The Parsevals were 22 airships built between 1909 and 1919 by the Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft (LFG) following the design of August von Parseval. In the 1920s and 1930s, three more airships were built following the Parseval-Naatz (PN) design.
As with the rival Zeppelins, the airships were, in both English and German, referred to by the name of the inventor. (In German, the nouns were masculine, that is, "der Parseval", "der Zeppelin".)
In contrast to the Zeppelins, the Parsevals were non-rigid or semi-rigid airships, with little or no stiffening structure inside the fabric envelope. The Zeppelins had a rigid internal framework made of duralumin. Both types relied on hydrogen gas to provide lift.
Diagram of an early Parseval airship. The two internal balloons were not for lift generation. They were ordinarily pumped with air when a vessel began losing its shape due to hydrogen's pressure changes.Brochure of the Luftfahrzeug-GmbH
Experimental airship
Just before lift off on 26 May 1906, piloted by Captain von Krogh
The Versuchsluftschiff (meaning experimental airship) was Parseval's first model. It was rebuilt several times.
First flight on 26 May 1906 at Berlin's Tegel, a military field
Pilot: Captain von Krogh
Length: 48 m, Diameter: 4.8 m
Power plant: 62kW (85 PS) Daimler-Motor
Max speed: 43.2km/h
The hull was completed by the balloon constructer Riedinger and was later increased from 2300 to 2800 cubic metre, the length increased to 50 m
After all the modifications were completed, from 1909 it was designated "PL 1".
Power plant: a 62kW (85 PS) Daimler-Motor, a 4.25 m-prop
On 21 and 22 September 1909 three test flights, improvements to steering and hull, afterwards transported by train Zug to Zürich for the Gordon Bennet Ballon-Races, four demonstration flights in Zürich. The Swiss airship department provided gas filling services, and the chief of the Swiss military general staff was among the passengers for the first flight over Swiss soil.
In February 1910 was used as the "Kaiserliche Aero-Klub-Luftschiff" (Imperial air-club airship) and in Bitterfeld until its end of service
20 Flights between 21 September 1909 und 21 April 1910, the last flight a forced landing
Experimented with an image projector (see also PL 6 where advertising images were projected on the hull)
PL 2 / P.I
P I and P II over Cologne, together with two other German airships
Built for the Prussian army, under the marking P.I, construction similar to the PL 1.
Maiden flight: 1908-08-13, in service until 1912 then dismantled.
Volume: 4000 m³
Length: 60 m, Diameter: 10.4 m
Power plant: a 62kW (85 PS) Daimler-Motor with one airprop
45km/h max speed
PL 3 / P.II
Willy Stöwer illustrated the military airship PII reporting the approach of a Wright Flyer in 1910.
After seven flights, the hull volume was enlarged on 1909-03-23 from 5600 to 6600m³, refilling starts 1909-06-05, length remains at 70 m, diameter increased by one metre to 11.3 m, test flight 1909-06-28 in Bitterfeld
Regular passenger flights with up to seven passengers and 4 crew from the International air exhibition in Frankfurt/Main from 7 August until the end of October 1909. Total 74 flights.
Put out of service after flying into the sea on 1910-05-16
Power plant: two 81kW (110 PS) N.A.G.-Motors, each driving a four-bladed airprop
Max speed: 14 metres per second (50km/h), possibly 16 metres per second (58km/h) with only 6 persons[2][3]
Flight duration: 20 hours or longer
Flight ceiling: 2500 metre
Crew and passengers: 12-16
Crew: 3-4
The Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft brochure shows the PL 7 (Type B), intended for the Russian military, one of its six-cylinder 100 PS engines, and its gondola with two engines driving semi-rigid props
PL 8 Ersatz P.II
PL 8 diagram
PL 8 delivered to Prussian army on 1913-03-12, with marking Ersatz P.II (P.II replacement)
Volume: 5600 m³
Max speed: 16–17m/s
Flight duration: >= 20 h
Flight ceiling: 2000 m
Passengers and crew: 7-12
Crew: 4
Power plant: Two 150 PS engines each driving a four-bladed airprop[4]
PL 9
Stationed at Flughafen Klein Gandau in Breslau (Wroclaw, Poland)
1913 sold to the Turkish military
First flight in Yeşilköy occurred on 23 July 1913.[5]
PL 10 Sportsluftschiff
PL 10 1700 m³ Sportsluftschiff after the first flight in 1910 dismantled and stored in Bitterfeld
PL 11 - P.III
PL 11 first flight 1912-03-01, for the Prussian Army designated as P.III until middle 1914
PL 12 Charlotte
Charlotte getauft,
Built for the "Rheinisch-Westfälischen Flug- und Sportplatz-Gesellschaft mbH Wanne - Herten", where it was used for roundtrips
Maiden flight: 1912-05-11
PL 12 was used as a passenger and advertising airship until 1914.
