The Basket
Senior Master Sergeant
- 3,712
- Jun 27, 2007
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
So the German U-boat campaign was hampered by lack of airpower which could have been met by use of long range Zepplins operating from French bases.
So Zepplins could be used as scouts and recon and carry their own bombs for attacks against shipping.
The main goal would be discovery of convoys and then to act as a radio controller for wolf pack interception.
Of course this window of opportunity would be short and swift.
But did a window exist and if it did, how well would Zepplins do.
large rigid airships required an awful lot of aluminium and and awful lot of labor.
Somebody can look this up, my imperfect recollection was that a combination of solid and incendiary rounds were used
Hydrogen is not as dangerous as people think. Yes it goes bang but only when the air mixture is right.
Heluim is a lot more expensive and only sourced from the US of A if memory serves.
Hydrogen has more lift than helium and obviously cheaper and easier to produce.
I would wager that hydrogen is no more dangerous than avgas.
Based on this thread, I have come to the conclusion that airships would not have worked. There was a window but it was very narrow and involves winter and building sheds and infrastructure and by the time that all was worked out it would have been too late.
I'm learning!