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Other German Airship Designers

Militär Groß-Basenach
M (a)	M (Versuch)
M I (a - c)	MI
M II (a - b)	M II
M III (a - b)	M III
M IV (a - c)	M IV
Siemens-Schuckert
S.S.1 (a - b)	S.S.I
Others
V.1
PL ....	D-LEDA	”Pralinen – Trumpf”
PL 4360 (?)	D-LEMO
WDL 1 – 100	D-LDFM	”Der fliegende Musketier”
WDL 1 – 101	D-LDFN	...
WDL 1a – (101a)	D-LDFO	”Fuji”
WDL 1b – 105	D-LDFP	”Vereinte”, ”Marktkauf” ...

While Count Zeppelin was exerting every effort to improve his airships, the German army authorities tried to purchase in France one airship each of the semirigid Lebaudy and the non-rigid Astra types. Having failed to achieve their object the Germans resolved to copy the vessels they could not buy: this is how the Gross-Basenach and Parseval airships came into being.

The semi-rigid airships were of two types, that with the keel incorporated in the envelope as in the last Parseval airship (PL-27), and that with the keel slung several yards below the envelope, as in the Gross-Basenach or “M” type. The most important semi-rigid airships constructed were the “M" or military types built for the Prussian Army by the Prussian Army Airship Works and were mainly the design of two men, Major Gross of the Prussian Army, and Herr Basenach.

They were evidently not much of a success, for the later type of Parseval airship was given preference over the military types. In the early types of semi-rigid airships, those with the suspended keel, the gas tanks were carried in the cars, but in the later types with the keel incorporated in the bottom of the envelope, the gas tanks were placed in the rigid keel framework. This made it permissible to use lighter construction in the cars and utilize with slight modifications the existing keel framework, thereby effecting a saving in the structural weight of the airship.

The Gross airship, M.IV, was a pre-war product, having been built by the dissolved Balloon Battalion of the Prussian army. The ship was not particularly notable, except perhaps for the fact that it afforded the only record of German experiments with mooring airships to a mast, and that it belonged to the original German semi-rigid type. This was characterized by an underslung metal girder, from which two cars were suspended, a scheme which-as we have said above-was later incorporated with several improvements in the later Parseval airships. For this reason the latter were strictly speaking semi-rigid ships and not non-rigids, as the Germans called them.

According to their system of suspension, pressure airships may be divided into the following subtypes:

1. The girderless type, in which the load, represented by a short car, is directly distributed over the hull by means of steel cables ending at the top in crow's feet of flax rope, which are toggled to a rigging band of canvas, sewn upon the bottom of the hull. The rigging band may further be strengthened by canvas belts passing around the hull. This type was originated by Major von Parseval.
2. The car-girder type, originated by the late Colonel Renard, in. which the load is distributed over the hull by means of a trellis girder, extending up'to two thirds the length of the hull, which is suspended by a rigging similar to the one above described, although the rigging band may be omitted. Only part of the girder is fitted as a car proper in this case, the great length of the girder serving primarily to reduce the bending moment. A divergent application of this principle consists in fitting a short car with fore-and-aft outriggers, which serve the same purpose as a trellis girder, with a considerable saving of weight, however.
3. The keel-girder type, in which the load, represented by a short car, is distributed over the hull by means of a girder, attached to the bottom of the hull, from which the car is suspended. There exist many divergent applications of the keelgirder principle.

On the original keel-girder airship, the Lebaudy, designed by the eminent French aeronautic expert, M. Henri Juillot, the girder consisted of an oval platform of steel tubing which was built into the underside of the hull and held in place by internal crow's feet. On a later ship, the Morning Post, the girder was long and narrow, built in two pieces, hinged and suspended a short distance from the hull. The Gross-Basenach airships (Prussian Army Airship Works) are built on the same principle.

Changes of trim can be effected by static or dynamic means, or by a combination of both. Static control of trim may be attained through a shifting of the centre of buoyancy or of the center of gravity. In the first case the hull is provided with two ballonnets which can respectively be pumped full of air; thus, for ascending the rear ballonnet is pumped full and the front ballonnet emptied, and vice-versa. The difference between the specific weights of hydrogen and air causes—in the ascent—the centre of buoyancy to move forward, which in its turn raises the nose of the airship. This is the system employed on the Parseval and Gross- Basenach airships; it is worth noting, that on both types additional trim control is secured by a simultaneous shifting of the center of gravity.