The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-09
AIR NAMES ASSURED
 BY ZEPPELIN'S FEAT
Epoch-Making Flight Will Bring Military Powers
 Into Field Quickly.

power. due to the size, the net avail able lifting power. which can be used Tor carrying crew fuel, provisions or expiosives Is relatively small Giving the figures from memory. I believe the net capacity of the Zeppelin is about two tons. while that of the polar air. ship America Is 10000 pounds or five tons. If the Zeppelin Is compelled to land in high wind. she will probably De torn to pieces. Ships of the other type can be landed and defated if necessary. with small damage, as the America was in spitzbergen last sep- tember.
 Count Zeppelin has broken all re- cords for length. of run. But there is no reason why military cruisers of the future should not have radius of movement of three or four thousand miles. Of course. the greater the speed aimed at. the greater the quantity of fuel that must be carried for given distance. A ship like the America carries three tons of gasoline in her steel tank. and If the influence of the winds be regarded as neutral she could motor 13e hours at about twenty Eng fish miles per hour.
 The Zeppelin and most of the forr eign airships have been designed for high speed. about thirty miles per
 
 speed was deemed an advantage in the ship designed to cross the polar ocean and reach the north pole. 700 miles from the starting point.
 Count zeppeltn's remarkable cruise Uf %hay Ss done s oR %h dor years I expect to sac the Atlantic Ocean crossed by an airship of the Repub- America could now cross the Atlantic without much risk of accident with a little help from the winds A voyage versa. Is within her scope, and I am strongly tempted to. bring her over from Paris this fall and.glve Americans a demonstration of what hrst-class way of q long voyage through the air.
 In view of the success of Zeppelin. of Lebaudy.s of La RepubliQue and the up- doubted ability of Americ4 to make a longer voyage than Count Zeppelin has just made. many experts regret that tn first venture..of the United States Government in military motor balloon as M that of Captain Baldwin. It iIas not class. It Is too small. :. It has no Endurance. Captain Baldwin Is 3 skillful man. but his machine Is not a chance against great cruiser like Zeppelin. When the United States Gov- ernment enters the aeronautic hel6 tt should not be content to begin where foreign experiments ended years ago. but should, be up to date in size and engineering
 Tn, the other branch of aerial navt- gation, that of purely mechanical flight without balloons or gas. promising ex- periments. are being made. Mir, Far mans elaortyskimming flights at Brign~ ton Beach, and the longer flights he and others have made in America and abroad. suggest the probablyity that in a few years great things will be done in that line. believe that within i've years we shall see a heavier-than- -air machine cruising hundreds of miles. It requires only larger and more pers feet machines, more powerful motors, greater fuel carrying power and the working out of certain problems of balance and control. The mechanical flight machine promises much for the future. But the motor balloon airefip is already here. Its employment for military purposes, for crossing the At- lantic, or exploring the regions of the pole is now only question of adapta- ton of means to the particular end in view. ~