The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-08-08

i in the air it would certainly never be
! able to land again without being to-
italy destroyed, as happened in Janu-
airy, 1906
At, the present day no higher speed
could be given to a dirigible without
exposing it to the greatest danger. Ev-
cry balloon has critical" speed, be-
Iyond which it cannot go without los
ing its rightly under the pressure Of
the air and buckling up. In the case
of La Patrie this critical speed is
twenty seven miles; with the Zeppelin
LII cannot be far above thirty miles
an hour. Unless, therefore, 1t is mu-
ltually agreed by the contending forces
in future wars to limit hostilittes to
calm days there is every prospect that
the airship will fail at the critical mo-
ment.
The ridiculous nature of the sug-
gestion that airships mould possibly
| be used for transporting troops will
pear from the fact that the Zeppe-
lin, With all its 10000 cubic feet ca
paeity and its ITO horse-p power motive
force, has lifting power Of only two
tons. Its normal crew consists of ten
| men, thus leaving rather more than a
ton for explosives, petrol, ballast, etc,
so that it would be impossible for 1t
/ to carry even half a dozen other men.
The present day airship has to car
~ so much ballast, or dead weight,
that very little useful weight, such as
explosives, bombs men, etc, can be
carried. Then, again, it cannot rise
to any great height. The former Lee
fbaudy vessel in 1906 on one occasion
rose to height of $500 feet, which
lnecessitated the expenditure Of 750
pounds of ballast out of the ton TAX
en-; and even then it only remained in
the air just over an hour, Yet the
ability to rise quickly to a great height
is absolutely essential to an airship
under fire.
From the same cause proceeds the
extremely small radius Of action of an
airship, which vigorously limits its
practical utility The life Of an air
ship is absolutely dependent on the
| bttAAcf9Ns l4N EICPpGlllI Otl OllG OCtdSluI
| travelled seventy-five miles in two and
a quarter hours, returning to its start
ing point; the Lebaudy vessel has ira
lversed just over seventy miles in over
three hours. But all these trials have
! taken place under distinctly favorable
circumstances
Lastly we come to the greatest OBJ.
stacle Of all that has up to now pre-
vented the airship from becoming B
1 thing of practical utility-the Difficult.
| ty of effecting a safe landing Here
the French vessel is Intensely superior
| yet in a stiff breeze it could not lane
| without external aid. The Zeppelir
| cannot land on solid ground at all; a
end of its flight it descends on the wa.
ter. On the only occasion on which
| it came to rest on the earth it wa.
| totally destroyed. Furthermore, the
| balloon must be housed in an appro.
| PIRATE shelter and constantly requires
| refilllng with gas, which necessitates
a cumbrous train Of wagons.
These difficulties point only toe
clearly to single conclusion-no air.
ship could ait the present day possibly
accompany an army in the field. Wher
! working from a fixed base, Such as 6
permanent fortress, it may be usefu
for accommodating purposes within 8
strictly limited radius.
1t may be objected that these con
clusions are at variance with the re
cent establishment in the German
army of a battalion specially devoted
! to dirigible balloon work. Such g
battalion has in fact been organized
in connection with the established bal.
loon battalion. 1t consists of three
officers, ten on-commissioned officers
and seventy-fiye rank and file. The
reason for its creation is. however
not far to seek; it simply denotes thai
with their usual prudence the military
authorities have thought fit to guart
against a possible sensational develop.
ment in aerial navigation by creating
a body of men experienced in hand.
ling the present material-inadequ
though it be-Who would be able
should the necessity arise to take full
advantage of this experience in hand.
ling a perfected airship.
As has already been stated, an eff1ci
ent aerial warship is an impossibility
at the present day; the Zeppelin is
| impracticable and Parseval and eros,
airships have given poor results, an(
are at best but inferior limitations Of
La Patrie. The latter, although the
best aiTship yet constructed. notably
in dirigibility and stability. marks bu
a slight advance on La France, the
airship due to the creative genius o.
Col. Renard. which gave almost fden.
teal results as long ago as 1884