The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-08
M |DEN FLIGHT OF NEW RIGID A|RSHIP
 '|S ID OCCUR SOON
Government Gives Out Di- mensionS and Specified tions of This Largest
 DirigibIe Ever Built
By HUGH ". ROBERTS Wilmington Bureau The Age Herald
 800 Davidson Building


 Washington, August T-(Special)- BThe zR-2, the United States navy's new rigid airship. just completed in England, will begin her maiden flight, flight across the Atlantic, Thursday, August 25. She will be un- der the command of Commander l.. | H. Maxfield, in addition to whom I2 other officers and 30 men will be l. aboard.
 | The zR-2 Is the largest dlrigIble |, ever constructed. It is in every re- |. spect more powerful than the Eng 1, fish R-54. It is expected to make \ better time across the Atlantic than that ship which required 10s hours \ and 12 minutes.
 N The big ship will be driven to New \ York, thence to Lakehurst, N. J., \ where an immense hangar Is nearing \ completion for her accommodation. II It is the intention of the navy de- II partment to send her across the Il American continent. While the sched- II ulc is yet tentative, it is known that
 
 . move south from New Jersey to Il Washington From the capital she < will go directly to Florida, touch Raleigh, Columbia, Charleston, At- lanta, possibly Macon. en route. Other cities embraced are Mobile, Montgofhery, Birmingham, Meridian and New Orleans
 The navy department authorizes the following publication descriptive of the air monster:
 Designed in 1918 The design of the ZR-2 was de- cided upon by the British admiralty in the spring of 1918. Construction was begun at Messrs. Short Bros.' works at Darlington in November, 1918. In April. 1920, the works at Darlington were taken over by the air ministry, and the greater part of the work of construction of the ZR-2 has been carried out since that date. The history of the airship up to date may, therefore, be summarized by saying that 1t was designed by the admiralty, begun by Messrs. Short Bros. and completed by the air min- istry.
 The zR-e is the largest rigid air. ship yet constructed in any country, it's gas-containing capacity being
 
 the ex-German airship L-71, which was surrendered to Great Britain un- der the terms of the peace treaty. The ZR-2 was designed for naval purposes and the first importance was given to the attainment of the greatest possible height, the experi- once of Germany In the use of air ships for scouting and night raid ing having shown the necessity for ability to climb rapidly to high al titudes.
 Construction of ZR-2
 The construction of the ZR-2 marks a very definite advance in afr ship practice as it Is the, first ship of purely new design, and not merely a copy of previous German ships.
 The main dimensions and charac- teristics of the ZR-2 are as follows: Length, 645 feet; diameter, s5 feet inches; capacity, 2,700,000 cubic feet total lift under normal conditions S3 tons; total horse power. 2,I00; en zines. six Sunbeam "Cossack"; nor nal crew, officers and men, 2S-So.
 The disposable lift, i. e.. the useful lifting power available for petrol and oil, crew, stores, armaments, ballast, etc, as originally designed was in excess of 50 tons, as against 30 tons in the case of R-34.
 Hull Structure
 The hull structure Is. In general principles, of standard type, such as was used in the Zeppelin airships, but a very considerable saving of structural weight has been effected by a large number of Improvements in details. It Is built of duralumin, and consists of a number of longi- tudinal lattice girders connected transversely by other lattice girders (Which form a series of rings, the iongitudinals and rings being braced by wires. This structure contains 14 compartments, in each of which is a gas bag made of fabric and gold beaters skin. Inside the bottom of