The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-10-16
FRS COMPLETES
RECORD VOYAGE
ACROSS ATLANTIC
5000 Miles Travelled At
Average Rate Of 62.35
An Hour
HAD FUEL RESERVE
MORE THAN Z TONS
Captain Steele Keeps A
Complete Log Of
Flight
Try Associated Pressl

LAKEHURST, N. j., Oct
15.-The ZR-3 slumbered to-
night safely Graded in the
Lakehurst airdrome after a
memorable flight across the
ocean.
Her German crew slumbered
also and her four American
passengers. The d ir gi b | e,
which had set a new record for
sustained flight, appea e d
none the worse for the effort.
She swayed to the tune of soft
creaking tackle. Her lumin-
GUS sides shimmered under
the beams of a moon that pen
etrated her glass d ON e d
hangar.
But the humanbeings she had carried
so far sheltered beneath her protecting
bulk-they were red-eyed and weary.
They had travelled 5,066 miles under
hazardous circumstances and they had
done it in a single continuous flight Of
81 hours and II minutes.
The Official Record
This was the official record as COM
puted by DIR. Hugo Eckner, commander
Of the dirigible and president of the
Zeppelin interests and BY Commander
j. n. Klein, Jr.,, Of Eakshurst field,
who made the trans-oceanic flight.
The ships log recorded that she left
Friedrichshafen, Germany, at 8 30
m, on Sunday, October IL, the time
being an hour east Of Greenwich. She
touched earth here at 8 :52 a. M, east
ern standard time today. DR.. Ecken-
err was authority for the statement that
the mileage was 5,O66. Thus the aver
age sped of the ZR-S for the whole dis
lance was approximately 62.35 miles an
hour.
The approximate average of the Brit
ish R-34 during her westward flight of
5000 miles avrOss the Atlantic in 10S
hours, made in 1919. was 1858 miles
an hour.
Had Reserve Fuel
AS a further indication of the strides
lighter than-air aeronautics have taken
during those five years, the. fuel tanks
OF the ZR-3 were one quarter full wheL
she berthed. They held tn tons,
enough, according to Lieutenant Com.
mander S. M. Krauss, to have carried
her 1900 knots farther or gOOdly
part of the distance to the Pacific coast.
When the R-34 reached her destina-
ton at Mineola, Long Island, from East
Fortune, Scotland, her fuel tanks held
barely a half hours supply. For her
been to court disaster.
Each of the 50 passengers ON the
ZR-3 had his story to tell when he dis
embarked within the Lakehurst han
gar today But the most complete of
them all was the story told by the dairy
log of Capt. George w. Steele, prospec-
tive commander of the dirigible.
SteeIe's Log
lie related how on October 10, the
date set for the flight, such crowds
surged at the gates, of the Friedrich
shafen airdrorSe that he was lost in the
crush; how the big bag failed to rise
because OF atmospheric conditions, how
the take-off was postponed for two
days. The 18th of October came in as
foggy day, Captain Steele's record
continued. when the hangar doors
were opened there was blue fog out
side. But things were better. The
ship had been carefully trimmed and the
temperature was better; that is, colder.
At 6 20 the ground crew started to
take the ship out and at 6:35 the
engines were started and we were off.
There was a great cheer from the
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