New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-08-17
GERMANY LEADS IN AIR
Remarkable Progress Made in
Development Of DirigibIeS.
RIGID TYPE FOR HER ARMY
Crown Prince Shares with Cen
eral Staff Belief That Airships
Will Dominate Next War.
IFrom The tribune Correspondent

IRON ne tribune Correspondent
Berlin. Aug. THE Crown Prince Is
keenly interested IN aviation and there IS
no more enthusiastic officer in the Kali
ser's army I'm the upbuild!ng Of Germany =
air force than the heir 20 the throne. n
II were not for the fact that he Is 10 sue
coed TO the rulership OF the German En-
pire II is altogether probable that ne
would insist on being assigned 10 that
branch Of the service.
In common with the high officers In tne
German general stan. the Crown Prince
is firmly convinced that IN the next great
war the airship will play a dominant
part-not the air machine which In It's
present stage Of development is useful
merely for scouting. but the dirigble air
ship capable Of carrying heavy guns and
II necessary. bodies Of troops.
No nation has made greater progress In
the development Of the diriglble for war
purposes than has Germany. Just how
great the progress has been IS known
onlv 10 the War ONCE and the secret Is
kent with Jealous care. once In while
however. some information leaks out
The German government after an eX-
hsustive series OF tests during the last
wears grand manmuvres. decided 70
abandon the non-rigid types. The sig
niacance Of this decision is In the fact
that. alone among all nations. Germany
has had the opportunity OF insttuting
close comparison in practice between the
two types. The acknowledged reason FOR
abandoning the non-rigid is its inability
10 rise 10 high attitudes combined with
serious disadvantages In other directions
Let there be no mistake about Ger
man activity. In the first place II has
now been definitely decided 20 erect re
volving airship sheds In Berlin. Gran
dens. schneidemuhl. Konigsberg, Lair.
Frledrichshafen. Metz. Mannheim. DIS
seldorf, Cologne, Dresden and Hanover.
These are for the army airships only.
The two squadrons of naval dirigibles
will be based on the new station at
Cuxhaven.
The army already possesses four first
class. modern, rigid airships, not counting
the Inflated Schutte-Lanz. wrecked re-
Gently In addition, the three privately
owned Zeppelins must be taken into con-
sideration. This IS necessary. first. be-
I cause Of their capabilities, which are no
whit inferior 10 the military craft, as
will be seen from the following figures,
which sum up their performances during
the last year:
The Victoria Luise carried 4.336 passen-
gers. remained 4s7 hours in the air and
covered 1850 miles The Schwaben. be-
fore its destruction. carried 43A passen-
gers. remained 476 hours In the air anc
covered 1890 miles. The Hansa, in a
shorter period carried 1sl1 passengers In
1e4 hours and covered $500 miles The
Schwaben has now been replaced by the
Sachsen.
The second reason is that each OF these
vessels is in receipt OF heavy subsidy
from the state. and is periodically used
for training officers and men.
How rapidly this feet OF eight powerful
airships Will expand is evident from the
fact that the Zeppelin yards at Fried
richshafen are already capable OF turn
ing out one dirigible a month and are
credited with the intention. for which
there is "a solid basis Of fact of
erecting additional works near Berlin.
The new Zeppelins. as already stated.
will scale q 900 cubic feet.
Meanwhile. the Schutte-Lanz works. at
Mannheim, with their powerful financial
resources. have just completed new
rigid airship OF considerably greater d.
mansions than the first. This vessel.
u,hicb will soon be taken TO Berlin. has
canacitv OF $500 cubic feet and will
10 eouinped with five cars. the pilots
car being placed in front. with Tour cars
further In the rear. Eacn OF ,hese cars
contains a 200-horsepower engine 'three
Maybachs and one Daimier)' each ori'-
Ing two propellers.