Evening star., 1921-08-25
|zR2 LIKE R1A,
WHICH CROSSEDS SEA
Defects Almost Fatal to Sis.
ter Ship Thought to Have
Been Corrected.
By the Associated Press.

HULL. August 25.-Among those on
board the zR-2, when she was de-
stroyed. were the designer Of the air.
ship, Supt. Warren of the works
where she was built. and Flight OH
| GERS Wicks and Matheson.
ZR-2 closely resembled her sister
ship. the R-34. which sailed across
, the Atlantic in July. 1919, although
| she was forty-one feet longer and
| seven feet greater in diameter than
the R-34. Her gasoline capacity also
! was greater than that of her sister
ship and she had a cruising radius
of 5000 miles. in contrast with 1900
! miles credited to the R-34.
1t had been estimated that the ZR-2
| would be able to cross the 5000 miles
/ to the American continent in from
three to four days, whereas the R-34
had occupied nearly five days in her
voyage
Had Special Phone System.
A telephone system connected up the
ZR-2 SO that Commander Maxfield
| across the Atlantic. could have every
part of the aircraft under his direct
and mediate control. Brig. Gen. Matt
| land. who met death in the disaster.
transatlantic voyage in the R-34
He has been in charge of the trials
of the ZR-2.
Like the ZR-2. the RIA ended her
! career in disaster. She was cut in
| two by A violent wind and left a
| wreck outside her airdrome near
Edinburgh in January, 1921.
Sister Ship Nearly Wrecked.
This vessel had had a thrilling ex-
ne nrtn hor tra = t1ar srrh%
and the collapse of the ZR-2 would
| seem to have afforded Gen. Maitland
some justification for his hesitancy
| in sending the Americans across seas
with the ZR-2 in the face of
meteorological odds Major G. H.
R-34. telling of his experience with
| that aircraft, within a few hundred
| miles of his goal when the RIA ran
| into a shallow atmospheric dep1es-
sion off the coast of Newfoundland,
Sc id:
THE weather was terrible. 1t
! seemed as though the atmoschere
was haunted by five thousand devils.
We were shaken to the core. That
night we hit everytting-heavy rain,
thick fog and low visibility. The
! ship seemed as though she was going
to break into bits. rising and falling
like cork on a heavy sea At times
she seemed to stand up thirty degrees
into the ar.
Escape Called Miracle.
THE most unusual thing about the
| entire trip was the extreme violence
| of the bumps in regions where they
| were totally unexpected. I consider
| it almost a miracle that we completed
! the trip successfully after what we
! went through. The weather situa-
1 tion on the Atlantic must be investi-
| gated thoroughly before air travel be-
| tween England and America can be
| made safe and practicable. With the
| limited Information we have now.
| TRANSATLANTIC travel is highly danger
| ous."
| In the construction of the ZR-2 it
| was thought that many of the serious
defects of the smaller ship had been
| remedied.
| In fight the ZR-2 was operated as
far as possible along the lines of a
| sea-going vessel. The ships alti-
| tude capacity was $4,000 feet
| The crew of the ZR-2, selected to
bring her across the Atlantic to the
| United States included fourteen Of
! flcers, ten riggers, sixteen mechanics
1 and two radio men. Only a few OF
! these were aboard. however, when
| the. giant aircraft plunged into the
waters of the Humber