# Giant (airship)

The Giant (Russian: Гигант) was a semi-rigid airship designed by engineers Alexander Kovanko and Athanasius Shabsky. It was the largest dirigible built in Russia. In subsequent years, no airships of this size were created. The largest airship built in Russia, the SSR W-6 (Osoaviakhim), had a volume of only 18 500 m$^3$.

## Development history

In 1912, the Ministry of War of the Russian Empire ordered a large airship according to the design of engineers A. M. Kovanko (according to other sources, P. N. Syromyatnikov) and A. I. Shabsky. The construction of the airship was carried out at the Baltic Shipyard.
Despite the outbreak of World War I, the ship was successfully completed, and flight tests began in February 1915.
Alongside the "Giant," another larger airship, the "Air Cruiser," was under construction at the Izhora Plant, according to the design of B. V. Golubov and engineer D. S. Sukhorshevsky. The volume of this ship was 33 000 m$^3$, but its construction was not completed.
At the beginning of the war, the imperial air fleet had 9 airships, mostly of the soft type, with volumes ranging from 2 200 to 10 000 m$^3$, as well as several airship hangars.
To assemble the ship and fill it with hydrogen, the Ministry of War allocated a large airship hangar in Salizi, near Gatchina under Petrograd.

## Description

The airship's envelope was made of silk rubberized fabric, and the frame, located in the lower third of the envelope, consisted of steel tubes. The airship's three ballonets were equipped with Sirocco system fans, powered by separate gasoline engines. The gondola of the "Giant" stretched along the entire length of the airship and was rigidly attached to its frame. A unique feature of the design was that the gondola was covered in fabric, forming a single structure with the envelope.
According to the design, the "Giant" was supposed to have four V-shaped eight-cylinder engines with a cylinder diameter of 145 mm and a piston stroke of 175 mm. At 1 100 rpm, the engines developed a power of up to 215 hp. Each engine weighed 750 kg.
During the design process, A. I. Shabsky provided for separate engine gondolas, significantly reducing air resistance. These engine gondolas were to be located on the sides of the airship, two on each side.
The electrical systems on the airship were of exceptionally high quality. The "Giant" was the first airship to use instruments for graphically recording the thrust of the propellers.

## Accident

Due to the onset of the war, assembly of the "Giant" was entrusted to military aeronaut Leonid Lipping. After calculating the weight of the airship's parts, Lipping concluded that the maximum flight altitude would be low. Therefore, it was decided to remove the two rear engine gondolas, and move the two front ones closer to the main static vertical. Some researchers believe that these modifications failed to account for changes in bending moments, which subsequently led to the accident.
On 10 February 1915, in the Gatchina area, flight tests of the "Giant" began. During the first flight, at a low altitude, the airship bent severely in the middle, and a rotating propeller caught one of the cables supporting the engine gondolas. This caused the airship to bend further and fall to the ground.