Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-22
AERIAL WARFARE.
Why Germany Prefers the Rigid
Dreadnoughts of the Air.
From London Tit-BitS.

rom London Tft-BitS.
Dreadnoughts of the air will play as
great part in deciding the issue of the
next war as the dreadnoughts of the sea !:
and it is because they wish to impress
this fact on the mind of the man in the
street that certain people have been so
loud in their denunciation of the war Of
flee for paying G1S.G00 for an airship
three years ago, and afterward making
no practical use of it. We may have
fleet of aeroIlanes, they say, but we must
also compete with France and Germany
in the matter of airships. and. judging
from the extraordinary efforts which Ger
many is making at the present time to
perfect her fleet of airships, il, is obvious
that she considers they are as essential
as war vessels for the maintenance of her
power.
In the matter of airshps Germany at
the present time easily stands first in the
world. She possesses twenty-five dirigibles
Of the rigid type. and by the end of the
present year will have thirty-two And
it is significant that the Zeppelin Com
pany which now turns out airShip
every three weeks. hopes to be in posi-
ton at the end of six months to double
this output. says an expert in tie News
of the World.
Germany Pins her faith to the rigid type
of airship. and considers il by far the
best for war purposes. So convinced is
she of this that when we tried to- buy
a rigid airShip some time ago the Ger
man government vetoed the order, al
thought it allowed us to purchase
Parsival. a non-rigid vessel.
Some facts regarding the capabilities Of
German air dreadnouEhts given by the
expert already mentioned provide an il
lustra ton of their deadlinesS in time of
war. Before an airship IS accepted by the
German government II must have done
a tria! trip of continuous l. 800 miles at
a sreed Of fifty miles an hour. AS mat
ter of fact. eighteen vessels now in COM
mission have range % 800: miles. They
can carry six tons Of explosives, and at
the present time are practiCiny with APP
paratus which can direct bombs ct dyna-
mite weighing half 4 ton apiece Which
means to say tl2t couple oG these air
dreadnoughts could utterly destroy a
town or army. unless they were first de-
stroyed. In addition 10 explosives, how
ever each 6irigible carries heavy quick
firing guns.
Hangers capable of holding the largest
air vessels are being constructed. The
later types of hangers ere built Oh turn
tables so that there is no difficulty IL
docking. or taking the airship out on a
strong wind. The latest type at present
being constructed in Helgoland is such
a turntabie hangar which sinks into
pit. so that its heavily armored roof is
eusb with the ground. In addition. all
over Germany there are erected iron tow
ers as anchorages.
These towers are built with revolving
tons. so that the airship can ride in soft
Iv no matter how the wind changes The
towers are built close to hydrogen sta
lions. 1t is interesting to note that one
such tower is built on the Austrian
frontier two on the Russian. three on the
French ard eicht of the North Sea coast
which is the British frontier, if Nelson's
d;ct,,m still holds good.