Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 217, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1913 — DIRIGIBLES COSTLY [ARTICLE]

DIRIGIBLES COSTLY

Great Vessel for War, but Prh?e Is Prohibitive. * /• '. ' • -*- ■ JU— -KT*-.- rr-.*T ■ .. .. ~ Difficulties Confronting Great Britain In Organizing an Effective Fleet of Airships—Pilots Are Very Hard to Find. London.—For some time past It has been very difficult to make people think 111 anything but termß of dreadnaughts and superdreadnaughts. Now, however, the topic of thought, so to speak, is slowly but perceptibly veering, and we are beginning to think in terms of dirigibles. Almost every paper that copies to hand has an article in It pointing out the great value of the rigid airship and the necessity of building a large number of this type of aerial craft There can be no doubt as to our need of this class of air vessel, but few persons realize the extreme Costliness of building the rigid dirigible and keeping it in an efficient state. The price of. a Zeppelin is about £50,000 sterling, and a hangar to hold two of these vessels costs about £BO,OOO. Then there are repairs, gas, wages and a hundred and one other things which necessitate a large running accdunt to meet them. ‘ To build a fleet of forty dirigibles, which we khould have to do to enable’us to get on even terms with the i aerial s luadrons of ' other countries, would o»8t us about £2,000,000, and then haigarg must be provided for all of those airships, which means the expenditure of another £2,000,000 at least. \ Where these air vessels are to be built and how long they would take to construct are also matters of importance, seeing that we have not as yet turned out any really satisfactory airships of large size. Arrangements, too, have been completed in Germany whereby, the same of Zeppelin and Schutte-Lanz dirigibles tp foreign governments is prohibited. Then, even supposing that we could purchase forty of these aerial cruisers in the space of a year, we should find considerable difficulty in obtaining pilots qualified to sail them. The official list published by the Federation Aeronautique - Internationale shows that, up to Dec. 31. 1912, thirty-two aeronauts’ (balloons) and eleven, airship pilots* certificates were granted to persons in Great Britain. There is no gainsaying the fact that, 1 as compared with any other kind of aerial craft, the rigid dirigible is the air vessel of today. In carrying capacity and radius of action, in Its powers of remaining steady in the air 1 and flying noiselessly aided by the wind, the rigid airship has no rival. It has, of course, its disadvantages—its Immense bulk, which psakes it a very noticeable object in the sky, and its unwieldiness, which necessitates a host of attendants to grapple with it when it leaves the earth and when ft alights. The Zeppelin airships, too. are extremely heavy. The lifting capacity of Zeppelin L 1 Is twenty-seven tons, but owing to its own great weight its useful load is only some seven tons. . , As regards the construction of the rigid airship, in this type of air vessel the shape of Its envelope is not dependent on internal gas pressure. A huge framework, made of aluminum In the case of Zeppellnq. is provided with from seventeen to twenty separate gas chambers. Attached to the framework is a keel which, in addition to serving other purposes, affords communication between the two cars, the latter carrying the motors, guns, bomb dropping appliances, etc. The propellers, of which there are four, are fixed to the frame above the cars. The framework is covered with a rubbered cloth. The Bchutte-Lanz dirigible has a wooden framework, as has also the French rtald Le gpiesa.

The bomb dropping arrangements carried by the Zeppelins are known to be accurately sighted. Quite recently the Hanka made .excellent practice at comparatively small targets on the gfound from a height of over 5,000 feet in the air. It is well known, too, that for attacking other air craft the Zeppelins carry five guns, probably machine guns or weapons of small .caliber. Two of these guns are carried in each of the cars, and the fifth is mounted on a specially constructed platform on top of the airship’s envelope. 1