Karl Arnstein (March 24, 1887, Prague – December 12, 1974,

Bryan, Ohio Bryan is a city in, and the county seat of, Williams County, Ohio, United States. It is located in the state's northwestern corner, southwest of Toledo. The population was 8,729 at the 2020 census. History Bryan was platted in 1840 by John ...

) was one of the most important 20th century

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

engineers and designers in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. He was born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, Bohemia (now the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

) to Jewish parents. He developed

stress analysis Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

methods that have been incorporated into

bridges A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...

s and

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurat ...

materials. Before his involvement in airships he was one of the main engineers in building the Swiss

Langwieser Viaduct The Langwieser Viaduct (or Langwies Viaduct; german: Langwieser Viadukt) is a single track reinforced concrete railway bridge spanning the Plessur River and the Sapünerbach, near Langwies, in the Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It was de ...

. In World War I Arnstein worked on improvements to the design of the German Zeppelin airships; see

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count 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 ...

. He was the chief designer of the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

airships,

USS Akron USS ''Akron'' (ZRS-4) was a helium-filled rigid airship of the U.S. Navy, the lead ship of her class, which operated between September 1931 and April 1933. It was the world's first purpose-built flying aircraft carrier, carrying F9C Sparrow ...

and USS Macon and was employed by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation in Akron Ohio. He also designed one of the largest airship sheds in the USA for sheltering huge Zeppelins.

References

External links

Finding aid for the Karl Arnstein Papers
* Dale Topping, Eric Brothers

University of Akron Press, 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnstein, Karl 1887 births 1974 deaths 20th-century Czech people Engineers from Prague 20th-century German engineers American aerospace engineers German people of Czech-Jewish descent German emigrants to the United States 20th-century American engineers Austro-Hungarian emigrants to Germany