US1474517A - Airship - Google Patents

Description

Patented Nov. 2Q, 1923.

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AIBSHIP.

Application filed August 19, 1922. Serial YrTo. 582,912.-

To all-whom it may concern: i Be it known thatI, JULIUS ERHARDT, a citizen of Germany,'residing at Friedrichshafen-on-the-Bodensee, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in AlIShlpS, 0f which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to air-ships of the kind in'which a gang-way is provided at thebottom side of a rigid structure enclosing gas cells and is located within that structure lengthwise with respect to it. Air-ships of this kind have already been provided also with lateral or by-gang-ways lying at right angles with respect to the main-gang- 'way, or transversely respectively. Some of these bygang-ways are employed as pas sages to the'cars if these are suspended laterally from the longitudinalaxis of the airship. The gas cells located at the by-gan'gways are bulged inwards by the structures fdrming the same. These structures 21 though connected with the main structure or trellis work. do not form material parts of this latter; they are carried by the main frame work as are other members of the air-ship also.

It is important that the structures form- I ing the by-gang-Ways are of low weight and permit of good connectionswith the main structure, and another essential requirement is that the cells contacting With said structures and being bulged inwards by them are not damaged. On the other hand, the pressure which the gas-filled cells exert upon the structures in question is pretty high.

The present invention relates to by-gangways formed by structures consisting of. practically elliptically bent tubes which are. of oblong shape in transverse section and have the long axis of this sectional shape he in the plane of the bent tube. There is a plurality of other, i. e. in the direction from'the main gang-way to theonejand theother side/of the air-ship, and they are connected with" each other and with themain structure .by wires extending from the niain'gang-way to lateral members of the'main structure, .1. e. to structure arts located behind the outer ends of the ygang-ways. The tubes and the wires forming these ways determine, thus, the sectional configuration, as well as such elliptically bent orhow vshaped tubes arranged parallelly to one anthe length, of the same. The distance be tween the consecutive elliptical or similarly bfint gang-way-forming tubes in such that t e them,-and also the distance between the wires is chosenwith consideration to that require-' ment, but to ensure the effect in question, cords or the like may be provided parallelly to the flat tubes, the cords, etc, being carferred connected with them. The tubes, the wires and the cords, form wide-meshed'nets which are in contact with the neighboring portions of the gas-cells and produce in these latter the large cavities receiving the lateral gang-way structure's.-

Making use of tubes for the lateral gangway structures is advantageous in two respects. ,Firstly the tubes have a low weight; secondly, it is easy 'to change their sectional shape, viz to change the position of the long axis of the flat tube, so that the lower ends of the tubes may very securely and convengas-cells cannot unduly slacken between ried by the wires and, if desired, or pre-' iently be connected with the bottom member of the by-gang-way, as is all more fully described hereinafter. The bottom member of each of these gang-ways extends parallel ly to the multi-angled, practically circular, circumferential members of the main struc ture forming the body-of the air-ship.-

My invention is illustrated, byway of example. in the accompanying drawing, in

which 1 is a diagrammatical illustration of a vertical transverse section through one half of the bottom portion of an air-ship provided with by-gang-ways constructed'according to this invention, the figure showing one such gang-way in side-view, i. e. seen from an end of the airship. Fig. 2 is a transverse section through that gangway in line a-a of Fig. 1, drawn on a somewhat larger scale. 'Fig. 3 is a-" perspective representationof a somewhat niodified form of construction. r I f l is the main gang-way which extends in known manner lengthwise through the body of the air-ship and is rigidly connected with the frame-work of the same. Itis, in the example shown, assumed that'- the airship has two cars, the one on. the right hand side, the other on the left hand one. time of these,

cars (42) is shown in Figs. 1 and 3, which accessible from the by-gang-way over the ladder 5.

The bottom of the by-gang-way is formed,

inthe examples .shown, of a ladder 12 (F 3) that extends parallelly to the main circuinferential structural members 2, of which some fportionsare visible in Figs. 1 and 3 above the car. The ladder 12 terminates at the longitudinal member 3 which forms .part of the trellis work. The ladder 5 extends from the car 4 to the end of the ladder 12.

Afiixed .to thestructural members 2 are upright bows 6 formed by bent tubes offiat 0r elliptical sectional shape. The long axis of theellipsis lies in the plane of the bow 6, but the ends of the bow are so deformed that the long axis of the ellipsis ]ies parallelly to the bottom member 2, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

This is donein order to be able to firmly secure the bows to'that bottom member. The size and shape of the bows 6 is such that they form a convenient passage to the ladder 5.

There are, in the example shown in Fig. 1, two bows 6. Theygare' connected, with each other and with fthe trellis work by wires "7 which extend fromthe adjacent structural members of the main gang-way to the points 9 of the lateral trellis work.v The wires 7 are connected with each other by cords 10, located pa'rallelly to the bows 6 and form, to-:

gether with these latter and the wires, meshes purpose already stated in the presire to be. limited to the exact details of construction and configuration shown and described for obvious modifications will ocour to a. person skilled in the art.

I claim: 1. In an air-ship with trellis work construction enclosing a plurality of gas cells, and with a main gang-way extendinglength wise along the bottom of the trellis work,

the combination, with said trellis work construction, said gas cells, and said main gang- 'way, of by gangiwayslocated at right an-' gles tothe main gang-way and being each composed of upright bows and of wires connecting said bows with each other and with the frame work, as set forth.

2. In an air -ship fwith trellis work const-ruction enclosing a. plurality of gas cells, and with a maingang-way extending lengthwise along the bottom of the trellis work, the combination, with said trellis work construction, said gas cells, and said main gang-way, of. by-gang-ways located at right angles to the main gang-way and being each composed of upright bows formed by tubes of flat Sectional, shape, and of wires connecting said bows with each other and with the frame work, as set forth.

In an air-ship with trellis work con- 'struction enclosinga plurality of gas'cells,

and with a main gang-way extending length wise along-the bottom of the trellis work,

the combination with said trellis work construction, said gas cells, and saidmain gangway, of by-gang-ways extending from said main gang-way in lateral direction and being each composed of arplurality of upright bows of approximately elliptical configurati'on and consisting of tubes of approximately oval sectional shape and of wires con-. necting said bows with each other and with the frame work, as set forth.

4. In an air-ship with trellis work construction enclosing a plurality of gas cells,

extending and with a main-gang-way lengthwise along thezbottom of the trellis work, the combination with said trellis work construction, said gas cells, and said main gang-way, of by-gang-ways located at rightangles to the main ang-way and being each composed of uprigiit bows formed by tubes of flat sectional shape, and of wires connecting said bows with eachother and with the frame work, the structures forming the said by-gang-ways being located between gas cells and bulging them inwards and being adapted to support the bulged-in portions ofthe cell walls, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature.

JULIUS ERHARDT. [1. Sp

Witnesses:

MAURICE W. AL'rArFnn, I B. A. SAHMAN..

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