Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1919 — BUILD AIRSHIPS TO LIFT 280 TONS [ARTICLE]

BUILD AIRSHIPS TO LIFT 280 TONS

British War Office Officials Believe Machine Is Practical. GREAT POSSIBILITIES SEEN Immense Craft Could Cross Atlantic and Return and Then Repeat the Journey Without Pause» Weather Permitting. London.—A rigid airship—Zeppelin type— O f 10,000,000 cubic feet capacity, or about three times as large as any yet constructed, is a practical proposition, according to war office officials. Such ah airship would possess a-totallifting power of ab <> u t 280 tons. The structural weight, that is, the gas bags, framework, gondolas, engines, operating machinery, etc., would be not more than 80 tons, leaving 200 tons as, disposable lift. Only 50 tons would be required to make room for the crew, petrol ballast, etc., leaving 150 tons commercial load which could be carried. Such an airship could cross the Atlantic and return and then repeat the journey without a pause, if weather were favorable. British Government Interested. Because the British empire is so far-flung, the government is encouraging development of aerial communication for both passengers and light parcels as a vital necessity. Wireless stations belting the world also will be erected quickly as. possible. Before this is printed a HandleyPage machine will have flown from England to India in a test trip. This Is but preliminary to permanent air traffic to Egypt, India, South Africa and Australia. Canada likewise will be linked up with the mother country, The rigid airships which Britain now possesses can feross the Atlantic, given favorable weather. But it is the airplane that is being developed for overland routes. Godfrey Isaacs, brother of Lord Reading, Britain’s ambassador to America, is head of the Marcdni Wireless Telegraph company. Isaacs is simply waiting for peace, which will remove certain restrictions, to expand British wireless stations. —Two stations will be — erected —In distant parts of China. Receiving ap-

paratus Will be Installed on alt pas-senger-carrying airplanes, so that messages may be sent back and forth while the flight is in progress. Hence a business passenger who may tire of the scenery or have bright ideas about his business may get in touch with his head office boy or assistant manager, as the case may be. Thus, as it is feasible to wireless ships of the sea. so It will be possible to wireless ships of the air. —The—two-new wireless stations in China will be installed with the help of airplanes. Instead of requiring several months to send machinery to

Cashmere and the Chinese side of Siberia, locations of stations by wagon, for there are no “railroads, the machlnery wHl —be taken in HandleyPage airplanes. Thus, in such ways will the distant parts of. the world be linked up with modern times.