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The World's Deadliest Blimp circa 1950's to early '60's |
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The ZPG-2N ("N" class. Click for larger picture.)
Mission: Anti-submarine warfare. ("Hunter and killer")
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: Communications and navigation equipments:
Weapons:
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")
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
Two depth charges and two homing torpedoes
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