Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1917 — CONTRACTS LET FOR AIRSHIPS. [ARTICLE]

CONTRACTS LET FOR AIRSHIPS.

Secretary Daniels has awarded contracts to four American firms, for the constiuction of sixteen nonrigid dirigible airships, to be used by the. navy for coast and harbor patrol, says a dispatch from Washington. The contracts are for $6-49,250, and the specifications call for the delivery of these airships lin the remarkably quick period of 120 days after the date of contract, or by the middle of next June. The airships are the first of such type to be bought by the navy under the $5,000,000 appropriation for aeronautic machinery made available by the sixty-fourth congress. They will be 160 feet in length, 31% feet in diameter, or 50 feet high over all; will be

equipped with radio communication 100 horsepower motors capable of making a sustained flight of sixteen hours at thirty-five miles, and a maximum speed of forty-five miles an hour for ten hours. Under the designs drafted by naval constructors the dirigibles will be able to operate from sfiore bases, and alight on a water surface in good weather.