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Captain Thomas Slate financed his all-metal dirigible, the City of Glendale, from the money he made in the dry ice / refrigeration business. Construction of the dirigible started in the summer of 1926 and the work was completed in early 1929, The dirigible was made out of duralumin and was filled with hydrogen. It was forecast to have a cruising speed of 80 mph and would accommodate 40 passengers and five crew. The dirigible was to be powered by oil and driven by steam-turbine, using one rotary blower, which would create a vacuum, instead of traditional propellers. Though completed in 1929, the airship never flew, in part to the stock market crash that closed the company.r

Identifier

NASM.2006.0039

Creator

Slate, Thomas B.

Date

bulk 1928-1929

Provenance

Sara Daubney-Kinney, Gift, 2006

Extent

0.05 Cubic feet ((1 folder))

Archival Repository

National Air and Space Museum Archives

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of eight 4 by 5 inch black and white negatives, with corresponding contact sheets, relating to Thomas Slate's all metal dirigible, The City of Glendale. The images include the dirigible outside a hangar during buoyancy testing, several close-ups of the gondola inside the hangar, one of Thomas Slate holding a model of the City of Glendale, and one of Slate holding the flat-bladed centrifugal blower.

Rights

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Citation

Slate Aircraft Corporation City of Glendale Negatives, Accession number 2006-0039, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Topics

Airships

Aeronautics

Slate Aircraft Corp (Thomas B. Slate) "City of Glendale"

Type

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Black-and-white negatives