The Nome nugget., 1924-01-26
DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION AND LAUNCHING SHENANDOAH WHICH WILL MAKE THE
 POLAR FLIGHT FROM NOME

he group of admiring newspaper re-
 orters who witnessed the first trial ight of the big American Zeppelin.
 hen completed for the Navy De
 artment II answered its controls ''erfectly. circled. rose and 'dipt, and Nenally left the field of it's birth. at
 akehurst. New Jersey for thirty !, iile tour of the surrounding cOun- ", travelling at some thirty miles an - our with four of it's six motors run -eing at half speed. II is equipped -ith all of the latest devices and
 lfeguards developed by aeronautic- l science in the years since the war. md our air experts confidently pre-
 jet that it will mark the beginning
 a new era in the conquest of the
 1T. Inflated with uon-explosive :. elium gas, as no airship of it's size
 as ever been before, il is practi- ally immune from the greatest dan CT of the dirigible. fire. If there is ,pnything in commercial airship ;rsoutes, the ZR-l is expected to prove
 [. The rigid airship. as the editor
 f the Boston Transcript observes.
 as suffered in esteem by success m of mischances The English ,uilt Zeppelin ZR-2. was destroyed illrith heavy loss of life, just as ii was am the point of being turned over to ,ur Navy Department. two years go. The Roma the finest dirigible produced in Italy, exploded and turned soon offer being brought lg,yer here. However. concludes the transcript editor. such mishaps ,,hould not be considered to con tenn airships as a whole any more
 han two successive failures of the Quebec bridge two years ago, were seronsidered to condemn all bridges The new ship. set on end, would be rsalmost as tall as the Woolworth Building, and some two million feet If helium gas are contained in the sas-bags of silk and goldbeaters skin which are placed inside of the gigan- lift,ic hull. It can speed at seventy five ,raniles an hour, or float in the air for lays if need be, keeping in motion ar the use of q motor or two, and scarcely depicting its huge stores of gas and gasoline At its cruising sreed of fifty or sixty miles an hour. it's radius is estimated at well be- yond four thousand miles, which would be more than enough to take plai. to the North Pole and back from Nome. Alaska. without refueling. The Navy Department has already announced that trip to the Pole has been decided on for next sum p'cmer.
 erl The ship will be a livable place. for it's crew and passengers may roam at will through the big hull. II may sound strange. admits writ { CT in the New York Evening Pest, taking up detailed description of thrhe great flyer. to say that man ib,can wander about in big airship ;o.that looks like an mpenetrable gas bag. but il is nevertheless true, for
 In the first place there is triangu- lar runway in the keel of the struc- brture through which man can walk ,, from the very nose of the ship to the tip of it's tail. From it ladders descend to the forward car with it's navigation room and engine and to the five outer cars or "eggs,' as they are sometimes called. that contain the other engines. Another passage way leads to platform on the top III of the ship, where observations can a, he made or machine guns be mount fs ed.
 Nor is the ship so "solid." as might :, be supposed in other ways. It is not one big gas bag. Inside the great structure, which is made of dural- umin. which is an alloy of alumin- nm. with other metals which give it z. added strength, there are twenty balloonettes, or cells. Any one or these could be disabled or torn and the shin. like a vessel with water tight compartments, still keep afloat. h These balloons are of silk with gold heaters skin cemented to the fabric to keep it from tearing.
 The 100000 pieces of duralnmin in the framework were made at the philadelphia Naval Aircraft Factory and then assembled into rings ana girders.
 rho framework is covered on the outside by an envelope which has been painted on the outer surface with a silvery aluminium pain., not