Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-06
Is It Worth While :

ton of the newest British dirigible
R-101, with the loss of forty-six lives,
lessen faith in the possible development
OF the lighter-than-air craft as the
mainstay of aerial navigation. The
catastrophe at Beauvais, France, where
the ship crashed in the course of its
fight from England to Egypt and thence
to India. demonstrates anew the liabiI-
ity of these great gas bags to derange-
rnent by the elements and, especially
when inflated and upheld by hydrogen.
to sudden an6 complete destruction by
explosion. The remarkable success Of
the Graf Zeppelin, which has flown
across the seas several times and has
rounded the world, practically without
mishap, does not overcome the feeling
that this form Of aircraft is subject to
liabilities greatly lessening its utility as
a carrier of people and commodities on
a large scale.
All the available evidence in the case
of the R-l01 points to its destruction
through its lack Of buoyancy. 1t may
never be possible to reconstruct the
tragedy in detail, 80 nearly complete is
the loss Of life. But the pilot, who
was at the controls when the crash
occurred. tells enough to permit vir-
tually assured version of the disaster
to be recorded. The ship he says, was
not making altitude, could not be raised
to q safe distance from the earth, I'M
der the weight of the rain that was
drencing its vast body. There was
perhaps something about the fabric of
the great envelope that caused it to
hold an undue quantity of moisture,
immense was the surface. 1t may have
been the driving force of rain and wind
that beat the ship down. Or it may
have been that the ship was overloaded
with fuel and with passengers for the
long flight to Egypt. Possibly she was
defective in structure.
AS the reports have come the ship
crashed or bumped first and then an
explosion occurred. Thus the sequence
seems to have been adverse to the
hypothesis of an explosion causing the
fall. Nor Is there likelihood that the
explosion was caused by smoking on
board, practice permitted for the first
time in British dirigible flying, owing
to the use of petroleum fuel. For all on
board save the operating crew-and
these were virtually the only survivors
were asleep when the crash came.
The storm, then, seems to have been
the cause of the disaster. Just so was
the French dirigible Dixmude lost over
the Mediterranean when she was struck
by lightning in December. 1928. Save
for a fragment that possibly may have
been a part Of her equipment, found
long al erward, no trace of her ever
has been discovered. Fifty-two persons
lost their lives. Again, the Shenandoah
was wrecked in q storm in Ohio Sep
TENDER 3, 1925. Her fabric was lit
orally wrenched in twain by the violence
of the wind. Fourteen people died in
that disaster. The dirigible Roma,
bought by the United States from Italy.
crashed in flames near Hampton Roads
in February, 1922. with loss of thirty
four lives. This. it is believed, was due
to contact with high-power electric
wires. The dirigible ZR-2, bought for
the United States in England, buckled
through a weakness of structure in the
course Of a trial flight in the latter
country and forty-two were killed. The
loss Of neither the Roma nor the ZR-2
was attributable TO storm. The Brit
ish R-34 IN January, 1920, was wrecked
in a gale at Howden, England though
with no loss Of life. Eighteen months
before. the British dirigible NS-1l was
struck by lightning over the North Sea
and twelve died.
SO the record runs, with still other
losses in Ighter-than-air craft The
total cost Of these great ships that have
gone through explosion, fire, lightning
and wreckage by storm has been an
immense sum. R-l01 alone cost IS ,000,-
600. The loss OF life has been heavy,
perhaps more than $50 in all, including
this latest horror of the air The ques-
ton arises whether it is worth while
to continue the building of these great
marks for the wind and lightning, these
toys Of the elements, for which, when
a storm strikes. there is no haven OF
safety.