B-class blimp

The B-class blimps were non-rigid patrol and training airships built for the United States Navy during and shortly after World War I. On 4 February 1917 the Secretary of the Navy directed that sixteen of the type be bought, and because no single firm could supply that many, Goodyear, Goodrich, the Connecticut Aircraft Company and U.S. Rubber agreed to share the order, with Curtiss supplying gondolas. Goodyear made nine of the envelopes, Goodrich five, and Curtiss assembled the gondolas for those fourteen ships from modified Curtiss JN-4 fuselages carrying a 100 horsepower Curtiss OXX V-8 engine. The first, B-1, made its first flight in May 1917 at the White City Amusement Park in Chicago with Ralph Upson, and all of the class were delivered between August 1917 and September 1918. Flying from East Coast stations and from San Diego and Coco Solo, the B-types logged about 13,500 hours and helped train more than 160 naval aviators in airship operation. Two of them, B-3 and B-15, survived until 1924.