My Italian: Chapter 542 Airship on board?

The use of airships by the Army can be said to be very successful. Taking advantage of the large carrying capacity of the airship and its ability to land at any time, the airborne troops and air strikes were successfully identified.

The Army has worked so hard, and the Navy, as another branch of the military, is certainly not far behind.

On the endless sea, an airship flies slowly in the cloudless sky.

However, this airship looks a bit strange, because it is a bit different from the current mainstream rigid airships. It does not look like there are so many supporting trusses. In addition, it is also different from the previous soft airships. It is obvious that there are traces of several support frames. floating on the airship.

Semi-rigid airship, is the word.

A new airship intended to combine the advantages of both rigid and soft airships.

As for why the Navy wants to combine the advantages of the two airships to develop such a semi-rigid airship, it is a long story.

After the rigid airship showed a military role, the Navy has always wanted to study other functions of the airship.

Its long-term staying in the air and its much higher speed than warships have given the Navy a variety of ideas for airships.

Among them, the use of airships for reconnaissance missions is currently the best choice for the Navy.

The location of Italy itself is superior, coupled with the surrounding islands, it has a great help for the maritime reconnaissance of the airship.

However, although Italy is in a good position, the navy has great ambitions. They believe that the navy is an offensive arm, and it is impossible to only operate in the thousands of miles around Italy. If it appears in other waters, then it lacks airships as a convenient means of reconnaissance. It will be inconvenient.

This is not because the navy does not pay attention to the reconnaissance tasks of light warships, but it is providing more choices for itself. Besides, if the vast sea wants to search the enemy, it must be the more means the better.

It is not easy to get the airship on the ship, because the incompressible characteristics of the rigid airship make the cost of using the airship at sea very high.

You think, a small reconnaissance airship is at least 60 to 70 meters in length and more than 10 meters in diameter. What's more terrible is that the rigid airship cannot be disassembled, which means how big a ship can be loaded with such a rigid airship, not to mention the need to consider the speed of keeping up with the warship, as well as its loading, lifting, replenishment and other aspects. .

In this way, the cost of boarding a rigid airship is too high, so high that no one can afford it, not even the United Kingdom and the United States, which are rich and willing to spend money.

Since the rigid airship cannot be used because the cost is too high, then it is not feasible to change the airship that can shrink. Don't tell me, this idea is really messed up. However, the traditional soft airship does not meet the requirements of the Navy (too slow and easily disturbed by the weather).

At this time, someone proposed to combine the characteristics of both rigid and soft airships, and put forward the point of view of semi-rigid airships.

After hearing this idea, the Italian Navy was very supportive, and it also allocated a special amount for the development of this project.

The current result is this strange looking airship in the sky.

Now, the airship is undergoing intense testing to get the Navy's approval, and for the project leader, Professor Coburn, the pressure is not small.

"Record wind values."

In the slightly shaking airship cabin, Professor Cockburn kept giving orders.

"12.3 meters per second, which is a sixth-level wind."

A tester, observing the value of the measuring instrument, reported to him.

And hearing the tester's report made Cockburn frown in the shaking cabin.

Because of the shaking frequency in the cabin, Cockburn quickly calculated the wind level that the airship under his feet was not suitable for flying, and the situation was not optimistic.

In fact, in his heart, after several previous tests, Coburn already had a general understanding of the semi-rigid airship under his feet. The test data was not as expected, which made him a little anxious. But these are hidden in his heart, and he is still a confident Professor Cockburn in front of others.

"The ship was found ahead, I don't know if it was our target."

The lookout observed the appearance of a ship in the distance and immediately reported it.

"Let's go over and see if that's what we're looking for."

Under Cockburn's orders, the bizarre airship flew towards the discovered vessel.

The Maxwell transport ship is a flat-deck ship of the Italian Navy's transport fleet with a total length of 119 meters and a displacement of 7,000 tons. It usually transports materials to various naval bases, but this time the transport ship took on a mission, Let it meet the landing of an airship at sea.

"Where is the airship?"

On the transport ship, the crew watched the sky with wide eyes. However, in addition to the blue sky, there are only white clouds in the sky, and there is no airship that needs to wait at all.

"Is the airship unable to find us?"

"It's quite possible."

"What are you two talking about, don't you know the Navy's regulations?"

The two crew members who were reprimanded immediately turned into birds and beasts.

"There is an airship, I don't know if it is the one we are waiting for."

A crew member with sharp eyes found a small black spot in the sky and reported it loudly.

Captain Enrique immediately took out his binoculars to observe the small black dots that appeared in the sky. When he found the obvious mark on the airship, he immediately ordered the chief officer beside him. "It's the one we've been waiting for, let everyone get ready."

With the captain's words, all the crew on the Maxwell started to get busy. Some people pulled the ropes, some installed hooks, and some people took out flags and prepared to sing. These are all things that must be prepared for the landing of the airship.

Soon this strange airship came to the sky, and several cables were thrown from the air, and were immediately caught by the crew below and hung on the hook.

The landing of the airship is actually not complicated. It mainly depends on the operation of the airship itself, and only needs to be parked by the ship itself. Of course, docking at sea is more troublesome than land, because the shaking of the ship needs to be considered, but the trouble is really only a little bit, but the time spent is only longer.

After the semi-rigid airship is docked, the next step is the final test, reducing the size of the airship and placing it inside the ship.

However, since it is only an experiment now, the Maxwell transport ship has not been equipped with a cabin specially for the airship, so it is simulated in Class A.

Under the monitoring of the timekeeper, after half an hour, this strange airship was divided into several categories, airbags, hanging warehouses, engines, etc., were placed everywhere. And the tired crew members can finally rest now.

"The disassembly is completed in half an hour."

Professor Cockburn, who was also holding a pocket watch, put away the watch and watched as the Navy testers began to measure the size of the disassembled airship.

"A total of 612.5 cubic meters."

After some measurements, the size of the airship after splitting was quickly calculated.

As for why it is so large, it is very simple that the helium gas in the airbag is not discharged at all. It is said that the production cost of helium gas is very high, and no one dares to use it once and discharge it, so this is why it has such a large volume. But it's already done. If it is calculated according to the rigid airship, at least double the space is required for placement.

After the crew rested for a while, Professor Cockburn, who was a little anxious, said to the naval officer beside him. "Major O'Dolovan, can we start the assembly?"

"no problem."

So the crew who had rested for a while stood up again at his command, and began to reassemble the disassembled airship under the guidance of several testers. Unlike disassembly, assembly took longer, and after a full hour, the airship appeared on the ship again.

Next, they will conduct a return flight test and return to the place of departure.

The results of this experiment were also quickly sent back to the Admiralty. Regarding the various data of the experiment, Reynal from the Naval Equipment Department wrote instructions after reading it for a while.

Stop continuing research on semi-rigid airships and seal all data.

Then he will inform Admiral Yagier of the results. The data of the semi-rigid airship is not as expected, and the navy will not benefit from continuing research.