Giant Navy Airship ZR-1 Will Carry Radio to Pole -- July 19, 2023

Boston Globe, 22-July-1923

The USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) was the first Zeppelin-type airship to fly using helium instead of hydrogen. The proposed arctic expedition was cancelled when the ship was damaged by a storm. Shenandoah broke up and crashed in 1925. 

GIANT NAVY AIRSHIP ZR-1

WILL CARRY RADIO TO POLE

Naval Aviators Will Rely Upon Radio Compasses to Guide Huge Craft to Her

Goal at the Top of the World Late This Summer

When the great naval airship ZR-1 goes to the North Pole, she will carry radio to the top of the world, whether it is late this Summer or next Spring. If she reaches that northern pinnacle, and experts insist there is no reason to doubt her ability, the naval airship will be able to prove the fact by virtue of her bearing from northern radio stations. In these days of scientific achievement, proof is required, and in the event an Arctic explorer gets to the Pole with a radio compass or a transmitting set, there can be no doubt of his exact position.

Together with a complete radio receiving and transmitting set, the ZR-1 is equipped with the latest type of radio compass, which at the Pole would show radio stations picked up as bearing directly south, while at all radio stations within communication distance, her position would be due north.

Radio Never Before at Pole

As radio never before has been carried to the pole the question has arisen as to whether this modern agent of communication will be able to penetrate the aurora of the North and bear messages back to civilization. In this connection Weather Bureau officials point out that messages from Amundsen's Maude have been received by relay and that a daily message on meteorological conditions is received regularly during the Winter months from Spitzbergen, located at latitude 78 North. If it is possible to put radio messages through from the far North, the world will hear of the ZR-1's progress and her arrival over the northernmost point on earth.

Crew of ZR-1 "Rarin'" to Go

While Read Admital Moffett, chief of the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics, and the crew of the ZR-1 believe the trip is feasible and are literally "rarin' to go," the date of departure depends upon her flight trials scheduled in August. Since the trip would require only a few days, it is possible that it can be made before the long Winter of the North sets in, with its low visibility and extreme cold, but if tests and and flights are delayed until September the exploration cruise may have to postponed until next Spring.

No details as to route have been mapped out. Two courses are being considered, however, one directly north from Lakehurst, N J, her home station, and the other northwesterly to Alaska, using Nome as an advance base. From Nome, the course due north would be 1766 statue miles, a little over a good day's run. The British R-34 crossed the Atlantic and returned to England in 1919, traversing a distance of over 7000 miles in a week's time, and in 1917 a German Zeppelin made a cruise of 5500 miles in four days. The cruising radius or the naval craft is between 4000 and 5000 miles, so the distance of the Polar trip is not considered extreme for this 680-foot craft.

Capt Baldwin Explains Advantages of Summer Flight

Meteorologists and Capt Evelyn B. Baldwin, an Arctic explorer, pint out that while surface winds from the far north blow in a southwesterly direction, at higher levels the warmer currents bear toward the north and would aid a polar flight. Capt Baldwin, who suggested an aerial polar flight years ago, recently talked to the ZR-1 crew on polar exploration, answering innumerable questions. Among other things, he explained the advantages of a Summer flight, as against one undertaken in darkness and cold. A Winter trip, however, radio experts point out, would aid radio transmission materially. But with her radio operating from a 300-foot antenna at a great height, it is felt that the aerial cruiser would be able to send satisfactorily in the Arctic day as well as in the night. According to Ralph Upson's report to the General Electric Company, in using radio from his balloon at an altitude of over 3000 feet he encountered no static whatever during the recent balloon race.


Radio Compass Will Guide Ship

Radio stations in the north are fairly numerous, and it is believed that the ZR-1, once on her trip, could keep in communication with several to check her course. In the event she was uncertain of her position, she would either call two or more radio compass stations and ask for her position, or, having picked up two or more radio stations and observing their bearings by her radio compass, plot her own position. In this manner she could hardly go wrong and could correct her course readily, provided her radio continued to operate successfully.

Incidentally, she could not "fake" her position at the pole, as the world would soon be advised by radio stations that her reported position was incorrect. Capt Baldwin points out that in the far North the compass is sluggish and that data for its correction are meager. It is his belief that the only accurate method of proceeding in the polar trips today is with the aid of radio and radio compasses.

Among the stations to which the ZR-1 could report are three in Iceland: Spitzbergen, on the 78th parallel; Ingoy 71 N.; several in Northern Russia; our own army and naval stations in Alaska; Jan Mayen Station on Iceland and Mijbugland. Certainly these are sufficient to get cross bearings and correct the course northward. If the stations are equipped with compasses, all the better; but as the ship will have a radio compass, the reception of their signal is all the navigation officer will require.

Radio Equipment of ZR-1

The ZR-1 is equipped with a type S. E. 1390 transmitter, designed for flying boats like the N. C. 4 which made the record trip across to England. It has modifications, making it gas-proof.

The transmitter uses six 50-watt tubes giving it an input of 300 watts and an average output of 150 watts for wave lengths of 507, 600, 600 and 75 meters on I. C. W. and C. W. communication. It is possible to use this set for radio telephone work, but it is not contemplated on the early flights.

The whole set has been tested on the bench with a phantom type antenna having the same characteristics as a trailing wire antenna 300-foot long, i.e., fundamental wave length of 315 meters; 300 microfarads capactity; and 93 microhenries inductance, the resistance ranging through the wave lengths from 9 to 13 ohms, giving a radiation of five amperes.

Elaborate Radio Receiver Carried

The airship's receiving apparatus will consist of a turner of the ordinary two-circuit type, in conjunction with a six-step amplifier using six S.E. 1444 tubes, three stages radion, a detector and two stages of audiio amplification. The long-range receiver will be one of the new design, having a range up to 30,000 meters using as an amplifier. Auniversal amplifier of six steps with telephone jacks for using either radio-audio or audio alone in one or two steps will be employed.

The radio compass probably will be installed in the keel, just forward of the control car and may be used for taking bearings on wave lengths from 500 to 30,000 meters. This compass coil is rather unique in that it is of spherical shape and has two sets of coils. In the long-wave reception all the windings are used but in the short-wave reception it is divided into two coils, and advantage is taken of the variometer effect.

Airship's Radio Call if ZR-1

 
The airship's name will constitute her radio call, just as the ZR-2 before her destruction answered to "ZR-2." Lieut J.H. Gowan, U.S.N., will be in charge of radio, assisted by Chief Radioman J.T. Robertson. The electric power will be supplied by a gasoline-engine driven generator and 200-ampere hour storage battery, similar in operation to the to the electric plant of an automobile. These units will supply current for lighting as well as radio purposes. The batter itself will have sufficient capactiry to provide between one and two hours' operation for the radio set in case of a generator break down.