semirigidairship

A history of the brief life of the Nobile N-3: "Nobile N-3: The [Japanese] Navy's first semi-rigid type, the N-3 was almost 263ft long with a maximum diameter of 49ft and a hydrogen capacity of 274,700ft 3 . It was powered by two Maybach 245hp six cylinder in-line water-cooled engines, each driving a two bladed pusher propeller, mounted in streamlined nacelles abreast of each other below, close to and about half way along the envelope. A well glazed enclosed cabin for the crew of 7/12 was fixed direct to and almost at the front of the envelope keel, with horizontal stabilisers and dorsal/ventral rudders at the envelope rear for flight control. It had a range of 1250 miles at a cruising speed of about 60mph. The N-3 arrived in Japan during January 1927 and was assembled in the Zeppelin shed at Kasumigaura by Maj.Gen.Umberto Nobile and a team of Italian technicians. It made a successful first flight on 6 th April with a crew of six Japanese and six Italians, after which it operated satisfactorily and joined naval manoeuvres south of Tokyo on 22 nd October 1927. Unfortunately strong winds resulted in an emergency landing on Kozu-shima Island, where all the crew managed to disembark. After they had done so a sudden gust of wind carried the airship out to sea, where it exploded and was totally destroyed. Its one claim to fame was in being the fastest Japanese airship." www.j-aircraft.com/research/jas_jottings/japanese_airship...

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Built from the remains of British Army Dirigible No. 1 (Nulli Secundus), this is British Army Dirigible No. 2, better known as Nulli Secundus II. Nulli Secundus II flew three times in July and August 1908, before being scrapped later that month.

TVL1970: Very interesting information! Thanks for the heads up on the specific dirigible shown here. It's helpful that the British Army Dirigible No. 1 is similar, but not identical to this one. We will add to the caption with the more complete identification.

Génial !!!

"Nulli Secundus II" seems like an oxymoronic name... meaning "Second to None #2" in Latin

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