PS COLUMN ARCHIVE

January 27, 2010

On the airship

As this is the first PS column of the year, I wanted to talk about something upbeat topic, but it is really hard to find such uplifting story in this country these days. So, I have very little choice but to talk about what I’ve found out lately, not really uplifting though.

As I was walking down the street the other day, I noticed an airship leisurely floating above me in the blue sky. It seemed to be an advertisement of some university with the banner to advertise “X University” on its side. I thought the airship might belong to the university. At any rate, I was, for a while, gaping at its graceful and noiseless flight.

I wonder if you know when such an operational airship flied over Tokyo sky for the first time in history. Opening the history book tells you that it was 99 years ago on November 17, 1911. A man of Wakayama prefecture by the name of Isaburo Yamada made the airship whose length was a little over 30 meters with hydrogen gas injected and installed with motor engine of 125 horsepower. He founded a balloon manufacturing plant near present JR Osaki station of Yamanote line; the book says that the airship taken off from Osaki flied over Shiba, Atagoyama, Hibiya park and then changed direction toward the sea to Shibaura and Shinagawa and back to Osaki again for duration of 25 minutes covering 20 kilometers. The airship made by a civilian commoner all by himself flied over Tokyo for the first time in history. It was a fine achievement one year earlier than the airplane manufactured by army flied over Tokyo sky. It is said that in commemoration of the flight day, the “Day of Sky” was established but strange enough it’s on November 20, three days later than Yamada’s ship flied. Why three days later is not known yet.

But the Imperial Army did not adopt Yamada’s airship; instead, the army imported airships from Germany. However, there broke out the revolution in Qing dynasty around that time and the revolutionary army made an offer to buy the airships, which were thus delivered to China. One day they did the test flight of the airship in China, but the next day was heavily stormed to have destroyed the airships together with temporarily fabricated hangar. Because of this mishap Yamada became unable to pay for balloons so that he tragically had to come back to Japan in despair.

Coming back to the main subject of the beginning, what I’ve found out recently is that the balloon manufacturing plant of Yamada located at Osaki at the end of Meiji era was succeeded to the husband of his daughter, Mr. Toyoma, so that it still exists in Ota ward of Tokyo today, where is continued of manufacturing large balloons for weather observation. I was deeply moved to have known that those people in the plant of 100 years history are engaged in the same work of earlier years in producing flying object called balloon. I came to know that the advanced technology had been handed down generation to generation over 100 years to be still making technological improvement along with ages, which really made me pleased so much.

                             (Translated by The Planetary Society of Japan)

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