The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-11-23
Lord of the SkieS-No. 3
FIVE AIRPLANES
TO Be HOUSED
INSIDE AKRON
Upper Fin on Mammoth
Ship Is as High as
6-Story Building.
BY ERNIE PYLE
ScriDps- Howard Aviation Editor

lower interior of the Akron, right
between the crews quarters, which
I described Saturday, is the air
plane hangar.
At present it is only a vacant
space, 10 by So feet. There is moth
ing in it. But by next spring fiool
will be built in, trapdoor put in
the bottom, cranes and overhead
rails installed and five airplane;
put in.
Across the top of this hangar
space runs the catwalk, connecting
the living quarters on either side Of
the ship. The bottom of the bis
gas bag IN this frame" forms the
roof Of the hangar.
Once more we climb to the cat.
walks running the length of the
ship, and walk aft. A few steps anc
we come to the first engine room.
Engine Room of Metal
This room is set back inside the
dirigible. five or six feet from the
fabric exterior. Like the other rooms,
It is riveted on to the multitudinous
Orders of the dirigible's frame
work.
The room is by feet. The walls,
floor and ceiling are of metal. In
the center, on a heavy base, sits a
huge twelve-cylinder water cooled
Mayach German engine.
At least one mechanic stands by
each engine continually. An alum
mum door leads from the engine
room to the catwalk And just OPP
posite the door is large window
leading out to the propeller drive
shaft and the propeller itself.
Change Cylinder in Flight
In the engine room, with the door
closed, one never would know he was
in the air. He might as we'll be on
the ground, or in submarine.
1t is just the same whether the
dirigible is in its hangar or mile
in the air They changed a cylinder
during flight the other day.
There are eight of these engine
rooms, four on each side. All along
the catwalk, hanging from the
girders, are big gasoline tanks.
Finally, we reach the end of the
catwalk, back near the tail. A gas
bag blocks our passage. So we
either can turn one way and walk
down steps toward the entrance to
the lower fin, or we can turn the
other way and start climbing a
metal ladder right up the side of
the ship on the inside, of course.
If your heart is weak don't do
either. Just turn around and go
back.
If You Fell OFF
You can see, due to the air.
ships curved hull, that if you kept
climbing up this ladder you would
be hanging, face up, by the time you
got to the top. They have arranged
for that.
After you have gone up a little
way, you step out on to platform
landing, turn around and continue
up a ladder which allows you to face
toward the interior of the ship, in
stead of toward the outside.
When you reach the top, you come
to another catwalk. which runs the
entire length of the ship, right un-
Ger the backbone.
If you were to fall off this cat
walk, you would fall on to one of
the big helium gas bags, and simply
crawl back again.
Like Fifteen Story Fall
But if the gas bags weren't there,
and you fell straight through to the
bottom of the ship it would be equal
to falling out of a f1fteen-story
building!
Sailors constantly patrol this up
Yer catwalk to see that everything
is all right. At the forward end is
an observation platform. The man
on duty there has throne all his
own. He is the highest man on the
ship and he sits alone and Surveys
the world
From the rear end of the catwalk
one climbs back into the upper YER
tical fin. This corresponding fin on
an airplane is about the size of a
table top and as thick as your hand.
But on the Akron it is as high as
a six-story building and as wide as
your living room. The navy once
considered putting the crews quar-
ters in the lower fin, and would
have, except that the weight would
have upset the ships balance.
To get to the lower fin you crawl
down a series of skeleton ladders.
Although the fin really is a very
small part of the whole dirigible,
it is so big you could set up house
keeping in it.
The bottom of the forward part
of the lower fin has been converted
into an auxiliary control car. It
has big glass windows and is the
best point in the dirigible for sight
seeing if you're not addicted to air
sickness.
When the Akron hits a bump the
nose goes down and the tail goes
up, and if you're in the tail you
sometimes go up several hundred
feet.
In this fine control car are COM
passes and rudder and elevator
controls. If something should go
wrong with the controls in the
main car forward, the controls in
the fin can be connected merely by
throwing clutch and the dirigible
steered from the rear.
= "A r EMF APGES IT'S