ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 162, 11 July 1910, Page 5

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

IN A DIRIGIBLE. ATTEMPT. TO BE MADE. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) - : (Received 8 a.m.) 'i NEW YORK, July 10. ] The "New York Times" Is to organise j an attempt to cross the Atlantic this i summer in the motor . balloon "The j America," built for Wellman's polar ex- , pedition. J An airship whichis to fly from London - to New York has already "been designed, ( and is expected to be ready for its first ] flight in twelve months. It is to be : one thousand feet in length, sixty-five ' feet in diameter, will he worked by six- i teen propellers, and will have'a lifting •} capacity of thirty-eight tons beyond Its '. own weight. .'■ The designer, ' Baron i Roenne, is a,Russian, but the airship is c to he built by British workmen, with '( British. materials, within ;ten miles of - 1 London, aha owned by an exclusively i British company. It is to be a rigid > dirigible, with an outer cover of an alloy 1 called chromium, the surface of which i is to be so prepared as to resemble a 1 mirror. This is to be the pioneer of a '' fleet of such British airships. Influen- 1 tial men are considering the formation < of a company to promote the building ' of an aerial Havy, and the establishment " of a passenger and mail service. Baron Roenne has mapped out routes and charts, and he has. drawn up rough timetables for the mail and passenger ser- * vice. The journey from London to Berlin ■ and back will, for instance,, occupy 30 hours. "This calculation," he _ays, "al- ] lows for strong head winds of a velocity of fifty-five miles per hour. Of the \ eight motors -with which each airship will be provided, only four, or, at the ] utmost, six, . would, be working at a \ time, thus enabling them to be kept in '* perfect order." -;. This is the beginning of ! Baron Roenne's- scheme. He has map- • ped out a passenger service from- Lon- I don to New York! "I fancy it will take about seventy-two hours to cross ! tho Atlantic," he said. "That, of course, i is allowing" for a head wind of .about - fifty-five miles per hour. I shall make j tho trip as soon as my first ship is . built to show that it is feasible." As . an earnest of Baron Roenne's intentions, J it. may be stated that a tract of about a hundred acres of land for the erection of aerial stations and docks has already been secured, and that workmen will t shortly be employed day and night upon c the construction of the first aerial-liner, v