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|} The ZMC-2 (Zeppelin Metal Clad 200,000 cubic foot capacity)〔Morrow, Walker C. and Carl B. Fritsche. ''The Metalclad Airship ZMC-2''. 1967.〕 was the only successfully operated metal-skinned airship ever built.〔The 1897 airship of David Schwarz was the first airship that was metal-skinned, although Schwarz's ship had an internal framework rather than a monocoque design.〕 Constructed at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile by The Aircraft Development Corporation of Detroit,〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 the ZMC-2 was operated by the U.S. Navy at Lakehurst, New Jersey from 1929 until its scrapping in 1941. While at Lakehurst it completed 752 flights, and logged 2265 hours of flight time.〔Outlaw 2004, p.7〕 ==Development== The ZMC-2 was built in Grosse Ile, Michigan by the Aircraft Development Corporation, a division of Detroit Aircraft Corporation, on a site shared with, and later acquired by Naval Air Station Grosse Ile.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 The ZMC-2 was the brainchild of Ralph Hazlett Upson, a balloonist and engineer who had previously won the Gordon Bennett Cup for balloon racing in Europe, bringing the cup to the United States for the first time.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1987, p.〕 Upson teamed up with Carl B. Fritsche of Detroit and together they formed the Detroit Aircraft Corporation, with backing from Henry Ford and Edsel Ford, as well as Charles Kettering of General Motors, Alex Dow, president of Detroit Edison, and William B. Stout, a local industrialist.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 The airship was constructed in a special hangar built in 1925 for the construction of the ZMC-2, and expandable for the construction of much larger metal-clad airships the company envisioned would be produced later.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 The hangar measured 120' high, 120' wide and 180' long,〔Outlaw 2004, p.7〕 and remained the largest structure on the Naval Air Station property until 1960, when it was dismantled and the roof reused in the construction of a bowling alley in nearby Trenton, Michigan.〔Melton 1970, p.〕 The ZMC-2 was nicknamed the "Tin Bubble" and was also sometimes called a "tinship". The skin was not tin but Alclad. The airship was roughly teardrop shaped and had eight small stabilizer fins, four of which had rudders. It was held together with over 3.5 million rivets,〔Sullivan 1988〕 which were applied by an innovative sewing machine-like device which produced airtight seams.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 The ZMC-2 was 52 feet in diameter and 150 feet long.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 The control car was 24 feet long by 6 feet wide.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 It contained three fuel tanks to give a maximum cruising range of about 600 miles.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1987, p.〕 The ZMC-2 was powered by two Wright Whirlwind J5 engines of 200 hp each, carried on outriggers and mounted in a tractor arrangement, rather than the pusher position usually employed on blimps.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 At first the landing gear was an unusual hollow steel ball about the size and shape of an American football, mounted on a tripod attached to the car.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 This was done to create a shape with less drag in order to guarantee the Navy's requirement of a 62 mph top speed. Later, after the ZMC-2 had attained this speed with ease, the ball was replaced with a conventional swivelling soft tire.〔Morrow and Fritsche 1967, p.〕 The crew consisted of a pilot, copilot and flight engineer-navigator, with space for one or two additional passengers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ZMC-2」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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