Friday, October 25, 2013

Air Ships Mentioned in Adventure in a Age of Invention

Frank Reade was the inventor of many ironclad sea, land ships, and submarines. However, some of his more fantastic inventions were his airships. These airships were kept aloft by a series of horizontal rotors, much like a helicopter. These are a few the airships mentioned in Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention:
  • Flying Scud
  • Calamaran
  • Queen Clipper of the Clouds
  • Flight
  • Sky Pilot
  • Zephyr
  • White Cruiser
  • Thunderbolt
Although there are many fanciful designs, judging from the illustrations I don’t see how these airships stayed aloft. The bodies of these airships look too bulky and the main rotors, that resemble oriental umbrellas, do not look like they would be all that effective in keeping these airships aloft.
Although I haven’t seen a mention of how these rotors are being driven perhaps they are being driven by some type of chemical reaction, like the Flying Fish in the With Airship and Submarine.

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