DN-1 (airship)
| DN-1 | |
|---|---|
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| DN-1 approaching its floating hangar at Pensacola. | |
| Role | Experimental airship |
| Manufacturer | Connecticut Aircraft |
| First flight | 20 April 1917 |
| Number built | 1 |
The DN-1 was the US Navy's first airship. Captain Mark L. Bristol, the second Director of Naval Aviation, supported the development of the dirigible in the anti-submarine role. Victor Herbster, Holden Richardson and LCDR Frank McCrary drew up the specifications for the DN-1. The contract was awarded on 1 June 1915 to the Connecticut Aircraft Company of New Haven, CT. The U.S. Navy had no experience with airships and it seems neither had any of the principles of Connecticut Aircraft Company. They were a lawyer who was the financial backer, an amusement park owner who acted as manager; the technical staff was an Austrian, Hans Otto Stagel, who claimed to be a dirigible pilot and a German engineer and mechanic, who claimed to be Zeppelin experts.Jerome Clarke Hunsaker of MIT and his assistant Donald Wills Douglas, later founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company, aided the Connecticut Aircraft Company in the design of DN-1. The Chief Engineer was James F. Boyle and the Production Manager was J.J. DeLunay. The civilian inspector was Thomas Scott Baldwin and the resident Navy inspector was Frank M. McCrary.
The DN-1 was roughly based on the German Parseval type of non-rigid airship. The envelope was made of two layers of cloth, with rubber between them. The outer layer of fabric was yellow to prevent deterioration caused by light. The gondola control car, built by George Lawley & Son of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was a large rectangular box with two four-bladed propellers on outriggers. There were originally two engines, built by the B. F. Sturtevant Company of Hyde Park, MA, were mounted in the open gondola, and the propellers could be swiveled to provide thrust in either the horizontal or vertical planes. A 1-1/2 hp Indian engine was provided to maintain air pressure in the two ballonets when the engine was not running. The gondola was water-tight as the Navy intended to operate the DN-1 off water. The specification for the DN-1 provided for being capable of being moored to a mooring mast which had first been used with HMA No. 1 in 1911. The DN-1 was photographed beside a mooring mast but there appears to be no evidence it was ever moored to it.
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