Middle of 1914 delivered to the Prussian army, where it was renamed "P.IV"
In service until 1916-03-24
PL 17
Maiden flight: 1912-12-30
Delivered to Italy where it served in the army until 1915
PL 18 - No.4
PL 18 in 1913
Maiden flight: 23. April 1913
1913 delivered to the Royal Navy, under the marking "Parseval No.4". The British would describe its service as very successful
Length: 80 m; diameter: 15 m; volume: 8800 m³.
Power plant: 2x 132kW (180 PS) Maybach-engines, max speed 68km/h,
Crew: 2 officers and 7 men. Radio and Weaponry installed
Served during the World War I as patrol ship, demobilised in July 1917
PL 19
PL 19 was intended for the British Royal Navy as "Parseval No.5", but upon war's outbreak was used instead by the German Navy. In England Vickers constructed three replacement hulls and 2 gondolas with identical specifications.
Maiden flight: 30 August 1914
Length: 92 m; Diameter: 15 m; Volume: 10,000 m³
Power plant: two 132kW (180 PS) Maybach-engines, max speed: 76km/h,
On 1915-01-25 after an air attack on Liepāja, Latvia, due to artillery damage made emergency sea-landing and crew taken as Russian prisoners of war
PL 20 - PL 24
PL 20-24 were not built.
PL 25
PL25
See: Parseval PL25 PL 25 was a military airship made in 1914/1915. It was the last single-gondola Parseval airship. It made its first flight on 1915-02-25, entered Navy service until 1916, after 95 flights.
PL 26
PL 26 was a semirigid airship whose maiden flight was on 1915-10-26, but it had an accident upon landing and was destroyed in a fire, with no casualties.
Length: 157 m, maximum diameter: 19.5 m
Volume: 31,300 m³
Max speed: 100km/h
Power plant: four 177kW (240 PS) Maybach-engines
PL 27
PL27's maiden flight was on 1917-03-08. The major difference from its predecessor PL 26 was the specification of the gondola. Because it no longer met increased military requirements, it was not put to military service but instead converted to a passenger airship in 1919. The Treaty of Versailles resulted in its dismantlement in 1920.
Trumpf-advertising airship, (like the Raab-Katzenstein RK 27)
Built in Seddin/Pommern by the Berlin "Wasser- und Luftfahrzeug GmbH"
Maiden flighton 1929-06-06 in Berlin
Official marking: D-PN28
Volume: 1800 m³
Parseval-Naatz PN 29 Sidenhuset
Semirigid airship
Built in 1929 as D-PN 29 with a passenger capacity of 5
Volume: 2300 m³
Length: 44 m, diameter: 10 m
Power plant: one Siemens-Halske-engine of 75kW (100 PS)
Max speed 82km/h
Total flying time: about 600 hours in 200 flights
On 1930-05-21 PN 29 acquired the Swedish call-sign "SE-ACG Sidenhuset", after the then well-known ladies boutique from Stockholm. The word "Sidenhuset" was displayed in large letters on its hull.[6] The owner was "AB Luftskeppsreklam i Stockholm" (Airship Advertising Co).
Sidenhuset's task was to make advertising flights over the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition (Stockholmsutställningen). The airship was damaged by wind due to its being parked outside. The manufacturer arrived and it was decided to fly the ship back to Germany for repairs. During the fight it crashed into the Baltic Sea, south of the island of Öland, on 1930-06-04. The airship sank, but with no casualties.[6]
Parseval - Naatz PN 30 Odol
PN 30 flew under the callsign Odol as an advertising and research airship.
↑ Atlı, Altay (2008). "Story of Turkish Aviation". Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2010. Parseval PL-9 was sent aloft in Yeşilköy on 23 July 1913. A crew of German and Turkish officers and engineers manned the balloon, which managed to reach an altitude of 300 meters.
Schmitt, G. und Schwipps, W. - Pioniere der frühen Luftfahrt, Gondrom Verlag, Blindlach 1995, ISBN3-8112-1189-7
Haaland, D.; Knäusel, H.G.; Schmidt, G. und Seifert, J. - Leichter als Luft - Ballone und Luftschiffe, Die Deutsche Luftfahrt Bd. 26, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1997, ISBN3-7637-6114-4
Reid, A. - The Parseval Airships, Lulu online publishing, 2015.
Seifert, Dr. Jürgen - Die Luftschiffwerft und die Abteilung Seeflugzeugbau der Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft in Bitterfeld (1908 - 1920) Bitterfeld 1988, ISBN (none)
Luftschiffahrt, Dem heutigen Stande der Wissenschaft entsprechend dargestellt von Regierungsbaumeister K. Hackstetter, Oberingenieur Siegfried Hartmann, Regierungsrat Hofmann, Leutnant Ernst Mickel, Emil Sandt, Oberleutnant a. D. Stelling, Dr.P. Schulze, und Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin, 1908
LZ 129 Hindenburg was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. It was designed and built by the Zeppelin Company on the shores of Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and was operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company. It was named after Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who was President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934.
