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First posted 18 February 2015
* Update 29 February 2016 *
** Update 9 June 2016 **
AIRSHIPS
Lighter-than-air craft
including balloons, blimps, semi-rigid
& rigid dirigibles
as seen at times over the Spontoon Island Archipelago
Anti-aircraft guns and the crews to man them.
Some kind of well-camouflaged fort. Then a Zeppelin shed.
Blackhawk always smiled at that ambition.
(BLACKHAWK novelization by William Rotsler, circa 1982)
** The airship "Lady Grace of Avon" - by Jerry Collins **
(Larger file here - 1 MByte)
* "Tourist Blimp" (# 15) - color sketch by Jerry Collins *
Larger file here - (1 MB)
Upload 29 February 2016
"Evening Flyover" - by Jerry Collins
(Larger file here - 2.1 MBytes)
"The Olympia Airship Factory" - by Jerry Collins
Larger file here - (1.2 MBytes)
Upload 2 April 2015
"One of Ours" - by Simon Barber
1919 British fleet maneuvers in the Pacific
Airship - "The Agusta" (heavy lifter/ heavy cargo)
by Jerry Collins - Larger file here - (645 KBytes)
"Balalaika 7" by Simon Barber - Larger files here (484 KB) & here (1 MB)
"The Vostok airship, "Balalaika 7" fires the first shots of the Pacific War, against 10 squadrons
of Soviet Russian Kalinin K7 bombers. The entire crew were awarded the Medal of Saint Peter.
Posthumously." (Unknown source post-1940, via Simon Barber)
Taxi Airship - "The Daisy" - by Jerry Collins
Larger files here (469 KB) and here (1.8 MB)
...Around this time the name 'blimp' had become accepted for non-rigid
airships. It was popularly believed that this was an abbreviation for
'bloody limp', sometimes a singularly appropriate description. In fact,
however, the explanation of the origin of the name is far less romantic.
The earlier non-rigids had been designated 'A-limp'. Their successors
were called 'B-limp'.
(British WW1 airship types, 1915. The History of Airships, Basil Clarke, 1961 - page 81)
"A Mad Scientist's Flying Dreadnought" - ink sketch by Jerry Collins
(Larger file here - 1 MByte)
WAASS crew on a visit to the Spontoon Islands; scouting out a market.
by S. A. Gallacci - Larger file here (2.1 MBytes)
(A Women's Auxiliary AirShip Service crossover picture.)
"Young Zeichner's Encounters"
A comic strip by S. A. Gallacci
(A
repost from 1998 - 'Spontoon Island' zine #5)
Your compiling archivist has been kindly directed (by 'Barnacle
Will')
to the blog:
The Flying Cloud,
R-505
"Airships,
adventure, gallant gentlemen, and sultry island maidens!"
an alternate-Earth serial by Paul Gazis, that is currently up to 46
chapters.
I highly recommend it. I believe that you may also find
the adventure and ironic humor to be very sympathetic
to Spontoonie sensibilities. (Added to the Links
page)
Possibly the first in-flight radio message -- in 1910, from the dirigible airship,
AMERICA, during its attempt to cross the North Atlantic Ocean:
"Roy, come and get this goddamn cat!"
(Discussing 'Kiddo', a stowaway in the airship lifeboat.)