Airships!

A brief and oft forgotten chapter in US Navy history.

John Mulnix
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

The US Navy Airship, USS Shenandoah made its first flight on September 4th, 1923. The Shenandoah was the first rigid airship that was used by the Navy, in a series of tests during the 1920s.

These airships weren’t like the Goodyear blimp that we see flying over stadiums during sporting events. These early airships served a different purpose. Variants were designed that could transport troops and cargo. Others were equipped to drop bombs on civilian populations, a practice that the Germans employed during WWI.

German Zeppelins were the model for many early airships, but they did have a flaw. The Germans used Hydrogen instead of Helium to provide lift. At the time Helium was extremely scarce and expensive, which is why Hydrogen was used.

Hydrogen is extremely flammable, making it a dangerous choice for airships, as evidenced by the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.

The Shenandoah saw service during experimental tests during the mid-1920's. She was the first rigid airship to fly across North America, traveling to Washington state for testing with the oiler ship USS Patoka. The Patoka was modified to be the US Navy’s first airship tender or resupply ship.

Pictured above- Commander Frank R. McCrary commanded the USS Shenandoah.

Airships fell out of favor after dozens of crashes and mishaps. The Shenandoah crashed a day short of the two year anniversary of its first flight. Thankfully helium was used instead of hydrogen. The resulting crash left 14 crew members dead and others injured. In a macabre turn of events, the crash sites were looted by members of the public, which hampered the investigations that followed.

Airships haven’t entirely fallen out of use. Lockheed Martin is developing a hybrid airship with heavy lift capabilities that can operate in remote areas that lack traditional infrastructure needed to support aircraft.

I also came across an interesting article from April of this year on an early stage technology proposal that was selected for NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program. Georgia Tech professor John-Paul Clarke and Julian Rimoli received funding to “explore the capabilities and feasibilities of their Evacuated Airship for Mars Missions” concept.

Mars’s unique atmosphere means that an airship on the planet wouldn’t necessarily need to use gases for buoyancy like here on Earth. Rather, the air inside the ship could be pumped out, creating a vacuum that displaces air, thereby providing lift. It looks like many of the challenges faced by the team related to materials engineering, and how to make the vehicle strong enough it doesn’t implode, but light enough it’s able to fly. Read more about this mission here.

Airships have also been proposed for use on Venus. I’ve talked about the HAVOC concept before, back in episodes 6 and 86. HAVOC would allow NASA to explore the Venus at high altitude, in an area that keeps the spacecraft off of the hellish surface. The plan calls for a 30 day crewed mission in Venus’s atmosphere. Sounds a bit like cloud city in Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, sign me up.

Sadly, it’s still just a concept, so don’t go running off to NASA to sign up for this mission.

Picture credits- Wikipedia Commons.

Host of The Space Shot & The Cosmosphere Podcast. Writer. Jeweler. Podcaster. Coffee enthusiast. Bibliophile. Space science &history nerd.

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