Wow,I didn't know that Z.Staakens had this!

[crankcase]

[QUOTE=Willi Von Klugerman;420563]Forgive me for not knowing this (and I know plenty),but I never knew this was a feature on Zeppelin-Staakens,crews near the engine!WW1 aviation has its surprises!
[IMG]

That very same picture graces my laptop as a screensaver!
I first saw it in Haddow and Grosz "The German Giants".
marc
p.s. If I were sorry for everything I don't know, the apologies would stretch from here to the moon (and back)!

[The PIPE]

Dear Willi & Aquilius:

The PIPE here again...and from what I remember about the wing AND nose-engined, "non-R.VI" Zeppelin-Staaken Riesenflugzeuge, which WERE only produced as "one-off" examples, from the VGO I onwards, ONLY the nose-engined R.IV example survived to the end of WW I.

Aquilius, that R.30/16 aircraft actually "pointed the way towards the future" in at least a couple of ways...that exact aircraft was ALSO fitted, for a while during its existence, with what could have been the very first example of a variable-pitch propeller setup (four of them being used) in aviation history, and most likely were ONLY ground-adjustable-but I COULD be wrong about the ground-only adjustability part...

...and also, apparently, during the development of a "certain" minor WW II Luftwaffe twin engine bomber prototype, the idea of a fuselage-mounted engine operating a single mechanical supercharger for all the other, propeller-spinning engines on the aircraft, might have been remembered from the R.30's installation...from the entry on Wikipedia at Henschel Hs 130 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ...

"The Hs 130E was a re-working of the Hs 130A with the Höhen Zentrale (HZ)-Anlage system in place of conventional superchargers. HZ-Anlage installed a third engine in the fuselage, a DB 605, the only purpose of which was to power a large supercharger to supply air to the wing-mounted DB 603B engines. Such a system had first been tried some twenty-five years previously, on the R.30/16 example of the Zeppelin Staaken R.VI bomber."

...and that info came straight from the pages of my copy of German Combat Planes, written by Heinz Nowarra and Ray Wagner way back in 1971.

It COULD be a while before I'm able to get back to work (laid off in Sept. 2008)...but I'm not sure IF anyone might have known about what two sorts of experimental items that the R.30 had on it, that would "resurface" up to two decades later...AND about the R.IV Z-Staaken giant being the only nose-engined example from that series, to survive the Great War...

Yours Sincerely,

The PIPE!

[gregorydquist]

Catfish

By referencing the soundproof helmets I meant to contribut to the thread and show that the engine noise was a recognized issue and that some measure was taken to address it for the flight crew.

Although the flight helmets in the photo look pretty basic to me and not very sound proof.

Gregory Rydquist = gregorydquist

[Varese2002]

Impressive pictures of a Zeppelin-Staaken R.IV model can be seen on Flickr here.

Either it is a model (what I think) or it is a 3D computer model. But sure it looks great and very detailed.

Cheers

Kees

[Gurgast]

Still, it must be said, they do look like happy bunnies for all that!

Did you hear about the even worse job given to the unpopular chaps on airship crews? Apparenty they used to winch a man down in a little tin box on a few hundred feet of cable so he could telephone up from below the cloud-base and tell them where London was. If the Zeppelin was attacked they didn't have time to wind him up again, so they just got out a big pair of bolt cutters and bid him "bon voyage" or whatever the German equivalent is ...

[Olson]

Auf Wiedersehen, es tut mir leid Hans (Johannes, Heinz, et al)

[Willi Von Klugerman]

If the Zeppelin was attacked they didn't have time to wind him up again, so they just got out a big pair of bolt cutters and bid him "bon voyage" or whatever the German equivalent is ...

I never knew about that detail!Definetly not a job for the light hearted!Another zepp job I wouldn't want to do would be manning the small gun nests on the top(cringe&shudder!)

[Epee]

I'm not so sure about the "bolt-cutter" discharge. It was depicted in a movie after the war ("Hell's Angels" I think) along with non-essential crew stepping out of the bomb bay. I strongly suspect this might be a myth.

[Varese2002]

Originally Posted by Gurgast

Still, it must be said, they do look like happy bunnies for all that!

Did you hear about the even worse job given to the unpopular chaps on airship crews? Apparenty they used to winch a man down in a little tin box on a few hundred feet of cable so he could telephone up from below the cloud-base and tell them where London was. If the Zeppelin was attacked they didn't have time to wind him up again, so they just got out a big pair of bolt cutters and bid him "bon voyage" or whatever the German equivalent is ...

The story is going somewhat over the top, no way did a Zeppelin crew sacrifice a crew member in this way.

There is the foloowing story in Wilbur Cross - Zeppelins of World I (1991). I have excerpted the following (p. 61-62).

When the airship was struck by flak and the crew had to jettison everything possible, he was told on the intercom that the whinch had jammed because of enemy fire and the airship would cut its forward speed and come down low enough for the car to touch the ground. At that instant he was to notify the control car that he was on the ground and leap out because the cable would be instantly cut.
"You will be on your own," he was informed. "We are sorry but there is nothing else we can do except lighten the ship and try to get back to Germany."
This unique mission was accomplished, although the jolt when the car scraped the earth almost knocked its occupant out. He was able, however, to acknowledge that he was grounded. The cable was cut. The airship disappeared. And he found himself in a flat pasture, on British soil, and with no sense of location or direction.
For al,ost two months the stranded observer roamed enemy territory, hiding out in haylofts, cowsheds, and abandoned outbuildings by day and rummaging for food at night. Through road signs and once by venturing close to a village unseen, he judged eventually that he was somewhere in Sussex, not far from the English Channel. He was finally captured when a civilian coastal patrol spotted him crossing behind a farmhouse at dusk. He surrendered without a struggle, in fact relieved that he would no longer be on the run, and spent the rest of the war in a detention camp.

Also this story is highly unlikely, but a nice story. I believe it when evidence is presented from the archives, for instance an interrogation of the unlucky crew member.

Cheers

Kees

[Catfish]

Hello,
it was "Karl" in the film, but in reality there was never a "cloud car" jettisoned from a Zeppelin with its occupant in it, as far as i know. This is fiction from the film "Hell's Angels" made by H. Hughes, as well as the crew "leaving" the ship through the bomb doors .. airship crews indeed were disciplined specialists, but it was neither demanded not done.

I am not so sure about the second story posted by Kees though, but will look for it, or its credibility . One of the first Zeppelins above England laid a track of jettisoned material which only had to be followed to finally find the stranded wreck at the track's end.

If it happened it must have been an army airship early in the war - the cloud cars were only used by the german army airships, the naval ones tried this once in an experiment, but were not impressed. Cloud cars were a welcomed opportunity by the crew, to smoke a cigarette, which was certainly forbidden aboard the Zeppelins.

Greetings,
Catfish