 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
 |
Tannu
Tuva Collectors' Society, Inc. APS Affiliate #235 |
 |
Tuvan
Airs, 2: by
Gwyn Williams. |
|
The two Tuvan "Zeps" (Mirr 104 and 106) from the 1936 Airmail 15th Anniversary of Independence series are, as Scott Marusak said on his web page, "the ones that everyone remembers". Which got me thinking: What might Zavyalov have used as reference material for his designs, given the usual accuracy of his pictures, and that – to my mind – they are not of the famous German-built Zeppelin airships? Did Soviet Russia have its own airship construction programme? Yes indeed, it did.
Russia's first dirigible flew in 1908, and a modest programme involving the construction of relatively small non-rigid and semi-rigid airships continued into the 1920s. But a Commission for the Trans-Siberian Dirigible Route was formed in 1925, in the hope that large rigid airships could be developed to span the USSR.
Popular support for the concept grew dramatically with the visit of the Graf Zeppelin LZ-127 to Moscow's central airfield in September 1930, the LZ-127 having already caught the public's imagination with its trans-polar flight to the US in 1929, and round-the-world flight in 1928. A fund was started in August 1931 to build a "Lenin Airship Flotilla" by public subscription, to include airships named the Lenin, Stalin, Stary bol'shevik, Pravda, Klim Vovoshilov, Osoaviakhim and Kolkhoznik. By 1932, 25 million roubles had been collected. From December 1931, the "Dirizhablestroi" Scientific Research Complex was charged with co-ordinating all Soviet work building and operating airships. The main centre for airship design and construction was based at Dolgoprudnaya station, just north of Moscow's outer ring road, whilst the airship hanger and ground staff were based at Leningrad's Volkhovo field. Soviet design specialists were supported by the recruitment of Italian airship designer, General Umberto Nobile in May 1932 – who stayed at Dolgoprudnaya till 1936.
|
Nobile had gained fame as designer and pilot of the Norge which, under explorer Roald Amundsen's command, made the first flight to the North Pole, reaching there at 1.30 a.m. on 12th May 1926. A further flight in a new airship, the Italia in 1928 also reached the Pole on 23 May, but icing caused the airship to crash. Amundsen joined the rescue, but went missing. It was not until a month later that Nobile's party were rescued.
World opinion turned against Nobile – first for apparently deserting his men (when he had been instructed to leave first to help co-ordinate the relief effort), and second for his inadvertent role as the cause of Amundsen's loss. Back in Italy, an official enquiry unfairly held Nobile to blame for the loss of the Italia. But the Russians kept faith with Nobile, and in 1931 he resigned his commission in disgust and left for Russia. It was not until a further impartial enquiry following the second world war that his reputation was restored.
About the only tangible sign of the "Lenin Airship Flotilla" was the splendid "Airship Travel" series of 1934 USSR stamps, designed by Zavyalov, illustrating the proposed airships and route maps. Some nine airships were built in the period 1932 to 1936 by the Dirizhablestroi team, of which most were experimental in nature. Most were relatively small. The only possible match with Zavylov's 1936 Tuva design is the V-6 Osoaviakhim – at 104.5m long, the largest built. It first flew in 1934, had an envelope of 18,500m³ and was powered by three Maybach engines. It had a crew of 10 and could cruise at 93 – 97 kph with a range of 4,600 km (about the size of the Norge; in contrast the LZ-127 was 235m in length and had a gas capacity of 105,056m³). Successful training flights were made during 1936 from Moscow to Leningrad, Archangel, Kazan, Kar'kov and Kiev (but not Tuva as far as we know.)
Zavyalov's design has superficial similarities to the V-6: the craft appear to be of similar proportions, but the observation cabin in the V-6 is further forward and the tail fins elongated. It is more likely that Zavyalov's design – like those of his 1934 Russian series – represented a generic vision of the type of airships which it was hoped would fly the Trans-Siberian route. |
But within 18 months the concept was dead – Zavyalov's vision had turned into a fantasy of "what-might-have-been". Political, economic and technical circumstances combined against airships. Politically, Japanese aggression was mounting in Manchuria. The development of heavy-calibre machine guns and cannon made airships even more vulnerable to air attack. The all-metal TB-3 bomber was becoming the USSR's primary strategic air-weapon, and the Soviet economy could not sustain the development of both a heavy bomber and airship fleet.
The V-6 made further successful proving flights in 1937 – from Moscow to Sverdlovsk and, in September, a major endurance flight in which 4,800km was travelled in 130½ hours.
But in 1938, the V-6 too was lost. The airship was being prepared for its first flight to Novosibirsk where an airship station was due to open inaugurating the anticipated Trans-Siberian Airship Service, when in late 1937 the Soviet North Pole scientific research station came into danger. The ice-flow on which it was located had started to disintegrate. The V-6 was ordered with other aircraft, ice-breakers and submarines to assist. The V-6 left Dolgoprudeyi hanger on 5 February 1938. Lacking were proper maps of the Kola Peninsula, a region still uncharted, so a series of marker fires were lit through the tundra to indicate mountains ahead. For some reason, the crew ignored the beacon fires, and at 18.55 on 6 February, the V-6 crashed into the side of Mount Neblo: only six of the crew of 19 survived. Acknowledgements:
I am grateful to George Henderson of the British Society of Russian Philately and Robert J. Ruffle of the Russian Aviation Research Group for their assistance in preparing this article. References: Conefrey M and Jordan T. 1998. Icemen: A history of the Arctic and its explorers. Boxtree, London. Mirr A J. 1995. Tannu Tuva Catalog 1995. TTCS, Lake Worth, Florida. Websites: Airship:
the home page for lighter than aircraft Scott Marusak's Tuva Exhibit
|
TTCS Main page | Map | Hoomei | Covers | Classic Tuva stamps | Contact | Want to join?
