Evening star., 1941-11-09

With the launching Of the worlds
largest flying boat at Baltimore yester-
day, formal rites were administered to
the Nays dirigible program which after
a spectacular and tragic course for two
decades was all but publicly shelved.
Despite the loss of the Shenandoah in
q squall over Ohio in 1925, and the
crashes at sea of the Akron in 1888 and
the Macon two years later, an expendi-
ture Of 50, 900 900 was authorized by Con-
gress in 1888 for a new Navy airship
approximately the size of the Los An
geles, which, incidentally was retired for
age only last year and was declared
structurally sound after 2,7O0 hours aloft
during seven years active service. An
made for the new craft. but uncertain
ties as to the size and type delayed tho
work and the money reverted to the
Treasury before plans were even drawn.
The glistening giant which slid down tine
ramp of the Glenn l.. Martin Co. on
Middle River yesterday morning WILL in
q way, replace it.
The Mars, with its 2O0-foot wing
spread and 117-foot hull, Is the
product of five years of research and
planning. Until the Macon dropped
into the sea of the West Coast six years
ago, she was only an idea in the back
of the minds of Department of Aero
nautics officials. The Shenandoah and
Akron had met tragic ends, to be sure,
but the Los Angeles was older than
either of them and still in regular opera
ton. Moreover, the Germans were
stressing dirigible development and
establishing long distance records peri
odically with their Graf Zeppelin and
Hindenburg. The dirigible, vulnerable
and slow as it might be. seemed to have
q definite strategic value with its long
range and reliability
Whether 1t was the investigation fol.
lowing the Macon crash or something
else, the following year the Navy asked
for designs of large flying boat with
moderate speed, long cruising range and
a larger carrying capacity than had
hitherto been dreamed OF.
Not so many years ago." explained
Rear Admiral John H. Towers, chief of
the Navy Department Bureau of Aero
nautics, 1T was seriously contended by
competent aviation engineers that the
ultimate limit for aircraft was range of
about $500 miles. 1t seems little ridicu-
lous today, but at the time it was made 10
or IS years ago, when WOODEN construc-
tion and relatively low-octane fuels were
the foundation of the opinion, it seemed
pretty sound.
Covers Larger Area
"Since that time, metal alloys and
higher-octane fuel have wrought radical
changes in aircraft and engine design
and performance. Range and efficiency
have been so increased that sensible men
admit they no longer know just what
the limits are The huge German DO-X
flying boat of a dozen or so years ago
with its IL motors of 400 horsepower each
had less power than the new plane
launched yesterday, with only four mo-
the ground of immediate practicable de-
velopment and raise them toward the
horizon of the future.
Our calculations for stress and strain,
our aerodynamic tables, We knew, were
correct for aircraft Of the size we already
had built, but would they hold for a
ship much larger? No one could say
Even the laboratory has limitations. The
way to find out what a plane of this type
could do obviously was to build one and
find out.
Despite its experimental nature, this
craft can do many practical things. 1t
can carry more than 100 fully equipped