NEW OBSERVATION CAR FOR AIRSHIP (Feb, 1932)
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1932
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Tags: airships
Nope, nothing scary here. Who would have a problem hanging out in a tin can being dangled a few thousand feet below a blimp? I’m not really sure what the propeller is supposed to do. Are they saying there is actually an engine in the capsule?
NEW OBSERVATION CAR FOR AIRSHIP
Nicknamed the “flying fish,” a new type of observation car for airships has been constructed by a Viennese engineer. Like the “sky car,” used occasionally by United States airships, it may be lowered on a cable through the clouds while the airship is in flight. The Viennese invention, however, has its own propeller, enabling the observer to maneuver his gondola. The fishlike tail is flexible and may be swung from side to side, serving as a rudder. Because of its slender, streamlined shape, the gondola is invisible from the earth at comparatively low altitudes.
The airship USS Macon had a “spy basket” for observation http://www.history.navy.mil/ph.....zrs5-o.htm
I read in a book titled “Giants in the Sky” that indeed sailors hated riding in the sky car. The cable was so long guys could forget there was a dirigible above them.
It probably wouldn’t be under a blimp though, but a dirigible.
Comment by Firebrand38 — September 27, 2007 @ 7:27 am
I’m not really sure how much maneuvering you could actually do seeing how it’s a giant pendulum. You’d probably make a fortune today if you could market it to the hang-gliding crowd.
Comment by Eamonnanchnuic — September 27, 2007 @ 9:11 am
There’s a scene in the old Howard Hughes film from 1930, Hell’s Angels, that includes a slightly different version of this. A German Zeppelin was spying on London from above the cloud deck by dangling an observer in an ‘observation car’ on a long cable that extended just below the clouds. Of course, when they needed to escape from the avenging RAF it took too long to reel it back in and a simple expedient was found in the form of wirecutters. Part of the hazards of early spycraft.
Comment by Kris — September 27, 2007 @ 5:57 pm
It strikes me how little information is in some of these old blurbs.
What is the name of the “Viennese engineer”? How to reel it in and out? Has this thing actually flown? If so, when? Where? How well did it work?
Comment by Jeffk — September 27, 2007 @ 6:01 pm
Kudos to Kris for referencing Hell’s Angels.
I would guess the propeller was related to keeping the car level and facing forward. Except there’s no real vane at the back to orient it, so maybe I’m wrong.
Comment by James Schend — September 27, 2007 @ 7:08 pm
So how did Hitler get into the thing?
Comment by Chakolate — September 27, 2007 @ 9:52 pm