ZMC-2
The Aircraft Development Corporation ZMC-2 was the first and only metalclad airship ever built. It was first flown in 1929, and flew safely for over ten years. As a sub-scale test vehicle, it was considered to be very successful, but the company that built it did not weather the Great Depression well, and by the time a successor might have been built, there was little interest in pursuing it.
The ZMC-2 was nicknamed the "Tin Bubble" and was also sometimes called a "tinship". It was not made of tin, but of duraluminum, an aluminum alloy. It was strange-looking for a blimp, being teardrop-shaped, and had eight small stabilizer fins, four of which had rudders.
The US-Navy had classified this airship as a blimp.
It was scrapped in 1941 for its metal content.
External links
- Lakehurst: International Airport (a picture of the ZMC-2 is near the bottom of the page) (http://www.nlhs.com/airport.htm)
- ZMC-2 in hangar, under the nose of the Hindenburg (large version of picture above) (http://www.nlhs.com/images/hindenburg/big_hindenburg_and_zmc-2_in_hangar_1.jpg)
- The ZMC-2 shown here on a flight over Washington, DC (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Airships_in_WWII/LTA10G9.htm)
- This has a short history of the ZMC-2 along with pictures of construction and flights of the ZMC-2 (http://nasgi.org/zmc2.htm)
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