X-Nico

2 unusual facts about NS-class blimp


Airship N.S.11 crash

NS11 was one of 14 North Sea-class airships ordered by the Royal Navy for the Royal Naval Air Service, but by the time NS11 was delivered in September 1918, the Royal Naval Air Service had been amalgamated with the Royal Flying Corps to form the RAF.

NS-class blimp

Similar to the Coastal and C-Star classes, the "North Seas" employed a tri-lobe envelope based on the Astra-Torres design principles.


B-class blimp

The Navy set up airship stations along the East Coast, at Chatham, Massachusetts, Montauk, Long Island, Rockaway Beach in NY City, Cape May, New Jersey, Norfolk, Virginia, and Key West and Pensacola, Florida.

C-class blimp

Once again, the envelope production was split between Goodyear and Goodrich, with control cars being built by the Burgess division of Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, and the St. Louis Aircraft Corporation.

J-class blimp

From May 1924 the J-1 served at Lakehurst, and was at that time the Navy's only active blimp.

K-class blimp

The final leg of the first transatlantic crossing was about a 20-hour flight from the Azores to Craw Field in Port Lyautey (Kenitra), French Morocco.

SS-class blimp

Similar to the prototype, the production car was a wingless B.E.2c fuselage stripped of various fittings, and equipped with two ash skids in place of the wheeled undercarriage.

Consequently, on 28 February the First Sea Lord, Admiral Lord Fisher called a meeting with Commander E A D Masterman (Officer Commanding the Naval Airship Section) and representatives from Vickers and the London-based firm of Airships Limited to discuss the possibilities of creating a fleet of suitable patrol airships, sometimes referred to as "scouts".

At the same time a number of new air stations were set up as well as a training station at Cranwell.

SST-class blimp

Experiments involving SSTs were carried out at the end of the war; one notable example being SSE.3 (SS Experimental) that had an envelope design known as shape "U.271", the shape from which the hulls of both R100 and R101 were derived.


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