Airship Giant download

[michaelwlf3]

Imperial Russian Airship 'Giant'

From the website:

Compared to other European powers, Russia was relatively late entering the field of lighter-than-air craft. However in the first years of the 20th century the military recognized the potential of airships, and over the next decade Russia was to acquire 20 of various types. Though many ships were purchased from other countries, over time Russian engineers began experimenting with their own designs. The largest of these was a semi-rigid ship appropriately called Giant.
The ship as originally designed was 114 m long, with a diameter of 17 m and four 215 horsepower engines. It was intended to fly up to 2500 m altitude, carrying 9000 kg for 20 hours. During construction the number of engines was reduced to two, placed in the middle of the ship.

The first flight occurred on February 10, 1915, but after half an hour aloft the airship sagged in the centre, weighed down by the re-positioned engines. With its keel broken, the damaged Giant dropped gently into a forest and the crew escaped with no injuries. Although the ship was rebuilt, the success of the aeroplane bomber had made military airships largely obsolete and the Giant was scrapped in 1916.

[CharlieC]

Nice find.

Sounds like Russian engineers had competence issues in WW1. The Tsar (Lebedenko) tank failed on its first test as well.

Regards,

Charlie

[John Bowden]

Sometimes things are too big to work correctly.............

Unless you have a piano to move

[michaelwlf3]

Damn good thing they didn't catch a spark...

[boosed]

That was an interesting period of aviation experimentation.

The Currell Graphics models are quite nice.

Don

[michaelwlf3]

Here's a picture of the actual Giant:

http://info.dolgopa.org/album/4a/06_00_i.jpg

It looks like the model is pretty faithful to the original.

[michaelwlf3]

Originally Posted by boosed

That was an interesting period of aviation experimentation.

I have always been intrigued by blimps and dirigibles. I lived not far from the Goodyear blimp hangar in Akron, Ohio for years. They said that clouds would form inside the building.

The Lockheed Martin Blimp Hanger, Akron, OH on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The picture doesn't do it justice.

[michaelwlf3]

By the way, check out this for-pay Hindenburg on Marcle.

There are some pretty nice models there.

[akremedy]

Originally Posted by michaelwlf3

By the way, check out this for-pay Hindenburg on Marcle.

There are some pretty nice models there.

Michael, greetings - there is also a large (1:200) scale Hindenburg available for (free) download Alin Model's (www.amod.estranky.cz) - look for three links referencing LZ 129 in the menu on the left. There are quite a number of pages, all in .jpg format. I've never attempted it, but would really like to someday.

Also, I live not too far from Moffett Field in California...I've been told that clouds/fog form in the blimp hangers too - they open them up from time to time, maybe to "air them out"? Ref: fog in hangers at the Moffett wiki site - Moffett Federal Airfield - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Best Regards,
Adam

[michaelwlf3]

Thanks for the link to the free Hindenburg. I have never been inside the blimp hangar in Akron - I don't know if you can go in there, but I have always wondered about that fog story. I guess it's true after all.

I will download the Hindenburg after work and give you my impressions.