The Zeppelin NT is a class of helium-filled airships being manufactured since the 1990s by the German company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH (ZLT) in Friedrichshafen. The initial model is the N07. The company considers itself the successor of the companies founded by Ferdinand von Zeppelin which constructed and operated the very successful Zeppelin airships in the first third of the 20th century. There are, however, a number of notable differences between the Zeppelin NT and original Zeppelins as well as between the Zeppelin NT and usual non-rigid airships known as blimps. The Zeppelin NT is classified as a semi-rigid airship.
R.36 was a British airship designed during World War I, but not completed until after the war. When she first flew in 1921, it was not in her originally intended role as a patrol aircraft for the Royal Navy, but as an airliner, the first airship to carry a civil registration (G-FAAF).
A semi-rigid airship is an airship which has a stiff keel or truss supporting the main envelope along its length. The keel may be partially flexible or articulated and may be located inside or outside the main envelope. The outer shape of the airship is maintained by gas pressure, as with the non-rigid "blimp". Semi-rigid dirigibles were built in significant quantity from the late 19th century but in the late 1930s they fell out of favour along with rigid airships. No more were constructed until the semi-rigid design was revived by the Zeppelin NT in 1997.
The ZeppelinLZ 1 was the first successful experimental rigid airship. It was first flown from a floating hangar on Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen in southern Germany, on 2 July 1900. "LZ" stood for Luftschiff Zeppelin, or "Airship Zeppelin".
PL25 was a non-rigid military airship made in 1914/15 by the Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft in Bitterfeld and was the last single-gondola Parseval. At the same time it was one of the largest non-rigid airships before the second world war. Its maiden flight was on 25 February 1915. It had a slim teardrop-shaped hull.
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Gross-Basenach or Groß-Basenach is the designation for a series of five so-called M-class German military semi-rigid airships constructed by balloonist Nikolaus Basenach and Major Hans Georg Friedrich Groß (1860–1924) of the Royal Prussian Airship Battalion Nr 2 between 1907 and 1914.
The ZeppelinLZ 3 was a German experimental airship constructed in Friedrichshafen under the direction of Ferdinand von Zeppelin. It was first flown on 9 October 1906 and was later purchased by the German Army and operated as Z I until being retired in 1913. Before being purchased by the Army, LZ 3 made many flights and carried a number of influential passengers, including the German Crown Prince.
LZ 10 Schwaben was a German rigid airship built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in 1911 and operated by DELAG for passenger service. It is regarded as the first commercially successful passenger-carrying aircraft.
The ZeppelinLZ 4 was a German experimental airship constructed under the direction of Ferdinand von Zeppelin. First flown on 20 June 1908, it made a series of successful flights including a 12-hour flight over Switzerland. It was destroyed when it caught fire after landing to carry out engine repairs during a projected 24-hour endurance trial. This disaster proved fortunate for Zeppelin: donations by the German public raised 6.5 million marks, so guaranteeing the future of his development of airships.
LZ 18 was the second Zeppelin airship to be bought by the Imperial German Navy. It caught fire and crashed with the loss of all aboard on 17 October 1913 before entering service.
LZ 120 Bodensee was a passenger-carrying airship built by Zeppelin Luftschiffbau in 1919 to operate a passenger service between Berlin and Friedrichshafen. It was later handed over to the Italian Navy as war reparations in place of airships that had been sabotaged by their crews and renamed Esperia. A sister-ship, LZ 121 Nordstern, was built in 1920: it was handed over to France and renamed Méditerranée.
The Zeppelin P Class was the first Zeppelin airship type to be produced in quantity after the outbreak of the First World War. Twenty-two of the type were built as well as twelve of a lengthened version, the Q Class. They were used for many of the airship bombing raids on the United Kingdom in 1915-16, for naval patrol work over the North Sea and Baltic and were also deployed on the eastern and south-eastern fronts.
Zeppelin LZ 38 was Zeppelin P Class airship of the German Imperial Army. It was the first to bomb London, United Kingdom.
The LZ 121 was a civilian airship from the Weimar Republic, a Y-Class zeppelin with a total length of 130.8 metres. It received the nickname Nordstern while in German service, before it was given to France as war reparations on 13 June 1921. In France she was renamed the Méditerranée and operated as a civilian air transport for a year. She was transferred to the French Navy and served in the Mediterranean for four years. She was decommissioned and broken up in August1926.
The Imperial German Army Zeppelin LZ 80 (L-35) was a R-class World War I zeppelin.
The Zeppelin LZ 5, tactical number Z II, was a German experimental military rigid airship constructed under the direction of Ferdinand von Zeppelin. After having made numerous successful trips, LZ 5 broke loose from its moorings in a storm and subsequentely crashed on 25 April 1910.
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