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Remembered Today:

Derigibles - Heavy lifting?


Matlock1418

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Hopefully for a wider audience (but it didn't seem like a question for "Weapons" or "War in the air"  - A duplication one of my questions on Tom Isitts's thread with its high altitude splendid pictures [well worth a look].

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/274540-extreme-battlefield-tour/?tab=comments#comment-2793717

  • Were derigibles, non-rigid blimps and/or rigid airshps used for heavy lifting?

Before, or during the 1914-19 war - by any of the nations

{As helicopters might often do today and/or derigibles as might seem to be proposed for the future}

High or low altitude - Is there any evidence?

Hoping for text and/or very much for pictures of course!!!

[be careful how much post-war stuff you might post, as GW is the main purpose of this forum, but of course the pre- and post- closely relevant period would also seem acceptable and of interest to many - like me]

Matlock

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There was an experiment in early 1916 when an SS-type envelope lifted a BE.2c aircraft.

The object of the exercise was to take the aircraft up to Zeppelin operational height, then release the 'plane, enabling it to attack a Zeppelin without the difficulty and lost time of a 'climb'.

 

“The first release without a crew, was successful. On 21st February 1916 Wing-Cdr N F Usborne and Squadron-Cdr de Courcy W P Ireland carried out a full-scale test. Unfortunately the release mechanism became entangled and the aircraft inverted, plunging to earth from a low altitude. Both occupants were thrown out and killed. Thereafter the Admiralty banned all further experiments ...............”

 

[from 'Battlebags – British Airships of the First World War' by Ces Mowthorpe

(ranks altered to conform to CWGC listings)]

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There are more details on the above in 'The War in the Air - Vol.II' by H A Jones, pages 386/7

 

"It (the 'plane) fell on its back, throwing out one of the occupants. It crashed, out of control, into the goods yard at Strood station, where Commander Usborne was found dead, strapped in his seat The body of Lieutenant Commander Ireland fell in the river and was brought ashore by lightermen. An investigation into the accident showed that a loss of pressure in the envelope resulting in the fact that the airship-plane had exceeded its equilibrium height had caused a premature release of the forward suspension. The weight of the engine had caused the aeroplane to drop nose forward, and the ensuing strain was so great that the remaining suspension wires parted. It is possible, also, that some of the controls on the aeroplane were damaged as it fell clear.”

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On 20/08/2019 at 09:07, michaeldr said:

There was an experiment in early 1916 when an SS-type envelope lifted a BE.2c aircraft.

Thanks for this

On 20/08/2019 at 09:07, michaeldr said:

Wing-Cdr N F Usborne and Squadron-Cdr de Courcy W P Ireland carried out a full-scale test. Unfortunately the release mechanism became entangled and the aircraft inverted, plunging to earth from a low altitude. Both occupants were thrown out and killed

Early test flying was always a pretty fraught business

RIP  

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