Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-07-14
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(hy the Associated Press) Great
Britain's mamoth trans Atlantic air
| pioneer, the dirigible R-34 arrived at
| the air station here at 6 Sc O'Clock,
Greenwich mean time, today, COM
pleting her round trip from the Brit
| ish Isles to the United States and re-
turn.
The R-34 pOked her nose out of the
clouds northeast of the village and
/ after circling the flying field three
I times glided gently to the ground, and
| ten minutes later was housed in the
dirigihle shed. The voyage from Long
Island was without particular Incl
dent and was completed in approx
| mately seventy-five hours.
As the R-34 approached the field
she dropped from a height of 5000
| feet to 1000 feet The 400 men who
were to aid the airship in landing
were ordered to their positions and
waited silently as the ship circled the
| field, dropping lower and lower
When Maj. G. II. Scott, her COM
mander, had maneuvered the airship
| into position for the landing, the
water ballast was released to steady
| her and a rope was thrown from her
| bow. The giant ship moved across
the field to the shed where the deli
cate operation of berthing her was
| completed quickly.
Band Plays Greeting.
A military band stationed on the
| field played The Call to Duty" as the
airship began to settle and then
changed to the strains of See, the
Conquering Hero Comes" AS the
ship was warped into the shed the
band played Keep the Home Fires
| Burning"
The tired. unshaven but smiling
men who composed the crew quickly
climbed from the gondola and were
greeted warmly by the officers and
soldiers gathered on the field.
The voyage home has been without
! incident,' said Major Scott. I'VE
want breakfast"
After breakfast and while enjoying
the belated luxury of his little black
! pipe, smoking not being permitted on
the ship. Major Scott told the story
of the return flight as follows:
I'VE estimated we could make it in
| from seventy to eighty hours" he said.
I'VE made it in seventy five. When
| we left we had strong wind blowing
| behind us and we covered the first
| 500 miles out in about eight hours.
|
| could plainly see the crowds on Broad
| way waving to us as we passed, but
| we could not hear them because of
| the noise of the engines.
Met by Heavy Wind.
South of New Foundand we en-
countered head winds and our prog
ress from then on was slower. We
travelled at an average height of from
! 5000 to 5000 feet and found much
| low clouds and fog. Once we saw
nothing but fog for twenty-four hours.
I'VE struck Ireland at Clifden and
made good progress from there, al
though our steering engine broke
| down Saturday morning. We started
with 1900 gallons of gasoline and had
1000 left.
I'VE are naturally pleased with the
trip, all of us. l expect important
changes in the size and speed of fu-
! ture airships-big ships that will trav-
| ell seventy to eighty miles an hour and
powerful enough to crawl through
anything"
This has been a great trip" said
Col. w. n. Hensley, Jr., of the United
States army air service, as he climbed
out of the car. I'VE were lost one
whole day because the fog was so
thick we could not get a shot at the
sun, moon, stars or horizon, but we
worked out OF it and struck the Irish
coast, We passed over the Isle of
Man about 8 o'clock this morning and
then, mounting over the clouds, wit
messed most beautiful sight Above
was the. bright moon; below soft fleecy
clours touched with all the colors of
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