PARSEVAL

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

\

5.2.1861 Frankenthal/D - 22.2.1942 Berlin/D

\

August von Parseval served from 1878 to 1906 as an officer in the German Army, where he finally had the rank of major. He was appointed Lecturer in 1908 and promoted to professor of aviation in 1911 at the Technical University of Berlin, from where he retired in 1936.

\

Parseval began studying airship design while working for the German military in 1900. Together with a colleague he presented the first dragon balloon in 1897. He then flew his first non-rigid airship in 1906 in Berlin. The so called Parseval airship had no frame like the Zeppelin and only appeared rigid because the gas inside it maintained sufficient pressure to support its shape. The Parseval airship was thus extremely light and could not attain the same fast speeds as the larger and more powerful Zeppelins. These airships were used in World War I for reconnaissance purposes. In total 27 Parseval airships were designed until the end of World War I. The military was interested in these designs because of simple transportation of the airship wrap and its easy use independent from an airport, because a complete Parseval airship could be transported with only two trucks. The Parseval III was a semi-rigid dirigible which traveled at speeds of up to 50 km/h. Parseval's airships may be considered predecessors of the current publicity airships. Parseval published a number of books that presented his technical development of the dragon balloon, the Parseval airship and the Zeppelin design that finally survived. A first work was devoted to the flight of birds that served essentially for first human flight experiences.

\

_{Anonymous (1906). Das Parseval'sche lenkbare Luftschiff. Umschau 10: 831-833.}

_{Anonymous (1908). Major von Parseval. Umschau 12: 761. P}

_{Anonymous (1931). Major a.D. August von Parseval. Umschau 35(5): 98. P}

_{Anonymous (1961). August von Parseval. Zeitschrift für Flugwissenschaften 9(12): 422-423. P}

_{Killy, W., Vierhaus, R. (1998). Parseval, August von. Deutsche biographische Enzyklopädie 7:}

_{565. Saur: München.}

_{Parseval, A. von (1889). Die Mechanik des Vogelflugs. Bergmann: Wiesbaden. Parseval, A. von (1897). Der Drachen-Ballon. Meyer und Müller: Berlin. Parseval, A. von (1908). Motorballon und Flugmaschine. Bergmann: Wiesbaden. Parseval, A. von (1925). Graf Zeppelin und die deutsche Luftfahrt. Klemm: Berlin.}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1925). von Parseval, August Franz Max. Biographisch-Literarisches Hand- wörterbuch 5: 942-943; 6: 1953; 7a: 506.Verlag Chemie: Leipzig, with bibliography. http://www.zeppelinfan.de/html-seiten/deutsch/luftschiff_parseval.htm P}