Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1912-07-02
y y y y >%< y y \ \ \ y \

y y y y Y \ y = y = y = y
(By Special Leased Wire 10 New Mexican,
Atlantic City, y. j., July I'm view
Of three thousand spectators, the big
! dirigible balloon Akron was shattered
| by the explosion of the gas bag at
6:3S this morning, half mile off shore
; over AbsecOn inlet. Melvin Vaniman,
f who had built the airship, with the
: idea of flying across the Atlantic
ocean; Calvin Vaniman, his younger
, brother; Fred Elmer, Walter Guest,
land George BOurtillOn, his crew, were
instantly killed. No trace of their
4; bodies has been discovered. The diri-
Gibe was sailing at height of 1000
feet and had been in the air since 6:15
iO'clock when the accident occurred.
She was quarter Of a mile south
of Brigantine Beach.
Balloon Burst in MidGIe
The huge envelope, containing thou
sands of cubic feet of gas, was rent
by the terrific explosion, probably
caused by expansion from the suns
lta II buI SI lltdl Iilc illuu4t. -
mass of flames hid the ship from view.
For perhaps ten seconds, the half
million dollar dtrigible was invisible,
while the air about the spot where she
had been lowering seemed to be all
flames. The fire disappeared, and then
the ship, outlined against the sunrise,
vas seen to fall like a plummet. First
the understruCture or car, in which
iWere penned the unfortunate men,
: held in by q mesh work put on after
; the second trip Of the balloon three
> weeks ago, unable to escape, broke
away from the envelope. 1t upended,
= the bow turning first in a slow arc,
r Then it reversed suddenly and plunged
downward. Direct above, twisting in
2 4 long spiral, was the bag, a smoking
+ mass OF rubber and silk with flames
! shooting out from a dozen portions as
: it collapsed. 1t fiuttered a moment
and then streaked down after the car.
I In the descent something appeared to
be the body of man shot out to the
left Of the wreckage and hit the water
before the rest of the descending
mass. 1t was reported that this was
the headless body OF Calvin Vaniman.
At $50 a. m. a message was relayed
ashore from rescuers that this body
had been recovered.
{ Bodies Entanged in Wreckaee.
With it came the statement from
, Captain Lambert Parker, of the Abse-
I con federal life saving crew that this
. was true and that the other four men,
bers of the crew We're entangled in the
wreckage, beyond reach for the pres
ent, in eighteen feet of water. The
flight was the second that the airship
had taken this year. Vanman took
: the Akron out for a short flight on
. Saturday morning June /. At that
time, the balloon was nearly wrecked
p by some of the mechanism going
, wrong but it was landed without seri-
: Gus mishap. The longest flight the
balloon made was last fall when it
, spent the greater part of the day in
the air in the vicinity of this city.
? Akron Was Big DirigibIe.
/ [hIidtItlN SllS, ~. H.. ouiS III S'5LI-
eral appearance, the Akron was not un-
" like lne America in which Walter Wei.
man and Vaniman attempted to cross
+ the Atlantic ocean in October, 1919,
3 hut there were many differences II
: the construction.
The gas bag was so feet longer than
that of the America but was smaller
in diameter.
{ The dimensions We're: Length of bag
2J8 feet; diameter Al feet. The bag
was made of composition of rubber
and was constructed in Ohio.
Il Beneath was the car, similar in
shape to the America, but longer, per.
/ haps $50 feet long.
S The bottom of the car was COM
posed of a round steel tank two feet
S in diameter and about 100 feet long. In
o this tank was stored the gasoline. The
e car was connected to the gas bag by
d steel tubing of light construction. On
+ top of the tank was a platform of two
a inch boards and on this rested one
hundred horsepower motor, two of so
e horsepower, one II horsepower motor
d and a small dynamo.
q The 100 horse power was used for
!. the two vertical propellers and the
other two large motors for the two
O pairs of orientable propellers.
Il These propellers could be turned
from the horizontal to the vertical and
We're used TO raise or lower the ship.
The small motor and dynamo We're
or used for electric lighting, and to fur
lie nsh power to the wireless outfit. Some
le of the supplies of the ship were also
as stored on this platform. In the for
ward end of the platform were the
rs steering wheels and gears for con-
ut trolling the rudder and the stabilizing
IS planes fore and aft.
ht The sleeping accommodations for the
NJ crew consisted of hammocks strung
he Iup in the car. The disaster came as