New Britain herald., 1930-10-06

had eight cylinders each arranged upright and in line. the bore being 8 1-2 inches and the strokes 12 inches. The fuel oil. it was found, would not give off any infiammable vapor at all unless it became heated to the temperature of boiling water.
 As originally designed the R-101 was 732 feet long. with an estimated lift of 150 tons. An extra bay was later inserted to take care of the extra lift required for the heavier oil engines decided upon. This brought her length up to ITS feet. Her main girders were of stainless steel with duralumin webs or cross tubes and steel wire bracings.
 Many Theories Held
 Theories as to the cause of the R-101 disaster ranged today all the way from structural defects to in ability to meneuver in a storm.
 As related here the dirigible. which this year was enlarged with center crossed the channel and headed into. the French interior without incident but after six or seven hours of Darlington began to respond sluggishly to control and to wobble some in the storm.
 The rain poured in torrents and gathering on the sides of the dirig- ible added weight to it, and necessi- tated dropping of ballast Residents about Beauvais saw it pass over head at about 400 feet altitude and in at least some cases gathered the impression it was having engine trouble, although the pilot, H. J. Leach, has denied this.
 South of Beauvais the dirigible slumped down into a valley, bumped once or twice slightly against ground and then failing to rise above the encircling rim of the valley, crashed into hillside. The explosion, all ac- counts agree, followed immediately and fire soon consumed the ship.
 Leach believes that the crash may have snapped an electric connection and caused a spark which ignited the highly inflammable hydrogen lifting gas, or that friction of some of the metal girders as they render ed apart might have brought a~spark which set off the gas.
 AbsoIve Smokers
 Practically none in authority lays any significance to the fact that smoking was permitted aboard the R-101, the first lighter than air craft on which this has been a privilege. Use of crude oil for fuel instead of in one section of the ship were con- sidered to have made this possible. It was not believed that precautions taken against accident through smoking could have failed.
 The dirigiblas lack of buoyancy rmay have been due to rain gather ing op the sides of the envelope, but observers recalled that at departure from Darlington the ship rose only 20 feet or so above the mooring mast when it was released, whereas it should have risen about 200 feet. It flew so low over London on its way east that dogs came out and parked at it.
 Some held to the theory of a structural defect brought on pos sibly by the recent enlarging. A friend of Major G. H. Scott, one of the noted air experts aboard who lost their lives and the man who brought the R-34 to America, said that he tacitly expressed his mis- givings prior to the dirigible's start.
 Though naturally very guarded in his remarks" the friend said, The seemed to have some doubts on the all-important question of the ships lift. I formed the impression that he was not altogether happy over the enforced insertion of an ex- tra bay in the middle of the ship after such great care had been taken in the original designing, a step me- cessitated by later introducton of heavier engines for heavier fuel. His remarks about patched or mended shoe being never quite as sound as new one seems to reveal some element of doubt in his mind" Inability of the dirigible to man. ouver in the last few minutes of its flight may have been due, some thought, ito damage by the storm, such as loss of a fin, which made the