Airborn - Airship Aurora

RocketmanTan

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Well, been a while since I last posted a model! Things have been pretty busy with me so far...

Anyways, I decided to do a paper model of a subject very close to my heart. Kenneth Oppel's book Airborn is a young-adult work that I read during elementary school days...it was probably the first book I read where I truly related to the characters, and every page kept me riveted. It's a swashbuckling adventure about a young cabin boy working aboard a luxury airship in an alternate timeline where airships continued to grow as a means of transportation thanks to a new substance that is lighter than both helium and hydrogen.

Maybe I was an impressionable young kid, but either way, the novel sparked a sense of wanderlust in me, and I feel like I have that book to thank for the path I've chosen in life.

So, I decided to make my own little tribute to Mr. Oppell and his book.

The Aurora is the central airship in the novel, and while she is not the largest airship in this alternate world, she is one of the most luxurious. Along the way to Australia she gets scuttled by a band of pirates and beaches herself on a deserted island...which happens to be the home base of the bespoke pirates.

Just about finished with the parts, so now it's on to the testbuild!

Have some photos:

PfTCIUD.png


746EGkE.png
 

Rhaven Blaack

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I am glad to see that you are back and designing again.
This looks very good!
 

zathros

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Excellent!! Nice to hear from you! :)
 

zathros

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I'd add a few more sections to round it out a bit. Airships generate lift by moving forward, quite a bit actually, they really fly through the air, more than you would might think. They were (blimbps that is) they way we we supplied ships and mostly submarines in the pacific. Crews and their blimps would be towed way out to sea and left there for a month at a time, and be towed back, when they ran out of supplies. It was secret for decades after the war. That is why you can see destroyers towing the dirigibles way out to sea where land based planes cannot get them, and they had the power to fly around even further out, and carried quite a few 55 gallon barrels of fuel, mail,food, supplies, and any parts the subs might need. ;)


Deployed to the Mediterranean in 1944, ZP-14 crews made the first non-rigid airship crossings of the Atlantic via Newfoundland and the Azores, then via Bermuda and the Azores in 1945. The Africa Squadron established a nighttime magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) barrier across the Straits of Gibraltar, which no U-boat penetrated.

208-aaU-Boat surrender to blimp at end of war. The Blimps carried 4, 350 lb. depth charges!!

U-Boat surrender to Blimp.jpg uss-triton.jpg Blimp over USS Hornet delivering goods needed during Dolittle raid.jpg WWII. Blimp over jeep aircraft carrier.jpg





uss-triton.jpg


Blimp delivering goods to USS Hornet getting ready for Dolittle raid!! Probably another blimp that took that pic.:

Blimp over USS Hornet delivering goods needed during Dolittle raid.jpg WWII. Blimp over jeep aircraft carrier.jpg
 
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zathros

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They are still being used. Some operate at near space altitudes, made oout of stealthy materials, with no metal on board, they are virtually invisible, and nobody knows what these cigar shaped things are doing!!

The U.S. Army uses Blimps to rearm troops in Afghanistan. They were so effective, the British will be following suit, and buying their own fleet.:)

Blimp inn Kabul Afghanistan Army Base.jpg

These are patrolling the Easy Coast of the U.S.A.!!:

aerostat EAST Coast.jpg
 
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Gandolf50

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They are still being used. Some operate at near space altitudes, made oout of stealthy materials, with no metal on board, they are virtually invisible, and nobody knows what these cigar shaped things are doing!!

The U.S. Army uses Blimps to rearm troops in Afghanistan. They were so effective, the British will be following suit, and buying their own fleet.:)

View attachment 154662

These are patrolling the Easy Coast of the U.S.A.!!:

View attachment 154663
Actually...there are if I remember right 7 of those blimps strategically placed along the southern border from California to Texas...I have one a couple miles to the SW of me ..but we refer to it as the "Fish Balloon", and I won't tell you what it is doing! But then I shouldn't have to...now...

My Father-in-Law was USN stationed at NAS Weeksville,Elizabeth City NC..right after WWII and was attached to the blimp squadron for awhile! A little known fact...one of the blimps patrolling the coast sunk a u-boat when it surfaced for air. They never saw it coming....and the blimp only used 50 cals ....got lots of cool stories and pics from him and that time period!
 
