Astra-Torres airship

Astra-Torres AT-1 at an air show in 1911

The Astra-Torres airships were non-rigid airships built by Société Astra in France between about 1908 and 1922 to a design by the Spaniard Leonardo Torres Quevedo.[1][2][3] They had a highly characteristic tri-lobed cross-section rather than the more usual circular cross-section. This was the result of moving most of the blimp's bracing wires inside the envelope in an attempt to minimise drag. Early Astra-Torres airships could be trimmed by moving the entire gondola fore and aft.

Astra-Torres airships, like Alsace, were used by the French Navy during the First World War and for a few years before and after. A few of these were transferred to the American expeditionary forces in Europe, and AT-1, AT-13 and AT-17 were eventually taken back to the United States.

Britain's Royal Naval Air Service purchased AT-14, AT-17 and AT-19, these becoming HMA No. 3, HMA No. 8 and HMA No. 16 respectively. They went through testing and evaluation at RNAS Kingsnorth before all were later taken out of service in May 1916,[4] although the Astra-Torres design was imitated in Britain's own Coastal class, and North Sea blimps that served through to the end of the war.[5]

After the war, AT-16 was operated by Transaérienne, carrying sightseeing passengers over Paris, and AT-24 was purchased by the Japanese Navy.

Operators

 France

• French Navy

 Japan

• Imperial Japanese Navy - The IJN purchased a Nieuport AT-2 from France in 1922, shortly after losing its first airship, a British SS class airship, in an explosion. It was assembled at Tokorozawa in 1923 and stationed at Kasumigaura Air Base later that year. It was dismantled in 1924.[6]

 United Kingdom

• Royal Naval Air Service

See also

• 1911 in aviation

References

1. "La dirección de globos y un inventor español". La Época. 1902.
2. Francisco A. González Redondo.Leonardo Torres Quevedo, 1902-1908. The Foundations for 100 years of Airship designs In book: Proceedings of the 7th International Airship Convention, pp.1-12, Publisher: German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR), October 2008.
3. Ambrose Talbot, Frederick Arthur (2020). "Airships of War". Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War. Prabhat Prakashan. pp. 30–32. ISBN 978-8184305012.
4. "Airshipsonline:Sheds: Kingsnorth".
5. Whale, George (2013). "Airship design". British Airships - Past, Present And Future. Read Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1473391529.
6. Starkings, Peter. "Japanese Military Airships 1910-1945". Retrieved 8 September 2015.

• Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions. p. 82.

External links