Caquot - the name of a series of tethered observation balloons designed and built in France during the First World War . Operated in the French Navy and the French Army to monitor the battlefield and adjust artillery fire. Also, some produced copies were used as barrage balloons .
Content
Creation History
Back at the beginning of World War I , it was discovered that tethered balloons are an effective means of observation. At that time, Germany was already actively using its own observation balloons.
Albert Kako , the French aeronaut, when observing the work of a spherical balloon of the sample of 1880, found that spherical balloon balloons are unstable with gusts of wind, which complicates the work of observers, and this may adversely affect the reliability of reconnaissance data received by the crew [1] . Then Kako began to develop a new balloon design: the balloon balloononet of a new design should have a cigar-shaped shape and three tail stabilizers arranged in such a way that the angle between the two adjacent planes would be 120 °. As the tests later confirmed, the cigar-shaped construction of the ballonet did indeed exceed the spherical in resistance to wind gusts.
Subsequently, in February 1915, Kako received permission to build a prototype balloon. Tests of the prototype were successful, but the serial has not yet been deployed [1] .
Soon the project was finalized: the balloon received a new system of cables, which more reliably connects it to the ground.
Production and Operation
In June 1915, Albert Kako was appointed director of the machine shop Chalais-Meudon and launched a mass production of “Caquot” balloons [1] .
Four types of balloons were produced in series:
- type “P” (balloon with a volume of 750 m³ and a crew of two people. Flight altitude - 500 m)
- type "P2" (820 m³)
- type "M2" (930 m³)
- type “R” (1000 m³. The crew consisted of 3 people when raised to a height of 500 m, while lifting to a height of 1000 m the crew consisted of two people [1] )
46 balloons were ordered by the UK in July 1916 .
The French Navy received type P and P2 balloons used to detect enemy submarines and type R balloons used to adjust warship fires. By July 1918, the fleet received over 200 Caquot balloons.
The French army received 76 balloons, which were used to observe the battlefields and adjust artillery fire [2] .
Several aircraft were used as defensive balloons when the Germans began to bombard Paris from the air: balloons flew over the city, forming a kind of obstacle in the path of enemy bombers, and to avoid collisions, enemy planes flew higher, thereby worsening the accuracy of hitting bombs .
During the war, one of the balloons landed on the territory controlled by the German army , and was later used by the Germans under the designation Ae 800 .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Jean Kerisel et Thierry Kerisel, 2001 , p. 15-26.
- ↑ Lennart Ege, Erik Hildesheim et Kenneth George Munson. Balloons and airships 1783-1973. - 1973.
Literature
- Jean Kerisel et Thierry Kerisel. La guerre 1914-18. Le constructeur aéronautique . - 2001.