"The Schwarz metal airship of 1897" Topic

I'm not sure if this has been sent around before. A quick search of TMP didn't turn up anything:

It's shape is something that could easily be scratch built.

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It seems to have had a metal skin, rather than fabric.

From this web site:
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"The first rigid airship bearing any resemblance to those of the present day was designed by David Schwartz, and was built in St. Petersburg in 1893. It was composed of aluminium plates riveted to an aluminium framework. On inflation, the frame-work collapsed and the ship was unusable.
In 1895 he designed a second rigid airship, which was built in Berlin by Messrs. Weisspfennig and Watzesch. The hull framework was composed of aluminium and was 155 feet long, elliptical in cross section, giving a volume of 130,500 cubic feet. It was pointed in front and rounded off aft. The car, also constructed of the same material, was rigidly attached to the hull by a lattice framework, and the whole hull structure was covered in with aluminium sheeting. A 12 horse-power Daimler benzine motor was installed in the car, driving through the medium of a belt twin aluminium screw propellers; no rudders were supplied, the steering being arranged by means of a steering screw placed centrally to the ship above the top of the car."

Looks like a toilet roll with a paper cone on the end. I can just see myself trying to convince the guys at my club
"No, early airships really DID look like that… honest!"

I built some similar to the Schwarz airship a few years ago:

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I wonder if anyone has ever done a game inspired by those weird airship sightings of the late 19th century.

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Wasn't the 'Albatross' from 'The Master of the World' (with Vincent Price and Charles Bronson)…an 'airship' of sorts…a 'dirigible' shape with carriage underneath…and banks of vertical lift 'rotors' on top??? It's hull was supposedly made of 'paper'…impregnated with some sort of ceramic/clay/chemical, compressed under several tons (like a press?)…and then cut and assembled into the hull of the airship?

Just some 'thoughts' about 'airships' (phantom airships?)

Yeah, early airships and blimps were *UGLY* little bastards. You'd get ones that were actually *lumpy*, and forget about streamlining. The designers of the day were primarily concerned with 'make it stay in the air' as opposed to appearances or speed/efficiency, which the more streamlined forms provided.

I liked reading the completely impartial article on Schwarz's invention.

And that is the butt-ugliest Zeppelin I've ever seen.

But your mileage may vary.

IIRC the US tested some (1-2?) rigid aluminium skinned airships around the time of WW2, after the Macon/Akron programs – they looked like a Goodyear blimp but with panels of slightly differing reflectivity. I think the idea was that they could be driven faster than the regular blimps as the envelope would not deform due to drag/air pressure. The difference seems not to have been enough to get them into general production.