The USS Macon was one of the largest airships in the world. This photo is dated 1933, during her construction. That's an "duraluminum" hull. You can read about her career and death at Wikipedia.
If you find this photo fascinating, you really need to look at the large-size version. I can't believe those guys are on top of those ladders.
Found at x-ray delta one's Flickr photostream, via Sharp as Teeth and Stars.
Addendum: This re the men on the ladders (hat tip to Soubriquet):
As those ladders got higher and higher, they swayed more and more, and the workmen became afraid, refused to climb, and quit.
The project slowed almost to a standstill, until Nevil had a brainwave, just to the east of Howden, was the port of Hull, south, across the estuary was the port of Grimsby, and in both of those, there were a great many deep-water sailors, many who had served in the days of sail, and square-riggers. They were used to climbing aloft and working whilst moving, swinging, rolling, and they were eager for work. These men had no fear whatsoever of the heights, and the project was soon back on line.
Hope they put chocks under those wheels...
ReplyDelete1933 was the worst year of the depression in the US. The men on the ladders were likely desperate for work, no matter how dangerous.
ReplyDeleteCCL
In the 1920s the british government commissioned the building of two airships, one would be built by the government's own design team, the other would be built by a private contractor, Vickers Ltd.
ReplyDeleteThe R100 was the privately built one, and one of the men working on the project, as an engineer was Nevil Shute Norway, who, as well as being a successful aviation designer, was also a writer.
His autobiography, "Slide Rule" talks in depth about building the airship, The chief designer, Barnes Wallis decided that in order to make R100 extremely light and strong and thus to be able to carry a better payload, they would make the structure out of tubular sections, but no manufacturer could make lightweight aluminium tube in the vast range of diameters and lengths required. So they designed a tube-making machine that made any size of tube out of rolls of flat metal, spirally wound. Every time you see a spiral air duct, in the roof of a building, you're seeing the legacy of the R100 airship.
The ladders though:- the building sheds for airships were vast. The build shed at Howden, beside the river Humber in northern england was so big that clouds formed INSIDE it, and it could be raining inside.... As those ladders got higher and higher, they swayed more and more, and the workmen became afraid, refused to climb, and quit.
The project slowed almost to a standstill, until Nevil had a brainwave, just to the east of Howden, was the port of Hull, south, across the estuary was the port of Grimsby, and in both of those, there were a great many deep-water sailors, many who had served in the days of sail, and square-riggers. They were used to climbing aloft and working whilst moving, swinging, rolling, and they were eager for work. These men had no fear whatsoever of the heights, and the project was soon back on line.
The R100 crossed the atlantic to Montreal, in great comfort. Nevil talks of strolling along on top of the airship, as it flew, and of how if you crouched low, there was almost no wind from the slip-stream.
Unfortunately, the air-ministy's rival ship, for political reasons, was later in completion, and was required to make a major voyage, a showpiece trip to India, despite the engineers saying it was not ready, and neede more time in flight trials and adjustment.
Gas bags chafed and ruptured in flight, causing a crash in northern France that killed many of its designers, and government officials.
The crash of the R101 caused britain to officially abandon the airship program, though America was so impressed with the R100 that an offer was made to supply it with helium free of charge to replace the hydrogen that had been a factor in the R100 crash. America wanted a share in the design technology, but the british government instead stored the successful airship in its own build sheds, and later, sold the airframe to be broken up as scrap.