Well the ZR1 Shenandoah was the first US rigid airship, a replica of a WWI "height climber" Zeppelin. Those were indeed fragile to maximize the "payload" fraction. Later civil German Zeppelins like the LZ120 "Bodensee" had much less payload capability. What brought down the later US Navy rigid airships, the Akron and Macon, was more an error in operations, as far as I know. They were beaten through storms and high speed-full rudder manoeuvres. The Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei was quite confident in their Airships and their captains, who reduced speed in severe weather.
Best, Johannes
Aerodynamic forces depend on the surface area of an object, and the surface area of an airship is huge. Big forces, big stresses on a necessarily lightweight structure
I think this is a myth.
An aerodynamic force is area times dynamic pressure. An airship of the same mass as an airplane is bigger, but can go slower. This reduces the aerodynamic pressure and thus the aero forces. While an airplane must sustain speed to stay in the air, an airship pilot can reduce speed in bad weather drastically.
Inertia forces, mass times acceleration, are higher in a fast craft. An airplane, tossed around by gusts, wants to keep it's masses on the way, while the gust wants to change the trajectory of the airplane. There you have aero forces, high aero forces in the range of mass times gravity, counteracting high inertia forces, what results in high loads. A slow airship just floats with the wind, is tossed around too, but so what? The aerodynamic loads are far lower than mass times gravity, as is the case for airplanes.
Slashdot Mirror
Well the ZR1 Shenandoah was the first US rigid airship, a replica of a WWI "height climber" Zeppelin. Those were indeed fragile to maximize the "payload" fraction. Later civil German Zeppelins like the LZ120 "Bodensee" had much less payload capability. What brought down the later US Navy rigid airships, the Akron and Macon, was more an error in operations, as far as I know. They were beaten through storms and high speed-full rudder manoeuvres. The Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei was quite confident in their Airships and their captains, who reduced speed in severe weather. Best, Johannes
Aerodynamic forces depend on the surface area of an object, and the surface area of an airship is huge. Big forces, big stresses on a necessarily lightweight structure
I think this is a myth.
An aerodynamic force is area times dynamic pressure. An airship of the same mass as an airplane is bigger, but can go slower. This reduces the aerodynamic pressure and thus the aero forces. While an airplane must sustain speed to stay in the air, an airship pilot can reduce speed in bad weather drastically.
Inertia forces, mass times acceleration, are higher in a fast craft. An airplane, tossed around by gusts, wants to keep it's masses on the way, while the gust wants to change the trajectory of the airplane. There you have aero forces, high aero forces in the range of mass times gravity, counteracting high inertia forces, what results in high loads. A slow airship just floats with the wind, is tossed around too, but so what? The aerodynamic loads are far lower than mass times gravity, as is the case for airplanes.
Johannes