US1754883A - Airship - Google Patents

Description

April 15, 1930. v w. E. DORR 1,754,883

- Y Ax nsuxr Filed April 18. 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet l Inventor.-

his Illwwey April 15 1930. v I w. E ."DORR 1, AIRSHIP v Filed April 18, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 the motor is driven Patented Apr. 15, 1930 'WILHELM E. D633, 01 FRIEDRIGHSHAFEN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO LUF'ISCHIFFBAU ZEPPELIN GES EIJLBOHAI'T HIT BESGHRANKTER HAFTUNG, OF FRIEDRICHSHAIEN,

AIBSHIP Application filed April 18, 1927,

My invention relates to airships and more especially to such ships of the kind in which by gaseous fuel instead of liquid.

Heretofore it has been the custom to feed the motors of airships with liquid fuel, such as gasoline or the like, but recently it has been pro osed to use gaseous fuel instead of liquid. If the gas or mixture of gases used for this purpose have a specific gravity approximatmg that of air, a great advantage is assured with this method of operating-airships. With liquid fuel the consumption of the fuel causes a constantloss in weight, which must be compensated by expulsion of lifting gas. This results in an excessive-loss of lifting gas, ess pecially on long journeys, which loss will be avoided by operating airships in the above mentioned modern manner. Here .the consumption of fuel does notefl'ect the static equilibrium of the air ship while traveling,

because the fuel gas consumed will be replaced by air, both gases having approximately the same specific gravity.

In air ships intended to be operated in this new manner it. will .not be necessary to provide particular stress transmitting members for the purpose of carrying the fuel by means of the lift exerted by the lifting gas. Accordingly my invention provides two different kinds of gas spaces, one for the purpose of receiving the lifting gas and ada ted to transmit the buoyancy of the gas to t 'e load carried by the airship, and a second kind of gas space intended to receive the fuel gas which practically has no weight. This manner of constructing an airship according to my invention results in a great advantage in that it will be necessary to provide stress transmitting members only for the structure intended to be inflated with lifting gas and to carrythe loads, confining the fuel gas it will be suflicient to provide merely shape giving outside. walls. For this latter gas container it may be possible to have no circumferential rigid structure at all, but to havebags blown up b the gas. In such case, forthe purpose of ma 'ng sure that the outer shape of the airship will not change,

it may be advisable to provide additional air of the gas containers whereas for the purpose of emu 11 184,504, andin Germany May 15, 1926.

bags, which may be inflated with air to a degree commensurate with the consuimption of the fuel gas.

Of course, such circumstances may arise that it will be considered practical to combine my new arrangement of construction with previously known constructions; that is, it may be profitable to partly use the shape giving wall structure of the fuel gas s ace for also transmitting a minor portion of the stresses occurring between the lifting space and the loads. This will depend principally upon the shape chosen for the airship especially upon'the shape of its cross section. According'to my invention it may, for example, be advantageous to make use of the, in many respects, very suitable pear-shaped cross section, its upper portion being surrounded by a structure adapted to receive the lifting forces and to carry the loads, whereas the lower portion which is of more or less triangular shape, may have stress transmitting sides and be inflated with fuel gas.

According to also be used which allow for bulging of one into the space originally provided for the other kind of gas. The main my invention structures may A princlple of my invention is that thecarrying 7 structure of the airship, especially the hull of rigid ships, is reduced correspondingly with the reduction of the space necessary for containingthe lifting gas, Whereas the fuel gas is confined by walls being substantiallyshape-giving only, thereby providing for a great saving in weight.

Havmg given a general description of my invention I now want to polnt it out more in detail referring to the drawings which represent examples embodying my invention.

All the figures are cross sections through rigid airships, but each representing a different example. In all of them A represents the space for the lifting gas and B the space for the fuel gas. The longitudinal girders of the loadcarrying hull are designated by the letter a, while the transverse girders are indicated at b. The walls 0 of the fuel gas containers may-be enclosed by a common outer cover cl surrounding also the hull containing the lifting gas. There may be provided longitudinal stiffening members e between walls c and cover d. The cars f are suspended from the hull containing the lifting gas.

In Fi l a pear-shaped cross section is shown w erein the upper portion is intended to receive the lifting gas and the lower portion the fuel gas.

Fig. 2 represents a somewhat horse-shoelike cross section, its upper portion again being intended for inflation with lifting gas, and the two lower portions receiving the fuel Fig. 3 gives another example resembling that of Fig. 2, but here the upper hull structure differs from that of Fig. 2 in that it constitutes an individual upper closed portion from which the lower fuel gas containers are sus ended.

n Fig. 4 another modification of the structure according to Fig. 2 is shown.

In the examples represented in Figs. 5 and 6 two separate lifting gas spaces are provi ed, each of circular cross wedge-shaped fuel gas containers are inserted between the lifting gas hulls in such manner that all four containers together form a suitable shape for an airshi cross section. In Fig. 6 additional air ba s 8 are rovided for the purpose of being in ated wit air in proportion with the consumption of fuel gas.

I do not want to be limited to the details described or shown in the drawin as many variations will occur to those ski fled in the art.

What I claim is: a

1. An airship comprisin two kinds of gas containers,lift1ng gas inone 'nd of container, fuel gas of approximately the same specific gravity as air in the other kind of container, and a rigid hull surrounding the lifting gas container for receiving the hfting forces an the loads of the airship, the fuel gas container being composed of material of relatively }ig{11t weig t and located outside the rigid lll 2. An airship comprising two kinds of gas containers, lifting gas in one ln'nd of container, fuel of approximael the same specific gravity as air in the ot er kind of container, a rigid hull surroundin the lifting gas container for receiving t e lifting forces and loads of the airship,1 a cover of light weight surrounding the el as contamer outside the hull, and an air ag arranged in conjunction .with the fuel gas container, said airbag being adapted to be inflated to replace the volume of fuel gas consumed.

3. An airship comprising a lifting gas container, a flexible inflatable fuel container, a structure surrounding the -li g gas container, said lifting gas acting against said structure to sustain all the loads of the airship, the fuel container bein outside the structure and ing free from load forces section, and two acting upon the structure surrounding the lifting gas.

4. rigid airship comprising a lifting gas container,. a load-carrying rigid structure surrounding the lifting gas container an an inflatable fuel gas container attached outside the rigid struct ire, the structure of the fuel gas container beingicomposed of material of less weight and strength than the material constitutin the rigid structure.

5. A rigid airship aving a cross-section of horse-shoe shape, the upper rtion thereof having a surrounding rigid hull, lifting gas in said upper portion, the lower portions being outside the rigid hull and having surrounding walls of materialllf less Wei ht an strength than the rigid hu and fue gas in said lower portioris.

ILHELM E. DORR.

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