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Gandolf50

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Well, been a while since I last posted a model! Things have been pretty busy with me so far...

Anyways, I decided to do a paper model of a subject very close to my heart. Kenneth Oppel's book Airborn is a young-adult work that I read during elementary school days...it was probably the first book I read where I truly related to the characters, and every page kept me riveted. It's a swashbuckling adventure about a young cabin boy working aboard a luxury airship in an alternate timeline where airships continued to grow as a means of transportation thanks to a new substance that is lighter than both helium and hydrogen.

Maybe I was an impressionable young kid, but either way, the novel sparked a sense of wanderlust in me, and I feel like I have that book to thank for the path I've chosen in life.

So, I decided to make my own little tribute to Mr. Oppell and his book.

The Aurora is the central airship in the novel, and while she is not the largest airship in this alternate world, she is one of the most luxurious. Along the way to Australia she gets scuttled by a band of pirates and beaches herself on a deserted island...which happens to be the home base of the bespoke pirates.

Just about finished with the parts, so now it's on to the testbuild!

Have some photos:

PfTCIUD.png


746EGkE.png

Images only show up..when I add a reply and quote you. It would be much better if you would upload them directly! Then they will always be here! ( I take that back...they took 3 minutes to make it to the page) ...still would be better as a direct up load...besides that...THEY LOOK GREAT!!!
 

zathros

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All my pictures are uploaded from my computer, per forum rules. I always click "View in Tab", as the picture comes up quicker. ;)
 

THE DC

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I have been a fan of the Akron, Macon, and Shenandoah for years. But those were airships, not blimps.

I had a chance to actually pilot one of the Goodyears, shortly after the Blimp Akron, named after the thirties ship, crashed. I would love to have had a handle on the wheel of one of those big babies. Flying a blimp feels very differently than flying a plane. It feels more like a boat than an aircraft in motion.
 

zathros

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In a sense, it is. If you think about it. It's a displacement craft. The USS Akron crashed in 1933, just how aged are you. I have always though of you as wise, now I know why!! :)
 

Gandolf50

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I have been a fan of the Akron, Macon, and Shenandoah for years. But those were airships, not blimps.

I had a chance to actually pilot one of the Goodyears, shortly after the Blimp Akron, named after the thirties ship, crashed. I would love to have had a handle on the wheel of one of those big babies. Flying a blimp feels very differently than flying a plane. It feels more like a boat than an aircraft in motion.

You would have loved talking to my father-in-law RIP, when stationed in Weeksville, NAS got to wrangle the Navy blimps around some... and the K-Class. I don't have any pix from that time period ( classified at the time) but since then they have released some official ones...Weeksville_NC_blimp.jpg
 

zathros

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In a sense, it is. If you think about it. It's a displacement craft. The USS Akron crashed in 1933, just how aged are you. I have always though of you as wise, now I know why!! :)


I misread your post, Duh! :)
 

Gandolf50

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L
@Gandolf50 : Is the last picture this hangar?

View attachment 154761
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-hangar-plans-use-developing-team-robots.html

Most definetly looks like it. Quite an impressive building and I was happy to hear it has been saved for future projects, not been demolished.

I get the impression that between 1930 and 1990 a lot of money has been put into science and research, probably fueled by WWII and the Cold War. But that also pushed science and engineering forward at light speed. Nowadays, we have to rely on private companies like SpaceX and others to get mankind further forward in technology, while countries tend to cut spendings on science more and more, which is quite sad.

Same hanger configuration...but that is from Moffett Field, San Francisco....

A 1943 aerial view looking east at Weeksville (courtesy of Mark Hess), showing the 2 massive blimp hangars.
Airfield_Weeksville,NCNC.jpg
Weeksville,NC K-class WW2
Weeksville_NC_blimp_1944.jpg Here you can see the same construction details...
 

zathros

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That hanger is so big, on certain days, clouds develop inside of it. It is also used for paper airplane glider contests!! :)
 

RocketmanTan

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I definitely wish rigid airships were still a thing...they truly were flying ships in every sense of the word. Replete with deck and engine departments, marine officers, etc. Hell, we even still study the Hindenburg disaster as a maritime fire catastrophe!
 
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