In the following year Dr. Woelfert, of Berlin, produced a
cigar-shaped envelope, to which was attached rigidly a long
bamboo framework containing the car. An 8 horse-power benzine
Daimler motor drove a twin-bladed aluminium propeller, and
another propeller for vertical movement was provided beneath the
car. Four trial flights were attempted, but on each occasion the
motor gave unsatisfactory results, and Woelfert sought to improve
it with a benzine vaporizer of his own pattern. This improvement
was not a success, as during the last flight an explosion took
place and both Woelfert and an aeronaut named Knabe, who was
accompanying him, were killed.
In 1906, Major von Parseval experimented, in Berlin, with a
non-rigid type of airship. His first ship had a volume of 65,200
cubic feet, but owing to his system of suspensions, the car hung
27 feet 6 inches below the envelope. A Daimler engine was used,
driving a four-bladed propeller. Owing to the great overall
height of this ship, experiments were made to determine a system
of rigging, enabling the car to be slung closer to the envelope,
and in later types the elliptical rigging girdle was adopted.
His later ships were of large dimensions and proved very
satisfactory. About the same time Major Gross also built
airships for the German aeronautical battalion.
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