Larry's U.S. Navy Airship Picture Book

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The World's Deadliest Blimp
circa 1950's to early '60's
Airship of the ZPG-2N blimp class. Blimp sizes and classes.

The ZPG-2N ("N" class. Click for larger picture.)

Mission: Anti-submarine warfare. ("Hunter and killer")

* Crew: 21 * Length: 343 ft 0 in (104.57 m) * Diameter: 76 ft 0 in (23.17 m) * Height: 107 ft 0 in (32.62 m) * Volume: 1,011,000 ft³ (23,648 m³) * Powerplant: 2 × Wright R-1300-2 radials,, 800 hp (600 kW) each Performance * Maximum speed: 80 mph (128 km/h) * Endurance: over 200 hours AIRSHIP LENGTH: 343 feet long (104.57 m)

TOTAL HELIUM: 975,000 cubic feet

CAR LENGTH: Approximately 80 feet

POWER PLANT: Two 800 horsepower gasoline radial air-cooled Wright R-1300 engines inside the car. Maximum speed: 80 mph (128 km/h)

Two 18 foot tri-blade props were mounted on outriggers and were driven by a gear box and shaft arrangement. Both props could be driven by either single engine. Since the engines were in the car, the shut down engine could be worked on inflight. Unfortunately this arrangement with the engines so close made the car a very noisy place to work. From the midpoint of the car back to the stern it was necessary to shout within inches of a person's ear to communicate.

The ZPG2 and ZPG2W were designed and built by Goodyear with desired characteristics requested by crewmen who flew in the k-ships. This "dream list" resulted in a design that put this aircraft among the finest LTA ever built. They were reliable, rugged, reasonably comfortable and set several endurance records, including the record flight of 264 hours flown by #141561 in 1957.

The anti-submarine warfare electronic equipment consisted of these state-of-the-art (vacuum tube) units:
APS-20 search radar (1 million watts peak pulse power. 200 mile range.)
ARR-26 Sonobuoy FM receivers (2)
ASQ-8 Magnetic Anomaly Detector
APA-69 ECM Direction Finder
APA-74 Frequency Spectrum Analyzer
APR-9 Radio Broadband Receiver
APX-6 IFF transponder (ID "friend or foe")

Communications and navigation equipments:
ARC-27 UHF transceiver (voice, 1,755 autotune channels)
ART-13 HF transmitter (90 watts, cw)
ARR-15 HF receiver
ARN-6 Radio Direction Finder
ARN-9 LORAN receiver

Weapons:
Two depth charges and two homing torpedoes

ZPG-2 blimp car port side.

ZPG-2 blimp car starboard side.

Back to Anti-submarine warfare

Recommended Books. Search on Amazon.com for details and discount.


(Search a few words of title.)
-- Aboard A Blimp Hunting U-Boats; A Day Above The Atlantic Reveals Navy Talk And Navy Ways, Creeping Convoys And Torpedoed Wrecks.
-- Airships: A Popular History of Dirigibles, Zeppelins, Blimps, and Other Lighter-Than-Air Craft
-- Adventures of Buddy The Blimp.
-- The complete book of airships: Dirigibles, blimps & hot air balloons.
-- The Blimp Book.
-- Roo Kickkick and the Big Bad Blimp.
-- The Blimp Boys Go to War:
-- Friendly skies for Fujifilm blimp:
-- Blimps & U-Boats: U.S. Navy Airships in the Battle of the Atlantic.
-- Navy Boats and Blimps:
-- Buy me a Blimp!
-- The Story of Flight: Early Flying Machines, Balloons, Blimps, Gliders, Warplanes, and Jets.
-- Blimps Balloons and Bombs.
-- Blimp RAID: Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment system.
-- The Blimp Crew.
-- Manufacturer finds variety of uses for modern blimps.
-- Navy Airships at War.
-- Famous Blimps.
-- Blimp!
-- Blimps in space.
-- Blimps: Flying Machines.
-- On the Move... Blimps
-- Up, Up, and Away!: All About Balloons, Blimps and Dirigibles.
-- Airships in World War I & II:
-- A practical guide to building small gas blimps.
-- AIRSHIPS, A POPULAR HISTORY OF DIRIGIBLES, ZEPPELINS, BLIMPS AND OTHER LIGHTER THAN AIR CRAFT.
-- Battle Blimps at War.
-- Some technical notes on thermal blimps.
-- Navy Airships and Blimps:
-- Footnote to history: Salvage of the USN Blimp K-14
-- Blimps: Big & Beautiful.
-- Mysteries of the Blimp.
-- Blimps & Such.
-- Airships
-- Airship Technology.
-- Airship Aerodynamics:
-- Zeppelins: German Airships 1900-40
-- Warriors Airships and Blimps:
-- The Zeppelin in Combat: A History of the German Naval Airship Division 1912-1918.
-- From Airships to Airbus:
-- Giants in the sky: A history of the rigid airship.
-- Up Ship!: A History of the U.S. Navy's Rigid Airships 1919-1935.
-- Birth of the Blimp:
-- Lighter Than Air: History of Hot-Air Balloons and Airships.
-- Airship Patents:
-- Golden Age of the Great Airships: Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg.
-- When monsters roamed the skies;: The saga of the dirigible airship.
-- Kite Balloons To Airships: The Navy's Lighter-than-air Experience.
-- The Disaster of the Hindenburg: The Last Flight of the Greatest Airship Ever Built.
-- Balloons, Blimps, and Ballast:
-- The Goodyear Blimp Story.
-- Bring On the Blimps!

© 2007 Larry Rodrigues. All rights reserved.