Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-25
AERIAL FLEETS OF GERMANY
Alarm Felt in England Over the
Building Of zeppelins.
ENGLAND IS Tagging BEHIND
Airships that Might Make short
work of Drendnnughts, Though
some Experts RIdicule NO
tion of Aerial Attack.

tion of Aerial Attack.
LONDON, April 10-Before the British
public has had time to recover from the
scare caused by the revelation that in
1912 Germany will have as many Dread
noughts as Great Britain the aeronautical
correspondent OF the Times raises a fresh
alarm by announcing that Germany In the
same year will be in possession of more
than enough airships to make short work
of at least ten British Dreadnoughts.
In 1912, we are told, Germany will have
twenty-four mammoth Zeppelin ships, each
capable Of oversee excursions and prob
ably speedier than any naval vessel. In
the present year she will have four Yep
pelins. and the magnificent factory at
Friedrichshafen, endowed with over $780,
900 by the German nation, will be able to
turn out at least eight vessels a year
after this autumn. Thus by 1912 Germany
can have twenty-four Zeppelins and her
other military dirigibles will number at
least a dozen.
Great Britain has no up-to-date facilities
for building large dirigibles and the rate
of production is one vessel a year. By 1871
Britain may have at most some five small.
slow non-rigid ships, which, as compared
with the Zeppelins will be as antlquated
cruisers to Dreadnoughts, and these five
ships, If built according to present esti-
mates, will be fitted. only for overland
work. They will be quite unable TO cope
with the larger and swifter German vessels,
which can mount better guns and carry
more explosives.
what Zeppelin Can Do.
A Zeppelin Of the present day type, con-
tinues the writer. could reach this country
in ten hours and do enormous damage in a
brief space of time. Twenty-four great
vessels of a vastly improved type might
in 1912 put ten or more British Dread
noughts out of action and damage Great
Britain's naval bases seriously, while Ger
many would still have a well tried second
aerial fleet of twelve dirigibles to carry
out further operations.
At least three highly equipped factories
in Germany are now making dirigibles,
and Count Zeppelin alone has SIS 900 for
the work, of which S1,37 900 was subscribed
by the German people Of their own free
will.
Tn writer therefore exhorts the English
people to rouse themselves from their
lethargy and carry out a similar national
movement. BY a combined effort, he says,
aided by the naval and military authori-
ties, Britain could by 1912 have twelve
large and well equipped aeria! vessels, in
addition to the five or more which the
government would construct.
He points out that 1t has cost Germany
years Of we'll organized preparation and
the expenditure of over $2.5C0,OOO to attain
her present aerial position and that 1t is
absurd to hope that the annual outlay Of
$685. 600 by Britain can bring 1t out of the
purely experimental region by 1912.
Speaking of the moral effect OF a sudden
attack on these shores by Germany, he pre-
diets that a panic would be created by a
single German ship making a demonstra-
ton over London. The majority of people
In this country. he says, laugh at the idea.
and even a~eronautical writer's pooh-pooh
the possibility of attack by dirisibles. and
yet the records made by the Zeppelin in
I 1903 show that a ship Of this type has trav-
eled over 500 miles, and later records show
its speed to be up to thirty-five miles an
5 hour, with power to ascend to an altitude
Of over a mile. ,'
I 1t can carry at least a ton OF explosives
u and sufficient supplies for a run of over
T 800 miles. Yet the whole notion Of aerial
attack by vessels of the Zeppelin type is
I ridiculed In this country.
e Landing Army by AirshIp.
) The arguments Of the aeronautical ex-
perts referred to who pooh-pooh the idea
OF attacks on Britain by German dlrigibles
J are put thus by one of them: Granted
ideal conditions, an entire absence of fog
or rain for something over twenty-four
hours and still air or a light ~easterly
breeze. a Zeppelin airshlp might carry fuel
{ for the journey and a company of ten men
{ with food and rifles across the North sea.
d Under these circumstances It is, of course,
/ nnnnofxroh1a thaE on fpxaIEnn or,,,r 90 On
c OCO might be landed in this country; bur.
u the cost to the invader for airship con
II struction, it is asserted, would be roughly
I $500, 900, 600.
ore of the greatest obstacles to the sue
cessful crossing of the North Sea by a
" Zeppelin would he the pressure of atmos-
pheric moisture. The horizontal section of
the envelope exposes a surface e nearly
, half an acre, and It is stated that the
lightest shower falling on that half acre
must press the heavily loaded vessel to the
earth; and not only that, But the airship,
carrying the load assumed cannot oven
pass through a cloud or heavy mist.
The reserve of buoyanoy is something
:, order ten hundred weight. made up by
ballast. II the vessel enters a mist water
settles quickly on the one and a half
acres of enveEcping surface. Even If the
ballast were thrown overheard a film of
weter one two hundred and fiftieth of an
inch In thickness over that enormous sur
face would be sufficient to bring the vessel
=, down.
Germans Feel Like Rejoicing.
If The German military and naval authori-
,e ties are rejoicing over the latest flight of
a. the Zeppelin 7. which On March 10 assembled
" with twenty-six passengers and manocuy-
y cred for nearly four hours over a total
re distance Of some, $50 miles. The greatest
l. number OF persons ever carried in any OF
the Zeppelin vessels before had been six
teen, but the extra weight did not I'M
le pede the airship's progress or make it moro
% difficult TO handle.
L. The German authorities consider this lat
T. est flight to be Of immense value from a
strategic point of view. and regard it as
N bringing much nearer than before the
he practcabllity Of the Zeppelin as a transport
IT for troops. The weight carried also proved
he that an equal burden in the shape of ar
Id tIlery or ammunition can be transported