Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-10
GIANT AIR LINER
TOBE BUILT IN US
Plans for Hangar in CaIifot
MIA Disclosed by Goodyear.
80
Zeppelin Co. Head. :!

| BY the Associated Press - -
NEW YORK, May 10.-Given the
approval of Congress at its next session,
work will be begun in California on 4
! hangar for the building of a giant comb
mercial airship, embodying helicoptar
features, for mail and passenger servicS
to Hawaii ad later to the Orient. II
Paul w. Litchheld, president of the
Goodyear-zeppelin Co. of Akron. Ohio.
told in detail today plans he laid before
President Hoover in Washington yester-
day.
The company is not asking Govern
nent subsidy such as was granted in
England for building the R-1O0 and the
R-lOl, but 1t does want the guaranteed
income of mail contracts before entering
upon project that entails an estimated
outlay of $10,00o,000.
If these contracts are forthcoming the
program is as follows:
A hangar will be built in Southern
California or in one of two places now
under consideration in the San Fran
cisco Bay district similar to the one
now under construction at Akron for
the building of two airShipS for the
Navy, each one twice as big as the
dirigible Los Angeles and half again as
big as the Graf Zeppelin
In the Akron shops construction of
parts for the first Navy ship will be
duplicated and one set shipped to Cali
fornia for assembly in the proposed
hangar there. The commercial ship will
be identical with the Navy ships, except
that its interior accommodations and
fittings will be adapted to cargo and
passenger needs.
Departures TO Be Radical.
The Navy ships and the proposed
commercial ship will have radical de-
partures from accepted practice i'll de-
sign, in that the engines, of which there
Los Angeles and the Graf will be
housed inside the frame rather t';an
hung in eggs" from the hull, and thu
PropellerS will be on SwiveiS.
This swivel arrang Gment will permit
the propellerS to be so turned as TO
drive the ship straight up or pull it
straight down, the helicopter principal
which for years had been engaging the
interest of the heavi9r-than-air
The commercial ship will carry q
crew Of about So will nave accom-
modations for about 100 passengers
and cargo room for 10 tons of mail
1t will have speed Of 80 miles.
The airship will have mona Of the
protuberances of the present dirigibles.
everything but the front of the control
cabin being within the bag. The state
rooms will be in two lines, with outside
windows, and there will be a glasSed-in
promenade or sun deck.
Gymnasium to Be Feature.
Realizing from long dirigible flights
of the past that passengers need more
exercise than has been possible so far,
there are even plans for a gymnasium
en- board where games and physical
training will be part of the routine.
AS helium gas is to be used instead
of hydrogen, smoking will be permitted,
and this Is expected to give the Ameri-
can liner popularity advantage over
foreign ships.
Con1dr. j. c. Hunsacker, who was
with Litchf1eld at today's interview, said
that with congressional approval of mail
contracts the first commercial ship
would be in service by 1881. and that
If its business justified a second ship
would be begun at once.