and consisted of cross-sectional and longitudinal girders. The cross-section girders looked like polygons (for example, 28-angle bars in the “Count Zeppelin”, 36 angle bars in the “Hindenburg”) and were called frames. The frames were arranged at a distance of 3.8 – 22.5m (predominantly 10—15m) from each other and usually from 1 to 3 auxiliary frames were positioned between these frames, called main frames. The main frames of the overwhelming majority of rigid airships (with the exception, for example, of the British R.101 and the American “Akron”) were braced with ropes, located in the plane of frames. Longitudinal girders, passing through the length of the entire airship from nose to stern, were called stringers. Often, even they were divided into main and intermediate stringers and were connected with frames at the top. The quantity of stringers usually decreased at the nose part and at the stern and the stringers ended with a dome-shaped nose and cone-shaped stern. Thus, frames and stringers formed rectangular panels, braced crisscross with ropes – the diagonal bracing on the surface of the skeleton. Apart from diagonal bracing, even auxiliary bracing was made, which looked like a network and passing along the internal surface of the skeleton and string network, which served for the bearing of gas pressure from filled gas bags. The corridor (fin), serving for communicating with gondolas and for arranging various consignments and also containers with fuel, oil and water, passes along the entire length of the airship in the bottom portion of the skeleton. Some later airships had 2 – 3 longitudinal corridors.
Carrier gas (hydrogen, helium) was filled in gas bags, in most cases, made from balloon fabric: three-four layers of balloon fabric (material, manufactured from the gut of horned cattle) are glued on fabric lining and impregnated the entire thing with varnish. The number of gas bags fluctuated from 12 to 20. As a rough approximation, they had a cylindrical form and occupied the envelope compartments between two adjacent main frames. Each gas bag was equipped with an automatic safety gas valve; also, some gasbags had maneuvering gas valves.
The external cover jacketed the entire envelope from the outside and served for lending an aerodynamic shape to the air ship and for protecting the gas bags from the hostile atmospheric effects. The cover consisted, as a rule, of cotton cloth coated with cellon; aluminum powder was added to the cellon for much later Zeppelins, which lent the silver shade to the airship.
The empennage and operating controls were located, with an exception of earlier models, at the stern of the rigid airships. The empennage looked like a cross and consisted of 2 vertical fins, ending with yaw rudders and 2 horizontal stabilizers, terminating with elevators.
As a rule, several gondolas were fitted outside the airship for controlling the airship and for arranging the engines and passengers. The passenger compartments were located inside the skeleton in later rigid airships. Up to 6 motor gondolas were fitted on the airships and a number of engines sometimes up to 8. The engines were fitted inside the body on the American “Akron” and “Macon”.
Advantages and short-comings:
In comparison with airships of other systems (soft, semi-rigid), rigid airships had a number of advantages:
* The rigid skeleton allowed the construction of very large-sized airships. While volumes of soft and semi-rigid airships did not exceed 30000 - 40 000 m³, the volume of the rigid air ships reached 200 000m³. The profitability of the airship increased in direct proportion with the increase in volume. Owing to his, rigid airships were considered to be more suitable for work in airlines across the globe and for transportation of sizeable cargoes for long distances;
* Rigid airships allowed the comfortable location of passenger compartments (by means of setting up 2-3 decks in the skeleton) and ensured low noise and vibration levels for passengers (due to the fitting of engines away from the passenger compartments);
* The rigid skeleton provided complete shape stability during flight, which reduced the aerodynamic resistance. Thanks to low aerodynamic resistance, Zeppelins were considered to be high-speed airships at that time. |
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