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A blimp (/blɪmp/), or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships, blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas inside the envelope and the strength of the envelope itself to maintain their shape. Blimps are known for their use in advertising, surveillance, and as observation platforms due to their maneuverability and steady flight capabilities.
An airship is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air flying under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air to achieve the lift needed to stay airborne.
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, the school became a public land grant college, then took its current name in 1939. Over the following decade, social work, nursing, and graduate programs were established. During the 1960s, UConn Health was established for new medical and dental schools. UConn is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
An aerostat is a lighter-than-air aircraft that gains its lift through the use of a buoyant gas. Aerostats include unpowered balloons and powered airships. A balloon may be free-flying or tethered. The average density of the craft is lower than the density of atmospheric air, because its main component is one or more gasbags, a lightweight skin containing a lifting gas to provide buoyancy, to which other components such as a gondola containing equipment or people are attached. Especially with airships, the gasbags are often protected by an outer envelope.
UConn Health is a healthcare system and hospital, and branch of the University of Connecticut that oversees clinical care, advanced biomedical research, and academic education in medicine. The system is funded directly by the State of Connecticut and the University’s financial endowment. Its primary location, UConn John Dempsey Hospital, is a teaching hospital located in Farmington, Connecticut, in the US. In total, UConn Health comprises the hospital, the UConn School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, and Graduate School. Additional community satellite locations are located in Avon, Canton, East Hartford, Putnam, Simsbury, Southington, Storrs, Torrington, West Hartford, and Willimantic, including two urgent cares in both Storrs and Canton. UConn Health also owns and operates many smaller clinics around the state that contain UConn Medical Group, UConn Health Partners, University Dentists and research facilities. Andrew Agwunobi stepped down as the CEO of UConn Health in February 2022 after serving since 2014 for a private-sector job. Bruce Liang was UConn Heath's interim CEO for 2022-2024 and remains dean of the UConn School of Medicine. Andrew Agwunobi returned to UConn Health as Executive Vice President of Health Affairs and CEO beginning May 31, 2024.
The K-class blimp was a class of blimps built by the Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio for the United States Navy. These blimps were powered by two Pratt & Whitney Wasp nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engines, each mounted on twin-strut outriggers, one per side of the control car that hung under the envelope. Before and during World War II, 134 K-class blimps were built and configured for patrol and anti-submarine warfare operations, and were extensively used in the Navy’s anti-submarine efforts in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean areas.
The Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio built the M-class blimp for the US Navy as the follow-on to the K-class anti-submarine warfare blimp used during World War II. It was a significantly larger airship, 50% larger than its predecessor. Four airships, designated M-1 through M-4, were delivered in early 1944. Operations of K-ships in tropical regions had shown a need for a blimp with greater volume to offset the loss of lift due to high ambient temperatures.
The N-Class, or as popularly known, the "Nan ship", was a line of non-rigid airships built by the Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio for the US Navy. This line of airships was developed through many versions and assigned various designators as the airship designation system changed in the post World War II era. These versions included airships configured for both anti-submarine warfare and airborne early warning (AEW) missions.
The Daily Campus, founded in 1896, is a student-run newspaper at the University of Connecticut. The weekday paper services the main campus of UConn and Storrs, Connecticut community with circulation during the school term.
The SSZ non-rigid airships or "blimps" were developed in United Kingdom during World War I from the earlier SS class. The main role of these craft was to escort convoys and scout or search for German U-boats. A secondary purpose was to detect and destroy mines.
The B class blimps were patrol airships operated by the United States Navy during and shortly after World War I. The Navy had learned a great deal from the DN-1 fiasco. The result was the very successful B-type airships. Dr. Jerome Hunsaker was asked to develop a theory of airship design, Lt. John H. Towers had returned from Europe having inspected British designs, and using reports from attachés on British airship operations, the Navy was prepared to seek bids for blimps from American manufacturers. On 4 February 1917 the Secretary of the Navy directed that 16 nonrigid airships of Class B be procured. A February 12, 1917 meeting with the Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, and representatives of Goodyear, Goodrich, Connecticut Aircraft Company, Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation, and U.S. Rubber Company, it was agreed that the order for 16 dirigibles was beyond the capability of any one company. The conference resulted in a committee to coordinate on sharing raw materials, information and experience. Ultimately Goodyear manufactured 9 envelopes, Goodrich made 5 and Curtiss assembled the gondolas for all of those 14 ships. Connecticut Aircraft contracted with U.S. Rubber for its two envelopes and with Pigeon Fraser for its gondolas. The Curtiss-built gondolas used by Goodyear and Goodrich used modified Curtiss JN-4 fuselages powered by Curtiss OXX engines. The Connecticut Aircraft blimps were powered by Hall-Scott engines. One ship, B-20 was equipped with a special control car. All B-Class airships were delivered to the Navy between August 1917 (B-1) and September 1918 (B-20).
