San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-03
AIR DISASTER
IS LATEST Of
LONG LIST
Malignant Fate Has Pur-
sued Dirigible Type !,
of Balloon.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3. - The
Shenandoah, designed by the Bureau
of Naval aeronautics and construct
ed at the naval airship station
Lakehurst, n. j., was an improved
version of the Zeppelin L-33 and the
British R-33 class, of which she was Q
very close duplicate in dimensions.
She was the first rigid airship built
in America. Six hundred and eighty
feet in length, with maximum diane
ter of 7S.7 feet, she contained 10 gas
cells with a capacity of 2,115,O00 cubic
feet. Her power plant consisted Of
six 500 horsepower Packard engines
capable of driving her at n maximum
speed of 60 miles an hour.
The Shenandoah was completed in
the summer of 1928 and her test
flights were very satisfactory. While
attached to her mooring mast at Lake
hurst on January IL, 1924, the shir
was torn loose in a violent gale when
only a skeleton crew was aboard.
BATTLED STORM.
The whole mooring fitting and part
out of the ship, the forward gas bag
was ripped and the following one was
punctured. but the crew had four OF
the six engines running within two
minutes of the breakaway.
Fuel and water were released tc
restore her equilibrium, and she wealth
cred the storm without further struc'
tural damage and was again housed in
her shed after a few hours.
Last October the Shenandoah was
given a remarkable test in the form OF
trans-continental flight. Leaving
the Lakehurst station on October z,
she cruised to the Pacific coast and
returned in 23j air hours, completing
the round trip of 500 miles on Octo.
Der %.
USED HELIUM GAS.
Including a stay of IL days on the
west coast, she was away from Lake
hurst for IS days. Her actual flying
time between Lakehurst, Fort Worth,
Texas, San Diego, Cal, and Camp
Lewis, at Tacoma, Wash, and re-
turn, not counting the time consumed
in locating mOoring mast through fog
on two occasions was 23j hours, IL
minutes, against, the fastest express
train time between these points of 272
hours, 80 minutes, deducting time for
connections. '-.
The Shenandoah was inflated with
helium gas, which is non-inflammable,
poisonous and the next lightest
gas to hydrogen. This gas, extracted
from the natural gas of certain fields
in Texas and Kansas, is not found in
commercial quantities elsewhere. 1t
is extracted by a government plant at
Fort Worth.
The dirigible recently was equipped
with 10 m!~hine guns, two in the
after-car. two in the forward-cabin
from which the airship is steered, and
one in each Of the six power gondolas.
This armament, 1t was stated, was for
use in repelling airplane attack in
time of war.
The success achieved by the Shen-
andOah in her trans-continental tour
and other test averages led TO plans
for her use in a United States naval
expedition to the Arctic.
The plans as drawn up called for
stationing vessels filled with mooring
masts at Nome, Alaska, and Spitz-
bergen, the Norwegian Archipelago.
POLE FLIGHT ABANDONED.
1t was hoped she would be able to
reach the Pole and her crew was eager
for the trip, but after her storm eI-
perience at Lakehurst in which she
was torn from the mooring post, plans
for the Polar flight were abandoned
by order Of President Coolidge.
The United States possesses only
one other dirigible, the Los Angeles,
which was built at the Zeppelin works
in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The
Los Angeles, however, under the terms
of the peace treaty by which she was
can be used only for COM
mercisl and experimental flights.
The Shenandoah was this country's
only dirigible Of war.
The Shenandoah's metal framework
was constructed of duralumin, com
position Of aluminium, copper and
having the tensile strength
of mild steel with only one-third its
weight. The outer sheeting was of
cotton fabric, aluminium painted, this
serving only as a weather protection
and streamline for the gas bags with
in.