New Zeppelin - Anyone read Russian?

Mick

Mick

SOH-CM-2024
Alexander Belov has released a Zeppelin LZ-63 airship for FS9.

"The L-63 rigid airship belongs to the second "Height-climber" series of Zeppelin airships. They entered combat service from the second half of 1917. With four 245-hp Maybach HS-4lu high-altitute engines these craft were able to reach 6000 meters statically and develop about 115 kph. Maximum range was about 13000 kilometers."

It appears to be a fairly complex aircraft to operate, and it comes with a PDF flight manual explaining its unique systems.

The manual is written in Russian and there's no English version!

Does anyone here read Russian...???
 
13000 kilometers... might run out of saurkraut before you got there at 90 kph or so....

I limp along in Russian and have a Russian "translator" software I use in correspondance with my Russian friends. However it may not be too good at some technical/aviation applications.

T.
 
Hot diggety dog!! Thanks for the hu, Mick. :wavey: This Zep can be downloaded from Avsim. Be sure to wear your long-johns and wooly gloves when you fly this gal. :costumes:

Brian
 
Thanks for the help Brian, here is the file description :

File Description:
L-63 zeppelin airship add-on for Microsofr Flight Simulator 2004. FREEWARE (c) Alexander Belov The L-63 rigid airship belongs to the second "Height-climber" serie of a zeppelin airships. They enter combat service from the second half of 1917. With four 245-hp Maybach HS-4lu high-altitute engines these crafts were capable to reach 6000 meters statically and develop about 115 kph. Maximum range was about 13000 kilometers.



Filename: lz-63.zip
License: Freeware, limited distribution
Added: 6th November 2008
Downloads: 29
Author: Alexander Belov
Size: 5368kb

Get it www.avsim.com

Mike :wavey:
 
It seems as though the sun would heat and expand a black zep until the gas bags burst.
 
This sounds very cool! Being a Zepp freak myself, and following their work on the new airship lines, this will be cool to see.

OT, is it possible to 'create' Helium? Can one take another gas or liquid and break it down to extract Helium from it?




Bill
 
Lionheart said:
This sounds very cool! Being a Zepp freak myself, and following their work on the new airship lines, this will be cool to see.

OT, is it possible to 'create' Helium? Can one take another gas or liquid and break it down to extract Helium from it?




Bill
Click to expand...

Helium is an element (He). It's distilled from natural gas fields.
Here is a photo of LZ63 which probably used hydrogen.
 
Just checked it. I see what you mean on it being black now. I thought you were kidding. (I also thought this was the new modern ZF Zepp).

Evidently it was for night raids. They did at least leave the top as natural fabric to help reflect light.

The Zepps would take off in Germany in the evenings, shut down over the English Channel and ride the winds over to England, then try to find targets per the lights of that area. They tried to use clouds to hide in, with lowerable 'cloud cars' shaped like bombs, that a navvi would set in and let the crew know by wire/phone how they were doing per the countryside below.

When the dropped the bombs, the cranked up the engines emmediately, dropped all balast, and headed for 20,000 feet altitude as quick as they possibly could. (They had arctic suits and oxygen bottles. Some had electric boots and pockets to keep frost bite down).

They 'should' have made it back by mid morning, which would mean bleading off tons of Hydrogen to land/descend if it was heated up by a black skin. Remember though that the cells were inside that fabric. The cells were held in place by nets. You could actually climb up the nets of a cell 'inside' the Zeppelins fabric structure, looking for holes to repair from bullets. (Usually only tracers would set off Hydrogen, bullets just ventilated them). :d


Bill
 
At the time the US had a monopoly on helium. So it was not available in any quantity to Germany through the life of lighter than air transportation. Though the element Helium is not flammable, it is somewhat heavier than Hydrogen and provides less lifting capacity.

Note that the gas cells were contained inside the external streamlined structure, they were not directly exposed to the effect of the sun. The sun effect is somewhat compensated for by the adiabatic cooling of the atmosphere with pressure drop (altitude). Controlling the bouyancy was a ballancing act between sometimes venting pressure and dropping ballast, and also aerodynamic manuvering forces.
 
Flyboy208 said:
Where can it be downloaded from? I have an English/Russian dictionary at the ready.

Mike :wavey:
Click to expand...

Excellent!!!

Sorry I forgot to say where it can be found, and thanks to those who posted that it's at AvSim.

If you can translate the manual we can make it into an html file that can be brought up as a kneeboard reference file.
 
fliger747 said:
...Note that the gas cells were contained inside the external streamlined structure, they were not directly exposed to the effect of the sun. The sun effect is somewhat compensated for by the adiabatic cooling of the atmosphere with pressure drop (altitude...
Click to expand...

Also, at that stage of the war the zeps were operated at night, and mostly kept inside their sheds in the daytime.
 
