In October 1910, the American journalist, Walter Wellman, set out for Europe from Atlantic City in the airship America. Wellman had in 1909 attempted to reach the North Pole.
The America was a non-rigid airship built by Mutin Godard in France in 1906 for Walter Wellman's attempt to reach the North Pole by air.
A storm off Cape Cod sent him off course, and an engine failure forced him to ditch half way between New York and Bermuda.
Wellman and his crew of five were rescued by a passing British ship, the RMS Trent.
The Atlantic bid failed, but the distance covered, about 1,000 statute miles or 1,600 km, was at the time a record for an airship.
The America airship was 165 ft, 50.3 m long and 51 ft 10 in, 15.8 m at its greatest diameter. It had a volume of 258,000 cu ft, or 7,300 m³ of hydrogen.
The envelope was of three layers of fabric and three of rubber, and contained no internal formwork.
The gondola could hold a crew of five, and the ship was powered by three internal-combustion engines delivering a total of 80 hp (60 kW) by two propellers, one fore and one aft.
After abandoning his plans to reach the North Pole in 1909, Wellman resolved to make the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.
He had the America airship enlarged again, now to 345,000 cu ft (9,760 m³).
A spark gap radio set was added to the under- hanging life boat and operator Jack Irwin used it during the flight, callsign "W", and with the frame of the airship as the antenna.
Given the hydrogen used for lifting the craft this was a very dangerous system.
The unit made some of the very first air-to-ground transmissions.
On 15 October 1910 airship America took off from Atlantic City.
Condensing water on the airship's skin added excess weight making it difficult to gain height.
A passing storm also made forward navigation difficult.
The engines failed 38 hours into the flight, apparently due to contamination by beach sand, and America drifted.
The crew jettisoned all excess weight, including one of the malfunctioning engines.
The ship had gotten to a point east of New Hampshire and south of Nova Scotia before floating generally south.
After another 33 hours (total 71 hours), and having now traveled a total distance of 1,370 miles, 2,200 km from launching, they sighted the Royal Mail steamship Trent west of Bermuda.
After attracting the ship's attention by a signaling lamp using Morse code, Irwin made the first aerial distress call by radio.
The crew, and mascot cat "Kiddo", got into the lifeboat and, after opening the gas valves on the airship, abandoned the America.
America drifted out of sight and was never seen again.
Trent, having barely avoided running down the lifeboat in a high crosswind, was able to rescue the crew and returned them to New York.
Source: Wikipedia
Back to Main Page
No comments:
Post a Comment