Spy basket

The spy gondola, spy basket, observation car or sub-cloud car (German: Spähgondel or Spähkorb) is a crewed vessel that an airship hiding in cloud cover could lower several hundred metres[1] to a point below the clouds in order to inconspicuously observe the ground and help navigate the airship.

A free-hanging antenna wire would move and flex in the wind hindering communications; the added weight reduced this movement.

To test the prototype he blindfolded the helmsman of the airship and allowed himself to be lowered by a winch from the bombroom in a modified cask, equipped with a telephone.

With the Zeppelin sometimes within, sometimes above the clouds and unable to see the ground, Gemmingen in the hanging basket would relay orders on navigation and when and which bombs to drop.

[4] Despite Gemmingen reporting a feeling of loneliness while being lowered and losing sight of the airship, crewmen would nevertheless volunteer for this duty because it was the one place they could smoke.

Observatory car drawing from a December 1916 Scientific American cover
Juray fish-shaped spy gondola while crewed
An aeroplane photographed this spy basket in operation hanging from the American USS Macon in 1934-09-27.
A spy basket preserved at the Imperial War Museum , which fell from the LZ 90 on 2 to 3 September 1916 [ 6 ]