No German operated Zeppelins used helium. The only source of helium in the airship days was a few oil fields in Texas and Kansas. The Hindenburg was actually designed to use helium but the US government refused to export it to Germany. The only German-built airship to use helium was the USS Los Angeles which was built by Zeppelin in Germany for the US Navy. When it arrived in the US it had hydrogen in it. The USS Shenendoah was deflated and the helium from it was used in the Los Angeles because there was only enough at the time for one airship. The Los Angeles was named LZ 126 by the Zeppelin Co. and renamed ZR3 USS Los Angeles when it arrived in the US. The Navy's other 2 airships , the Akron and the Macon, were built in Akron, Ohio by the Goodyear-Zeppelin company.

Gonna have to check this one out!

Chris
 
chrisf36 said:
No German operated Zeppelins used helium. The only source of helium in the airship days was a few oil fields in Texas and Kansas. The Hindenburg was actually designed to use helium but the US government refused to export it to Germany. The only German-built airship to use helium was the USS Los Angeles which was built by Zeppelin in Germany for the US Navy. When it arrived in the US it had hydrogen in it. The USS Shenendoah was deflated and the helium from it was used in the Los Angeles because there was only enough at the time for one airship. The Los Angeles was named LZ 126 by the Zeppelin Co. and renamed ZR3 USS Los Angeles when it arrived in the US. The Navy's other 2 airships , the Akron and the Macon, were built in Akron, Ohio by the Goodyear-Zeppelin company.

Gonna have to check this one out!

Chris
Click to expand...


Thanks Chris for that info. Too bad those naval ships arent around anymore.


Bill
 
This thread rather inspires one to sit down and watch the old movies Zeppelin and Hindenburg.

Does anyone ever pull Bill Lyons LZ-127 out of the hanger anymore? I doubt its quality will ever be matched. :icon_lol:
 
Terry said:
This thread rather inspires one to sit down and watch the old movies Zeppelin and Hindenburg.

Does anyone ever pull Bill Lyons LZ-127 out of the hanger anymore? I doubt its quality will ever be matched. :icon_lol:
Click to expand...

I do.... One awesome model.



Bill
 
Got a reply from Alexander Belov:

"Sorry, I have so little patience even to write some notes in Russian...

Let be in short terms.

This model was created to be operated only by mouse clicks. Clicking on steering wheels pilot can turn elevators and rudders, operate engines etc. Airship is a very slow craft, I think it takes too much time to steer and it is impossible to be done with joystick.

How to take off.

- First.
Start first engine only.

Call engine sub-panel (press <Shift>+2). Usually engine telegraphs were operated by airship captain.

Simply left-click on the red sector ("START") on the leftmost engine telegraph. When engine would be started, mechanic will move responce hand on that sector.

You need to have first engine running because only this engine has an electrical generator supplying electric power for radio set. How much times the first engine failed and zeppelins were not possible even to send SOS!

Do not start all other engines until you are in flight! Airship is too light to be held by ground crew when two or more engines are running.

- Second. Drop ballast to alight ship.

Press <F8> or left-click on the left side of static controls (with pear-shaped handles). You will see airship balance indicator completely blue.

- Third. Apply full throttle for the first engine.

The airship will start to rise. Turn elevator to keep airship in level flight as much as possible. After you gain about 200 - 300 meters, set engine to half-speed. Start all other engines.

After all engines are running, set them on half-speed.

Stop the climb by pressing <F6> several times. Keep level flight!

Now you are ready for flight.

How to turn.

No problem. Just left-click on the central steering wheel. You may need to click a lot of times to make a tight turn, but the click on the center will center the rudder.

How to land.

- First. You need to drop the speed to 15 meters per second. Simply stop engines ## 2, 3 and 4. If it is required, increase the speed of the first engine.

- Second. Valve the gas to start descent. Press <F6> several times, but watch the variometer!

Italian crew smashed L-61 on landing - they has the airship too heavy on landing. Do not exceed vertical speed about 2 meters per second!

When touching the ground stop the first engine."
 
Hello,
thanks for this beautiful airship, and the translation of how to fly it !

The Zeppelin rigid airships would have flown with Helium as well as with hydrogen gas, the internal gas bags would have been a bit bigger using Helium, but there would have been enough place anyway.
I read somewhere hydrogen is appx. 17 times lighter than air, while Helium is 11 times lighter, but i may be wrong.

Fact is all german airships flew with hydrogen gas, because helium cannot be produced artificially, and the only known natural resource for this stuff is in the USA.
During WW1 the US would not export helium to Germany for obvious reasons (maybe not too obvious, because the Wilson and the US almost joined the central powers "... to free the seas, and trade", until late in the war).

Another not so well-known fact is that in 1937/8 (?) Dr. Hugo Eckener indeed had asked the US president for helium to be used for the Hindenburg, and the US would have delivered (!). Unfortunately Eckener realized that there were no facilities in Germany yet to handle and store helium, and no money to build it.

The Hindenburg and its sister airship were intended to make a few runs across the Atlantic, and then to build those facilities with the money earned - but the catastrophy at Lakehurst then ended all further civilian Zeppelin flights.
Eckener is known to have self-reproaches for acting the way he did (refusing the US offer), and thus - if indirectly - causing the death of the Lakehurst victims.

The later accusation from Goering, the US would have caused the Lakehurst disaster in holding back the preciuous helium, was nothing but propaganda.

Greetings,
Catfish
 
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