The D class blimp was a patrol airship used by the US Navy in the early 1920s. The D-type blimps were slightly larger than the C-type and had many detail improvements. The Navy continued the practice of dividing the envelope production between Goodyear and Goodrich. The control cars were manufactured by the Naval Aircraft Factory. The major improvements over the C-type blimps were a better control car design and easier, more reliable controls and instrumentation. The engines were moved to the rear to reduce noise and allow easier communications between crew members. The fuel tanks were suspended from the sides of the envelope. The envelope was identical to the C-type, except an additional six-foot panel was inserted for a total length of 198 feet (60 m) and a volume of 190,000 cubic feet (5,400 m3). The last of the D-Class, D-6, had a redesigned control car by Leroy Grumman who later founded the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.
The H class blimp was an observation airship built for the U.S. Navy in the early 1920s. The original "H" Class design of 1919 was for a twin engined airship of approximately 80,000 cubic feet volume. Commander Lewis Maxfield suggested that a small airship which could be used either as a tethered kite balloon, or be towed by a ship until releasing its cable, would be able to scout on its own. The concept was an airship similar to the later Army Motorized Kite Balloons.
The Goodyear Type AD was a small airship built in the United States in the mid-1920s. The first example, christened Pilgrim, was Goodyear's first civil airship, and their first airship to use helium as its lift gas. Originally intended for pleasure cruising, it soon found its true calling as a promotional vehicle as the first "Goodyear Blimp" in a line that has continued for over ninety years. The Type AD was a conventional blimp design with a gondola that could carry two passengers in addition to the flight crew. While usually described as a non-rigid type, the design in fact incorporated a triangular-section magnesium girder as a keel, fastened inside the envelope. The craft carried its own collapsible mooring mast which allowed it to "land" anywhere that 250 ft × 250 ft of clear ground was available.
SSclass airships were simple, cheap and easily assembled small non-rigid airships or "blimps" that were developed as a matter of some urgency to counter the German U-boat threat to British shipping during World War I. A secondary purpose was to detect and destroy mines. The class proved to be versatile and effective, with a total of 158 being built in several versions.
The Homer D. Babbidge Library (HBL) is the main library on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Connecticut.
The Cameron D-96 was the first hot air airship, a powered, steerable lighter-than-air craft carrying two or three crew marrying the elongated envelope of an airship with the externally localized heat source of a modern hot air balloon. It was designed and built in the UK and first flown in 1973.
The Cameron Skystar or DP series is a family of hot-air airships designed and built in the United Kingdom by Cameron Balloons for recreational and advertising use. The first DP series airship flew in 1986. In the 1990 World Hot-air airships the DP series won 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.
Walter Campbell Stemmons (1884–1965) was an American writer who served as Professor of Journalism and University Editor at the University of Connecticut from 1918 to 1954. He wrote Connecticut Agricultural College: A History (1931), published on the 50th anniversary of UConn's founding.
The AVIC AS700-class of airships is a class of non-rigid airships built for commercial and tourism use. It is developed and built by AVIC as its first attempt in the civilian airship market.
References
- 1 2 3 "Student project to 'balloon' in May". Connecticut Daily Campus. Storrs-Mansfield, Connecticut. 8 April 1975. p. 1.
- 1 2 3 Stepno, Robert B. (6 April 1975). "UConn Students Hope to Put Blimp Aloft". The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 24.
- ↑ Karmel, Terese (24 May 1975). "Storrs Blimp Awaits Calm". The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 30.
- 1 2 "Bulging Blimp Aloft at UConn". The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. 25 May 1975. p. 11C.