Evening star., 1923-09-09
5HEL|UM FOR FRI
|. USE COST S25O,0I)|)
Value of Product for Single
Initiation Feature of
. Successful Test.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch 10 lhe sur.
LAKEHURST, N. j., September s.
Two years ago Norman o. Walker,
rigger In the naval air service, fell
out of the sky with red flames licking
4 all about him and landed in the Hum
ber river, near Hull, England. He
was the only American, of seventeen
aboard. to survive the crash of the
giant dirigible ZR-2, which claimed
sixty-two lives. Today Walker skins
the empyrean in the wrecked crafts
sister. ZR-1. utterly unafraid
Navy grit. In part. yes. But Walk
er'S knowledge that he now is at
tached to a ship that cannot burst
into flames must have lot to do with
It. Naval officers. who are putting
her through her initial tests at the
air station here, believe that she never
can fall at all. But they are positive
she will never explode in midair
never will come streaking down to
earth blazing. smoking comet.
The answer is helium-that rare
gas that the Navy Department is so
laboriously extracting from the
natural gases of Texas. Absolutely
non-inf1ammable. it is counted on to
revolutionize lighter than air flying.
and render the heretofore danger
fraught dirigible the safest of all
flying craft.
Cost Is Staggering.
The cost is still staggering The
IRIS big compartments swallowed
'p nearly a quarter of a million doll
lars worth at one imitation. They
could have been filled with hydrogen
FOR one-hundredth of the sum But
the added element of safety Is worth
the cost-anG fortunately. the ZR-1
won't require another filling for
long, long time
The ZR-l. worlds largest dirigible.
and tribute to American engineer
Ing skill. gave helium it's first test
In giant aircraft on Tuesday.
Walked' from her mammoth hangar
by four hundred pvgmies in the uni
forms Of the Navy and the Marine
Corps, the floated lazily up into the
SKY, emitted roar from four of
her six 800 horsepower engines. and
Awam away through the air like a
giant Silvered whale
She performed again on Thursday
with equally gratifying results. and
next week she is scheduled to take
al ambitious trip over New York
city. Rear Admiral William A. Mof-
f"tt. chief of the naval bureau of
A"ronauticS. who saw the test flights
ennounced that she would make an
attempt to fly over the north pole
next spring.
Although she has not passed all of
the tests that the experts have set
for her--notably the speed test. in
which il is hoped she will tear off
seventy mile Clip-the engineers
who built her and the officers who
navigated her declared that she al
ready had exceeded their fondest ex-
pectatiOnS
Not only is she the safest ship in
the world. thanks to her filing of
helium gas. and her high margin
Of safety. they declared, but she is
the finest ship in the world from the
standpoint of operating efficiency.
And we'll she may be. for the best
engine eering brains of three nations
America. Germany and Great Britain
went into her designing.
The American naval engineer. who
built her first on paper and then in
metal and fabric, were aided at every
turn by Capt. Anton Heinan, famous
German Zeppelin expert. and Richard
Farlam, one of the most noted of
British aeronautical engineers. Capt.