GERMAN AIR FLEET.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 54, 4 March 1913, Page 5

GERMAN AIR FLEET.

STATION AT CUXHAVEN. BERLIN, March 3. The German Admiralty has made Cuxhaven (on the south ' hank of the Elbe) the centre of naval aviation, and the chief station for the Zeppelin airships. Although the organisation and erection of various airship and aeroplane stations for the German navy have for sotne lime been projected, and although several hangars, capable of accommodating largo Zeppelin dirigibles (notably at Hamburg and at Kiel) have received Government subsidies for the purpose, the definite institution of a large aerial centre, devoted entirely to naval work, has only recently been decided upon (wrote an aeronautical correspondent in the "Daily Telegraph' , on January 7). This first centre will be situated at (uxhaven, where, for the last few months, the German Ministry of Marine has made extensive purchases of land, ostensibly for thr purpose of a new artillery range. The site in question is flat, and has a superficial area of three and a half square miles. It is now known that it will be utilised for a combined aeroplane and airship station. The land, including levelling expenses and the necessary preparation, has been acquired at a cost of £80,000.

A large airship hangar, mounted on a rotating platform, and capable of housing two Zeppelin dirigibles of the latest and most powerful type, will bo, erected at a further cost of £85,000. A special aerial section is now in process of formation in the German navy. Its headquarters will be established at the new centre at Cuxhaven. The first establishment will comprise fourteen chief officers, four officers of lower rank, sixty-eight pptty officers, and one hundred and thirteen men, under the chief command of the naval and coast defence authorities. In the meantime the new military aerodromes at Posen and Koningsberg will be formally inaugurated on February 15.