The Spy gondola, Spy basket, Observation car or sub-cloud car (German: Spähgondel or Spähkorb) was a byproduct of Peilgondel development (a gondola to weight an airship's radio-locating antenna). They were used almost entirely by the Germans in the First World War on their military airships. The spy basket could be lowered from above through the cloud deck several hundred metres, in order to inconspicuously observe the ground and to help navigate the airship.
Read more about Spy Basket: Development, Use, Zeppelin Spy Basket Development and Use
Famous quotes containing the words spy and/or basket:
“Living, just by itself—what a dirge that is! Life is a classroom and Boredom’s the usher, there all the time to spy on you; whatever happens, you’ve got to look as if you were awfully busy all the time doing something that’s terribly exciting—or he’ll come along and nibble your brain.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)
“Warmest climes but nurse the cruelest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)