H-class blimp

H class
Role Observation airship
Manufacturer Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation
Introduction 1921
Retired 1923
Primary users United States Navy
United States Army
Number built 2


The H class blimp was an observation airships built for the U.S. Navy in the early 1920s. The original "H" Class design of 1919 was for a twin engined airship of approximately 80,000 cubic feet volume. Commander Lewis Maxfield (who was to have commanded the ZR-2, better known as the R38, and died in its crash) suggested that a small airship which could be used either as a tethered kite balloon, or be towed by a ship until releasing its cable, would be able to scout on its own.[1] The concept was an airship similar to the later Army Motorized Kite Balloons.

Operational history

After test flights at Wingfoot Lake, H-1 was shipped to Rockaway in May 1921. During the summer of 1921, H-1 completed six flights and, on its seventh, a hard landing pitched the crew out of the control car. H-1 free ballooned as far as Scardale, New York where a farmer was able to grab the rip cord and tie the blimp down. During the night it was deflated. The deflated H-1 was shipped back to Rockaway in time to be destroyed in the hangar fire of August 31, 1921.[2]

A second H-type was acquired on a Navy contract but supplied directly to the U.S. Army which operated it as the OB-1. OB-1 varied in several ways from the H-1.[3] The shift from hydrogen to helium lift gas in 1923 seriously degraded the OB-1's performance. The OB-1 was damaged on 6 October 1923 and never re-inflated as the forthcoming TA type airship would meet the training role. OB-1 was declared surplus at the end of 1923.[4]

Operators

 United States

Specifications

General characteristics

Performance

References

  1. ↑ Shock, James R., U.S. Navy Airships 1915-1962, 2001, Atlantis Productions, Edgewater Florida, ISBN 0-9639743-8-6, page 35
  2. ↑ Shock, James R., U.S. Navy Airships 1915-1962, 2001, Atlantis Productions, Edgewater Florida, ISBN 0-9639743-8-6, page 35
  3. ↑ Shock, James R., U.S. Navy Airships 1915-1962, 2001, Atlantis Productions, Edgewater Florida, ISBN 0-9639743-8-6, page 36
  4. ↑ Shock, James R., U.S. Army Airships, 1908-1942, 2002, Atlantis Productions, Edgewater Florida, ISBN 0-9639743-9-4, page 60

See also


Related lists
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