San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-09
Survivor Of ZR-2 Disaster
Ccmplacently Fills Post
on Sister Ship Fri;
Big Lighter-than-air Ship
Cannot Burst Inlo Flames.
Hy CHARLES FORREST.


Lakehurst, y. j.. Sept. S.-Twa
, years ago Norman q. Walker. rigSer
in the naval air service. fell out ct
the sky with red flames licking all
about him and landed in the Humble:
: river. near Hull, England.
He was the only American OF soy
entcen aboard, TO survive the crash
of the giant dirisible ZR-2 whicG
claimed G2 lives.
Today Walker skins the empyriaI.
in the wrecked crafts sister, hR-l
utterly unafraid.
Navy grit! In part. yes.
But Walkers knowledge that he
now is attached to ship that can
not burst into flames must have Il
/ LOT to do with it.
Naval Officers who are putting her
through her initial tests ct the air
station here. believe that she nevs'
can fall at all.
But they are positive she will never
! explode in mid-air; never will come
sireaking down ito earth blazing.
smoking comet.
The answer is hclium-that rare
: gas that the Navy Department is 50
laborionsly extracting from the nat-
uYal gases of Texas.
Absolutely non-inflammablc. it is
7 counted on TO revolutionize lighter
than-air flying and render the herr
tofore dangerous freight dirigible the
safest of all flying craft.
And in dirigible flying, America
! expects to lead the world.
! For so far. she has a practical mo-
I n"noly on hclium.
Ii has been found to date only in
\ the gases of Texas and Kansas AMI
: even in those fiTlds it is none to-
!. plentiful. the yield is only one 80
!, three cubic feet for every hundred
4 cubic feet of gas.
4 At present the worlds known sup
\ ply If extracted helium is less thaI
; 100000 cubic feet.
: But government plans in Texas are
I. steadily piling up surplus which l.
(. shipped east under high compression
y in steel tanks and navy officials be-
q lieve the supply can be Kept up with
Il the nations needs.
= Cost Is Staggering.
. The cost is still staggering.
I, The IRIS big compa rtments swa.-
!! lowed up nearly a quarter of mil
Y lion dollars worth at one initiation.
!, They could have been filled with
y hydrogen for one-hundredth of the
y sum.
4 But the added element of safety is
4 worth the cost-and fortunately, the
FRI won't require another filling for
a long, long time.
The FRI, worlds largest dirigible
and tribute TO American engineer
ing skill gave helium its first test
IN giant aircraft on Tuesday.
z-"Walked" from her mammoth ham
gar by 400 pygmies in the uniforms
of the navy and the Marine Corps.
she floated lazily up in the sky, emit
ted roar from four of her six 300
Horsepower engines, and swan away
Through the air like a giant silvere1
I~hale.
- She performed again on SATURDAY.
with equally gratifying results and
next week she is scheduled to make
an ambitious trip over New Yors
City.
ss.,Rear Admiral William A. Moffe:,
chief of the Naval Bureau of Aero
1fautics. who saw the test flights, an
ncrlnced that she would make an at
tempt TO fly over the North Pole next
spring.
Although she has not passed all Of
the tests that the experts have set fer
her-notably the speed test, in which
If is hoped she will tear off a 10miis
elliptic engineers who built her and
tine officers who navigated her. declar
Cd that she already had exceeded their
fondest expectations.
- Product Of Three Nations.
Not only is she the safest ship in
the world. thanks to her filling OF
hclium gas and her high margin Of
safety, they declare, but she is the
finest ship in the world from the
standpoint of operating efficiency.
And well she may be, for the best
Engineering brains of three nations
america. Germany and Great Bri-
tain-went into her designing.
The American naval engineers who
built her first ON paper and then in
metal and fabrics, were aided at eyerS
turn by Captain Anton Holman, IA
,rous German Zeppelin expert and
Richard Fa;lan, one of the most noted
OF British aeronautical engineers.
-s'Captain Heinan. who tested 10
Eeppelins for Count Zeppelin, pro-
bounced her the sweetest ship ne had
ever sailed.
When her sister ship, the YRS, now
under construction in Germany, is
rempleted. America will possess the
two biggest and finest military dir.
sibles in the world
THE ZR-3 is almost a counterpart
Of the ZR-2. although she is a few
feet short of the IRIS $50 feet and
s~little thicker in the waist than the
IRIS 1S-foot diameter.
When the IRIS comes to America.
late this fall or next spring, she viii
be housed here in the great hangar
Which now shelters the FRI.
This hangar is the largest enclosed
structure in the world measuring 962
feet in length, 34S feet in width and
200 feet in height.
At rest inside Of it. the Fri IS
dwarfed.
1t is only when the great ship gets