avia.wikisort.org - Airship

The Loral GZ-22 (also known as the Goodyear GZ-22) was a class of non-rigid airship, or blimp first flown in 1989 and operated by Goodyear as its flagship promotional aircraft, with civil registration N4A and christened Spirit of Akron. This was the only airship of this class ever built.[1] Goodyear originally designed the GZ-22 to demonstrate the possible renewed use of airships to the United States Navy, which had ended their airship operations in 1962. The GZ-22 was designed by Goodyear, but built by Loral after Goodyear sold its aerospace division to Loral in 1987.[1] The GZ-22 had a steel-framed, composite-skinned gondola under a neoprene-impregnated polyester 2-ply envelope, inflated with helium.[1] At its launch in 1987, the 205-foot 6-inch long Spirit of Akron was the longest airship in service at that time.[2] The GZ-22 Type Certificate was issued on 31 August 1989.[3]

GZ-22
Role	non-rigid airship Type of aircraft
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Loral Corporation
Designer	Goodyear
First flight	1989
Primary user	Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
Number built	1

On 28 October 1999, the Spirit of Akron suddenly entered an uncontrolled left turn and began descending over Suffield Township, Ohio, crashing into trees and sustaining severe damage. The pilot and technician on board received minor injuries. The NTSB report on the crash identified improperly hardened metal splines on the control actuators had sheared, causing loss of control and identified the probable cause as being failure by the "flight control system manufacturer to meet design (hardness) specifications".[4]

The control car of the Spirit of Akron is on display at the MAPS Air Museum.[5]

Specifications

Data from [1]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Capacity: 10 passengers
• Length: 205 ft 6 in (62.64 m)
• Width: 47 ft 0 in (14.33 m)
• Height: 60 ft 2 in (18.34 m)
• Volume: 247,800 cu ft (7,017 m³)
• Gross weight: 15,000 lb (6,804 kg)
• Powerplant: 2 × Allison 250-B17C turboprops , 420 hp (312.2 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 65 mph (105 km/h, 56 kn)
• Service ceiling: 10,000 ft (3,050 m)

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Taylor, Michael J. H. (1996). Brassey's World Aircraft & Systems Directory. London, England: Brassey's. ISBN 1-85753-198-1.

На других языках

---

[de] Spirit of Akron

Die Spirit of Akron war das einzige Luftschiff vom Typ GZ-22. Sie wurde in den 1980er Jahren als letzter Luftschifftyp noch von der Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company entwickelt. Während die Luft- und Raumfahrtsparte des Reifenkonzerns mit seiner Luftschifffertigung 1987 an Loral Defence Systems und 1996 weiter an Lockheed Martin verkauft wurde, übernahm Goodyear bis 1999 auch den Betrieb des Prallluftschiffs.

---

- [en] Loral GZ-22

---

---