The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-09
The Real Transatlantic
 Liner Of the Air
Ky wALDEmAR KAEMpFFERr


 The spectacle of Hawker and Rayn- ham in Newfoundland. waiting for a moment when all is meteorologically clear across the Atlantic and of the feverish tests and experiments which our navy officers are conducting with three N. c. seaplanes makes one won der why British Zeppelin has not by this time crossed the ocean. Time and time again during the war the Zeppelin proved it's ability to travel vast dis tanees with degree of comfort to it's passengers hardly attainable on an air. plane. The record made by a German Zeppelin in travelling from Bulgaria to the heart of Africa and return. a dis lance over twice as great as that whick must be covered from Newfoundland to Ireland. speaks for itself
 So far as the immediate future is concerned, the tired business man is more likely to trust himself to Zen peiin than to an airplane, when it be- comes necessary to cross the ocean by something speedier than the fastest steamship. The very careful consider at1on Of aviation after the war by the Brltish parliamentary committee on civil aerial transport impresses one with the fact that at present 500 miles is the economical commercial limit of journey by airplane. At present longer voyages must be considered m the light of extraordinary perform ances difficult to repeat
 The great British airships can at tam speed of about SO miles an hour; they can lift 30 tons; they can stay in the air for S6 hours. The air plane has only one advantage over the Aeppeiin-the advantage of speed. The slowest airplane of today is faster than the fastest Zeppelin
 So far as mere comfort is concerned your luxurious Wall street banker will prefer Zeppelin. A man may sleep far more comfortably on board a dirie- ible driven by silenced engines than in railway car Moreover the sIeepine- accommodations can be placed far from the power plant. The incessant roar of the engines, the singing of wires that acccmpanies the progress or an airplane through the atmosphere, are absent
 And then suppose an engine should fail. The airplane must descend if re- pairs cannot be made in midair The airship. on the other hand simply floats in the air like the huge bubble of gas that it is. The minimum height at which an airplane can fly is about D'VVV iStl WHtn snort journeys are un- dertaken. Safety lies in height room must be allowed for gliding down. An airship. on the other hand may cleave the air within few hundred feet of the housetops. If the tired business man is not too tired to enjoy the beau ties of an ocean that rapidly unfolds itself to his view like an unrolling map. the trans Atlantic Zeppelin has has more to offer him than an airplane.
 These advantages of the rigid air ship over the airplane have not bee., lost on one of the British firms of air ship builders. It actually intends to build veritable leviathan of the air a craft which will be 500 feet long and which will have many of the sybarit!c comforts that we associate with the more luxurious transatlantic steam ships
 You step on board this transatlantic liner. You find familiar salons, draw Ing rooms. smoking room and state rooms. But what leaves you breadth less is a lift--yes. a lift that takes yon from the keel through the very gas bag itself and deposits you on top of the envelope where you will find sun- rooms
 Because the construction of an ap- shed would run into the mil lions, with the elaborate initiating rla- chinery, pumps and handling devices, this huge rans-Atlantic craft IS .o be to a tall steel tower-a ver,t- able hitching post. You ride up to tho very tower in a lift You step out upon a gangwav thar reads you through the very nose of the giant yellow air ship. swinging in the wind like a wea ther vane, into the bowels of the gigantic hull. After all. why not? It