August von Parseval (5 February 1861, in
Frankenthal (Pfalz) – 22 February 1942, in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
) was a German
airship
An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...
designer. His designs for an amphibian flying boat, balanced by two wing-floats, achieved liftoff in April 1910. This marked the beginning of marine aviation in Germany. He became a professor at the
Technische Hochschule
A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ) ...
in
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...
.
As a boy, Parseval attended the Royal Bavarian Pagenkorps in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
from 1873 to 1878, where he took the ''Fähnrichexamen'' (cadet exams). He then joined the Royal Bavarian 3rd Infantry Regiment ''Prinz Carl von Bayern''. An
autodidact, he busied himself with the problems of
aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design process, design, and manufacturing of air flight-capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere.
While the term originally referred ...
. In the garrison town of
Augsburg
Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
he came into contact with
August Riedinger and also came to know his later partner , with whom he developed ''Drachenballons'':
kite balloons used by the military for observation
designated as
Parseval-Sigsfeld type.
In 1901 Parseval and Sigsfeld began building a
dirigible airship. After Sigsfeld's death during a free balloon landing in 1902, the work was interrupted until 1905.
By 1905, thanks to improvements in motor design, an appropriate engine was now available. His designs were licensed to the British
Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
company. In 1907, Parseval retired from the Germany army to devote his time entirely to scientific works. His partner von Sigsfeld had died in 1906.
Up to the end of the First World War, 22 Parseval airships (both non-rigid (blimps) and semi-rigid (with keels) were built. In the late twenties and early thirties, four more
semi-rigid airships were built in accordance with the "Parseval-Naatz principle". Because the Parseval ships were non-rigid, unlike Zepplins, they were sold freely to foreign powers, including: Austria, Russia, Turkey, Japan, Italy, and Great Britain.
Parseval is sometimes written Parzeval or Parceval, particularly in historical documents.
The flights of each 'Parseval', like those of the
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155â ...
s, excited great interest. In
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
, a tavern closed in 2002 which had been named ''Zum Parseval'' upon the first visit of one of these airships in 1912.
See also
*
Parseval airships
References
External links
*
"The Latest Developments in Dirigible Balloons"by Major August von Parseval in the 1912 bulletin by the
Aero Club of AmericaTabellarischer Lebenslauf (German)*
1861 births
1942 deaths
People from Frankenthal
People from the Palatinate (region)
German airship aviators
Airships of Germany
Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin
{{Aviation-bio-stub