Parseval airships

The Parsevals were 22 airships built between 1909 and 1919 by the Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft (LFG) following the design of August von Parseval. In the 1920s and 1930s, three more airships were built following the Parseval-Naatz (PN) design.

As with the rival Zeppelins, the airships were, in both English and German, referred to by the name of the inventor. (In German, the nouns were masculine, that is, "der Parseval", "der Zeppelin".)

In contrast to the Zeppelins, the Parsevals were non-rigid or semi-rigid airships, with little or no stiffening structure inside the fabric envelope. The Zeppelins had a rigid internal framework made of duralumin. Both types relied on hydrogen gas to provide lift.

The Versuchsluftschiff (meaning experimental airship) was Parseval's first model. It was rebuilt several times.

January 22 is the memorial day of "skyship" in Japan.

PL 20-24 were not built.

See: Parseval PL25 PL 25 was a military airship made in 1914/1915. It was the last single-gondola Parseval airship. It made its first flight on 1915-02-25, entered Navy service until 1916, after 95 flights.

PL 26 was a semirigid airship whose maiden flight was on 1915-10-26, but it had an accident upon landing and was destroyed in a fire, with no casualties.

PL27's maiden flight was on 1917-03-08. The major difference from its predecessor PL 26 was the specification of the gondola. Because it no longer met increased military requirements, it was not put to military service but instead converted to a passenger airship in 1919. The Treaty of Versailles resulted in its dismantlement in 1920.

On 1930-05-21 PN 29 acquired the Swedish call-sign "SE-ACG Sidenhuset", after the then well-known ladies boutique from Stockholm. The word "Sidenhuset" was displayed in large letters on its hull. The owner was "AB Luftskeppsreklam i Stockholm" (Airship Advertising Co).

Sidenhuset's task was to make advertising flights over the . The airship was damaged by wind due to its being parked outside. The manufacturer arrived and it was decided to fly the ship back to Germany for repairs. During the fight it crashed into the Baltic Sea, south of the island of Öland, on 1930-06-04. The airship sank, but with no casualties.

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Wikipedia