New Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (WIP)

Hi Thiel,

I'd thought that at a fairly slow speed - enough to retain control but certainly not flat out - it'd be roughly as dangerous as ship-ship refuelling. Safety lines for everyone, obviously, and I can't picture it being a terribly quick process (even if the receiving airship can dump water ballast to offset the fuel load it's taking on, the airship sending the fuel is going to be limited by the speed at which they can compress the helium into the compensation tanks) but still quicker than going a few hundred miles back to a shed to refuel.

Still, if you're sure, no problem to strike it. Apart from that, any comments? The buoyancy compensation thing, by the way, has been prototyped in real life, though it is fairly recent - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwide_Aeros_Corp.

Regards,
Adam

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Basically airships are a lot less sturdy than ships and a lot harder to steer. It's not pretty when two ships collide while running alongside, but two airships are likely to be damaged to the point of crashing.
I can't say much about the drawing, but I do wonder about the choice of helium. AFAIK most of the worlds known reserves at the time are in the US

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Hi Thiel,

Fair enough, I'll amend ... guess I can always have an actual ship with an airship mast if there is a pressing need for on-station replenishment.

With regards to helium, thanks to the magic of AU handwaving, New Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach has some of it's own oil and gas fields (this is partly what leads to the Falklands conflict in AU WWII) - one of the byproducts of these is their own supply of helium. But yes, you are right, not a chance of getting anything like that out of the US in the 30s - that was one of the reasons Hindenberg was a H2 ship rather than an He ship, after all.

EDIT: Oh rats, I've just introduced another point of departure from reality, haven't I? If NSWE has He then why doesn't the 3rd Reich... Transport concerns?

Regards,
Adam

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As far as I can see you haven't written anything about NSWEs geography, at least not in this thread, but from what I gather you'd also have to advance sub-sea extraction some 30-40 years.

That zeppelin looks very promising. I especially love the 3 level gondola.
I will be watching this project with anticipation

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Hi all,

Please find below the blank of the airship. It's not templated yet as I thought I'd wait until I've done all four versions (blank, cargo \ passenger (ZRC?) \ Airborne carrier (ZRV?) \ Airborne early warning (ZRE?)) before templating but was hoping for feedback on the basic airframe and illustration. Geometry tabs are off to clean up the illustration but I've left the labels on (may leave them on the final drawing if that is not counter to SB standard?)

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Regards,
Adam

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Wow!! Looks fantastic! I don't see anything wrong with it. It is very well done!

First up, many thanks to ezgo (and eswube, who I understand has been a contributor at third remove!) for much work on the airship details and thrashing out the history.

Please find below the interwar airships produced by New Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach:

LZ-254 Class
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The generic "Heavy Airship" of NSWE's Naval Aviation arm, the LZ-254 class commenced construction in 1933, construction largely limited by New Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach's helium production capacity - the first three airships were completed fairly promptly by the expedient of dismantling most of the rest of NSWE's lighter-than-air vehicles, but the increased capability, both in terms of lifting capacity and the ability to control the airship even in rougher weather, made the decision almost unanimous within Naval Aviation.

Some stats on the basic airship of the class:
Length: 254m / 833ft
Diameter: 43m / 141 ft
Height: 49.5m / 161.5ft
Beam (as defined by elevator edges): 49.5m / 161.5ft
Cargo capacity: 72 tons (this is the same as the Akron, because...)
He carriage: 202,400 cubic metre / 7,147,700 cu.ft. + 6,450 cubic metres @ 150-300kPa / 227,800 cu.ft. @ 22-44 psi buoyancy compensation in low-pressure annular tanks A-J

The buoyancy compensation can accommodate approximately 10,000 kilos variance from "empty" to full - the tanks don't entirely empty and assist with frame stiffness - the annular tanks are located immediately fore-and-aft of the five frames mounting the engines - while emptying the buoyancy reserve into the lift cells requires no power, running the compressor to take He from the lift cells and force it into the buoyancy comp tanks requires that the propeller is de-clutched and the compressor clutched in. As Akron and Macon this airship also mounts condensers on the engine exhaust to collect water ballast, partly to stop having to run the compressors so frequently.

The propellers (and compressors) are powered by 10 x Modula 9 engines, giving the airship a high, if fuel-inefficient top speed of 90kn. As the airship design forces the propellers to be on the same level and in each other's wash, counter-rotating props have been fitted in an attempt to reduce interference, though these were eventually removed as an unnecessary complication given the mediocre performance benefits.

In addition to cargo lift (though the cargo lift, for all intents and purposes, is closer to the 10,000kg that the ship can compensate for than the raw 72,000kg raw lift number, unless ballast loading \ unloading can be arranged in advance) this class of airship is used as a flying aircraft carrier, hosting 5 parasite fighters (the FAA fighter is just for scale), themselves armed with 4 x 20mm and capable of fairly high speeds courtesy of their own Modula 9-2 engines developing around 1,800kW, and also as a radar picket, mounting a generator and two modified Freya radar sets on the lower hull, the radar picket acting as an AWACS and directing the parasite fighters launched by companion airships to intercept. The few remaining cargo variants had by 1942 (most had by this point been converted to either Zeppelin Flugzeugträger or Zeppelin Freya variants) mostly been tasked with outsize cargo, although successful trials at transporting light armoured vehicles were not progressed once survivability of the airframes was factored into the assessment.

The carrier variant has a crane to lift planes into the hangar and four ready-access points, though the foremost point was virtually unusable by the start of the war - given the higher speeds required to hook up to the airship safely, the first ready-access point was too far into the turbulence created by the large gondola to hook up safely. Due to the difference in roles and the requirement to co-ordinate with ground control, better radios are fitted.

Next up, the wartime Zeppelin Freya variant, and the camo for the cargo, carrier and Freya variants ... which is going to be a struggle ... how do you camouflage these? What as? A lost, falling whale?

Regards,
Adam

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It's a nice drawing, but by the 1940ies the best thing to do with them would be to melt them down an turn the aluminium into airplanes

Hi Thiel,

While I agree with you in general, roles involving a long loiter time would still favour the airship in this time frame, surely? The USN was using radar blimps into the '60s, I thought? The cargo role would probably redundant, agreed, but that's why those ones get mostly phased out. The aerial aircraft carrier is probably stretching things a little given the size of the airgroup on any feasible airship, but I'd figured they'd perform as part of a whole rather than providing the entire force. Have I missed the point of your comment?

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