Information about "Parseval-Airships"

 
The airships by August von Parseval rank as the predecessor of the blimps of the present. A. von Parseval, born on February 5th 1861, tinkered since 1890 in corporation with the engineer Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld and the businessman August Riedinger at the construction and the building of an airship. This plan did not become real, too many problems couldn't be solved at this time. So they constructed some other balloons for military observation - the "Dragonballoons" (Drachenballone)
 
Dragonballoon of the typ Parseval-Sigsfeld, build about 1898
 

In 1901 he started constructing an airship (with engines aboard), which did its first flight on the Mai 26th, 1906 at Berlin.


  This experimental airship had the following technical specifications:

 

Length  157.5 ft   (48 m)  
max. Diameter  27.9 ft   (8,5 m) 
Volume 81,223 ft³   (2.300 m³) 
Engine 1x 85 HP Daimler 
Operation altitude   max. 3,280 ft   (1.000 m) 
Cruising Speed  30 knots   (47 km/h) 
 


The basic principle and the easy method of construction were really reliable. Many other types had been developed and were used for passenger flights and also by the military. Also advertising flights had been made.
 
Later generation of a Parseval-(Military-)Airship, probably P.L. 16, about 1913
 

Especially the military was very interested in these easy transportable non-rigid airships. It was possible to build up these blimps very fast and exectly there, wherever they should be used. If packed together such an airship fits onto two horsedrawn vehicles. (Only the smaller types like the airship of the first picture)

The last two airships by Parseval, PL 26 and PL 27, which had been also the greatest Parseval-Airships, were not build as non-rigid airships, they were build as a semi-rigid type. After WW 1 there had been created smaller semi-rigid airships of the type "Parseval-Naatz", which were used for advertising and very limited passenger flights.