Airship "America"

XXI

While Graf von Zeppelin was building LZ-2 in Germany in 1906, an American explorer, Walter Wellman, attempted to reach the North Pole by dirigible. Wellman's airship was called America, and she was a semirigid airship, having a keel but no internal framework. She was a hydrogen craft, which meant that she was potentially explosive.

Wellman made three voyages from Spitsbergen toward the Pole in 1906, 1907, and 1909. Each time, the craft suffered engine trouble. Ice also built up on the envelope, slowing the already slow craft and reducing its lift severely.

For some truly incomprehensible reason, Willis’ Cigarettes chose to use this questionable image of the struggling ice-laden America to sell its product. Anybody ever hear of Willis’ Cigarettes?

After his third failure to reach the North Pole, Wellman decided to seek a new goal, and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1910. Had he succeeded it would have been the first aerial crossing of the Western Ocean.

Wellman had America enlarged and fitted out with a wireless "spark gap"-type transmitter that used the ship's gondola for its antenna. This was an extremely dangerous arrangement given that static buildup from the transmitting equipment could have at any time ignited the hydrogen in the ship's hull.

Melvin Vaniman, America's engineer and expeditionary photographer, with Kiddo, the flying cat

 

Not long after setting out, America's engine quit yet again. She drifted some 1,500 miles into the Atlantic before being spotted by a passing steamer. At that point, America sent the first Air-to-Surface distress call in history. The crew, including the ship's mascot,  Kiddo the cat, were all rescued and America drifted away never again to be seen.