填空题
A The airship may well prove the solution to some pressing transport issues today. One reason is that the airship is more environmentally friendly than other airborne vehicles. It obtains most of its lift from lighter-than-air gas, usually ultra-safe helium. The engines therefore drive the vehicle through the air, rather than lifting it off the ground, resulting in considerable fuel economy.
B The fascinating story of the airship began in the 13th century, when Roger Bacon, the Franciscan friar with a predilection for experimenting with gunpowder, first considered buoyant flight. He thought it could be achieved by filling a thin-walled metal sphere with rarefied air or liquid fire.
C In 1670, Francesco Lana de Terzi, an Italian, calculated that four such spheres would be needed to lift a boat. But it was a French Engineer Corps officer, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Meusnier, who developed the first practical airship concept, in 1784, by devising an elongated balloon driven by airscrews.
D It never got off the ground, but it did inspire Britain"s first aeronautical scientist, Sir George Cayley, who in 1816, took the Frenchman"s design one step further to create an egg-shaped balloon with steam-powered propellers. But France won the race, achieving the first steam-powered airship flight in 1852, when the three horsepower, hydrogen-filled Aerial Steamer, designed by Henri Giffard, flew in Paris, zipping along at a glorious 7 mph.
E A motor driven by electricity was next, and the pioneers were Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs, who built La France, a 60-metre-long airship fitted with a huge wooden propeller at the front, the first that could be steered accurately, calm weather permitting. It was also considerably faster than its steam-powered predecessor 32 years earlier-reaching a magnificent 12 mph.
F But all these pioneers soon made way for the master, a German aristocrat and army cavalry officer named Ferdinand von Zeppelin. He designed a large military airship, with internal gas bags in a rigid, cigar-shaped, aluminium structure. It was turned down. Zeppelin resigned and established the Zeppelin Airship Corporation in 1898 to build his first airship. The LZ-1 was successfully launched from its floating hangar on Lake Constance on 2 July, 1900, its petrol engine taking it on a 17-mile flight at an average speed of 13 mph. The age of airship travel had begun.
G During the First World War, nearly 300 British airships protected allied convoys from submarine attack, while the Zeppelin undertook several successful bombing raids on Britain. But they made a large target themselves and were filled with explosive hydrogen. Around 40 were destroyed.
H The airship reached its zenith in 1929 when the Graf Zeppelin circumnavigated the globe, travelling 25,000 miles at an impressive 45 mph. But the destruction by fire of the famous Hindenburg in 1937 brought to an end the golden age of the airship and the prospect of further long-haul, lighter-than-air aviation.
I Unlike their predecessors, modern airships, or "blimps", are non-rigid, maintaining their shape solely through the pressure of inert, non-flammable helium in the main body of the ship, without use of any internal skeleton. At the rear end of the airship, a large vertical rudder is used to steer it left and right by means of pedals in the cockpit, and the flat movable fin protruding from the side enables upward or downward movement of the ship. At the lowest point of this part of the blimp, a small tail-wheel protects it from contact with the ground when landing or moored.
J Directly under the body of the airship is the gondola: the cabin containing the cockpit, engine compartment, and facilities for crew, passengers, and cargo. Trailing from the front of the ship are the mooring lines, which hang free in flight but are used to control it when taking off or landing. These are attached to the spindle: the narrow pointed component right at the front, which in turn is held by the rounded, flattened nose cone, covering the extreme forward part of the ship.
K The gondola can be more spacious than any modern aircraft. The airships can also stay airborne for long periods. While fixed-and rotary-wing aircraft measure flight time in hours, an airship can stay aloft for days, hovering silently. At sea, airships provide over-the-horizon observation coverage up to 130 nautical miles against small radar targets, such as cruise missiles. Airships are also employed in civil operations to catch drug smugglers, and to transmit television images of sport and outdoor concerts as they happen.
L Airship holidays are many and varied. For a tranquil experience, you can cruise the spectacular landscape of Swiss mountains and lakes. In Africa, you can catch a glimpse of the wildlife on ecologically sound, danger-free "airship safaris". And if you want to experience Las Vegas without losing your shirt in the casinos, an American tour operator offers weekday trips with breathtaking views of the world-famous Las Vegas Strip from a 165-foot-long, nine-seater airship.
M Finally, you could have caught the opening of the last Olympic Games, with an airship travel company that offered aerial surveillance of the action. You would have had a truly Olympian view of the torch"s final journey as it climbed those last few steps to ignite the flame.
Questions
Complete the table below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes on your answer sheet.

Designer(s)	Year	Power Type	Speed
Giffard	1852	steam	10
Renard and Krebs	1884	11	12 mph (maximum)
12	1900	13	13 mph (average)