The Ordway new era., 1919-03-28
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built for the allies. The impression got about
that lighter than air ships were failures, because
the Zeppelins failed In their raids There Is no
doubt this subject in the British air ministry.
There 1t Is known positively that the era Oh tue
drigibe is Just beginning.
An immense amount of antisubmarne patrol
ing and convoy escortng was done by drigipies
during the last year of the war. chan OF
airship stations maintained right AROUND the
coast of England from Mullion in Cornwall
around Scotland to Pembroke. large NUMBER
of hostile submarines were either put out OF ac-
ton or actually destroyed by bombing Other
subs were located by the air men and the In
formation passed along to the destroyers that
knew well enough how to handle the under-sea
murderers.
1t was In conway escorting that airships showed
their special advantages over airplanes The
airship with Its big bag of gas to keep 1t up.
could go very slowly. keeping an even pace with
the transports below. loaded with American sol
diers. 1t could stay Mt any given height while
its lookouts searched the sea for mines and subs.
Can Cross Atlantic In Fifty Hours
During the war British airship made
cruise lasting 80 hours and 55 minutes. and since
the armistice this record has been beaten by
trip of 81 hours. With such reliable data as this
to work on the air experts figure that crossing
the Atlantic is going to be n fairly easy job
since there in existence today dirigibles that
have a speed of more than so miles an hour which
would mean something like 40 so hours con-
tinuous flying TO reach New York
At present the British bulIuerS are specializing
on two big lighter-thnn air types. The first Is OF
about the same size the largest Zeppelin,
while the second type the one that will have a
2OOOOmile cruising range is four times large
as the largest Zeppelin ever built.
Imagine an airship with bag LOO feet
long longer than the Mauretania and higher
than the woolworth building the dirgible
set on end. Inside this. bag 10OOO.OOO cubic feet
of gas win he carried capable Of lifting 200 tons
of freight and passengers in addition to the
weight of the operating machinery. Plans for
he craft make provision for saloons, drawing
rooms. smoking and roof garden."
which may be reached by an elevator. The es-
timated speed is o. miles hour.
When the German Zeppelin l. 20 built
II MAS predicted that she would be the largest
of her kind. vet the new British Goliath Of the
air has quadrupled the capacity of the German
production.
As compared to the 'ten million ship the
other British type is somewhat Of nm infant since
| she can carry but so tons of Luggage and pas
sengers md can travel only 1000 odd miles
without descending for n fresh supply of gaso-
line and oil.
Best for Long Distance Flights.
With these possibilities in aerial travel virtually
realized it is conceded here that the dirgible
must take first place as n long-distance pas
| senger carrier Heavier than air machines will
be built In considerable numbers, and will come
Into very large but in all probability they
will be utilized mainly for flights that aggregate
into the hundreds of miles rather than Into the
| thousands The airplane's special advantages will
be made Of where certain routes are to be