The return of the giant airships? A 
airship's first flight date of 1852. Becoming throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the leaders rigid hull have become increasingly popular in the early twentieth century.
Airships were used during the First World War, and even passenger liners. But after a series of accidents in the 30's, have given them a reputation of dangerousness, the giant airships were gradually abandoned.
Today, airships, much smaller than their predecessors, are no longer used solely for publicity purposes as tourist attractions, for monitoring or research.
But all this could change soon, and the near future expect the return of giant airships.
What a blimp? An airship is a lighter machine than air, or balloon, which can be driven and directed.
non-rigid airships, the most "primitive", have no internal structure.
Airships rigid hull, however, have an internal frame (metal) that support the outer shell, as well as engines, gondolas, tails, etc..
The airships are often called "Zeppelins" because of the popularity of airships built by German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early twentieth century.
Short historical overview After a century of experimentation to send hot air balloons in the sky, the first balloon flight with human passengers was held in France, in Annonay, in 1783, in balloon (a "Balloon") built by the Montgolfier brothers.
The next step would be the Construct of a ball with motor. This was done in 1852 by another French, Henri Giffard, who ran 27 km with Steam his airship. The following decades saw the invention of electric-powered airships, and later at moteru gasoline.
The new crucial development occurred toward the end of the century, when the German, David Schwarz, designed and built the first rigid airship, equipped with a metal outer shell.
Many airships were built and tested in subsequent years. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, France including airships used to carry the mail.
This gave the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the idea of building his own model. However, it could not achieve his dream before 1900, when his first 128-meter long airship, the LZ 1, flew to the bailiffs speed of 9 m / s (3 meters higher than the airship La France, which previously held the record). Despite a lack of financial support, Zeppelin continued to build more reliable models. By 1909, the Zeppelins were used for commercial transport of passengers.
But with the failure of the First World War, airships were hardly more employees than for military purposes. Germany, but England, France and Italy, used them to spy and as a platform to launch bombs.
After the war, the passenger returned and became increasingly popular. The USS Shenandoah, which opened in 1923 in the aero-naval base Lakehurst, New Jersey (where also would be the disaster of the Hindenburg, 14 years later), was the first of four airships hull solid American ever constructed. For the first time, an airship used an inert gas, helium, to fly instead of an explosive gas, hydrogen.
The years 1920 and 1930 were the culmination of the use of giant airships as LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and LZ 129 Hindenburg, who became the means of transatlantic transport of passengers, from Germany to North America and Brazil. Arrow Art Deco Empire State Building was originally designed to serve as a terminal to these transatlantic airships.
However, the disaster of the Hindenburg in 1937, as well as other lesser accidents (the U.S. qutre airships had been destroyed acccidentellement 1935) and the U.S. refusal to sell helium (which they controlled the supply) Germany, hastened the abandonment of giant airships.
During the Second World War, only the USA made it a real use of airships, all non-rigid. The giant airships seemed to really be something in the past. That is to say, until very recently ...
The return of giant airships?
In recent years, with an awareness and a greater consideration of environmental issues, so totally unexpected, the giant airships could well find a second wind.
- Project Skyhook
In 2008, the Canadian company, Skyhook has developed the idea of using a giant blimp, JHL-40, to carry loads of 40 tons in places isolated. The use of a blimp could make farm forestry, mining or drilling in remote locations (such as the Arctic or the Amazon), less harmful to the environment, particularly by eliminating the need to build roads. The airship could also be used for transporting equipment to offshore drilling sites. The airship
Skyhook use just enough helium to carry its own weight, its four propeller helicopter-loading of cargo. The only environmental problem with the JHL-40, however, is that it could encourage the development of industrial projects in places hitherto preserved, making them more easily ...
- The Euro Airship
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the idea of using airships giant was also the path. This possibility had been raised several years ago, when the pieces of the aircraft giant Airbus A380 had to be transported across Europe to Toulouse for assembly. A special transport aircraft had been manufactured, and a number of roads built or bridges removed, the parties transported by road. Some had then remarked that transport by airship would have been easier and more economical. But the idea had been unsuccessful.
And then in October 2009, Euro Airship, based in France, announced that after several years of research and development, it is ready to build a giant airship rigid hull. The giant airship
(capable of carrying some 400 tons!) Is a hearth for economical and ecological alternative to the cargo plane, since its fuel consumption would be 10 times lower than that of a plane carrying the same load.
Jean Lescat, CEO of Euro Airship, and society leaders, hoping to capitalize on the craze for green technology to find the necessary financial support (5 million) to build their first prototype. They plan to produce some 10 airships a year by 2016.
Sources:
L'Express, October 2009
http://blogs.lexpress.fr/conso
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/07/giant_airships_ecocredentials.html
http://www.girdersandgears.com/airships.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin
