NEW GERMAN DIRIGIBLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 216, 12 September 1925, Page 17

NEW GERMAN DIRIGIBLE.

TWICE PRESENT SIZE. AIB WNE TO AMERICA. " vu ARCTIC AND SIBERIA. TWmifh a nation-wide appeal to the Through a twenty . G&Ban CSrv of the first Zeppelin fifth Eckener , he ad fli - gh the Company, expect, to 01 "r i= sufficient for the construcobtain f fn airship not only capable of £° n ° „ the Xorth Pole, -but which would £? orfrun-r o f a'regular air line Europe and America., v>a the Proposed to build •+h money obtained by voluntary pop*7 on, would be the biggest » la [,f3 and more Uian twice the ,n of thLos Angeles. It would cost ' nnn 000 marte, of which 3,000,000 is lf r ady guaranteed hj the German Stat, and interested industries, the balance to come from the German people. Children Aided Zeppelin. This plan is reminiscent of financial aid extended to Count Zeppelin a score 0 years ago by the school children of Germany, wbos pfennig contributions, totalling million of marks, enabled him tTcontinue developing his airship after the Kaiser had refused.imperial backing. Dr-Eckener is confident his compatriots are' more willing to produce the millions Beaded topreyent Count Zeppelin s mven"ioh'from disappearing from the skies of the Fatherland. iV Coincident with the issuance of his rtkblie appeal, Dr. Eckener will-cause \ diplomatic appeal to be. laid before &el "Allied Council of Ambassadors for ienniseioin to build the proposed craft. An- Allied decree,, ibased on the Ver- j Sijles-Treaty, ■ 'prdliib itsflhe,manufacture, nl Gerjnany of dirigibles containing mprejj. ttain-SOjOOO cubic metres of, gas, .The;; ZetipeliiC chief Hong.has been hapeful t ; that the ; suppoft of his project"; Rdafl Amundsenj aHd! (J.thpr eminent >"ecientists will Serve td. persuade the Ambassadors' Council to grant him the desired authorisation. Britain Likely to Approve. The approval of Gre*t Britain and Italy is deemed certain, out France and Belgium hitherto have declined to commit themselves. I The diplomatic campaign will be. accompanied by world-wide propaganada,; carried on mainly through the movies,, the object of which will be to; stimu-j late interest in the polar flight abroad, | and to demonstrate its great' scientific value. . ■ I Dr. Eckener wants to construct an airship whose balloons will hold' 150,000 cubic metres of gas, which will be 245 metres long, and will have , a lifting power of at least fifty-five . tons.. Only with a Zeppelin of this ' size, he ! contends, will it be possible to carry out exploration work in the Arctic- region specified by Nansen and the Norwegian Society for Polar Research. Service to Three Continents. The explorers also must map out, according to Eckener's latest statement, a route for aerial travel between Europe, Japan, and the United States. This, scheme, which is 'brand new, calls for' Tegular service to three continents over i llurmank, Francis Joseph's Land, the j North Pole, and Alaska, or over Nicholas | Land and 'Siberia. Captain . Bruns, a German air authority, who first-proposed a polar flight to the Norwegian Government, went to Moscow recently and obtained the Soviet's approval of a flight ', over Russian territory. ; t- j 4 Failing Allied permission to 'jnanu-! fecture the big Zeppelin, Dr. Eckener ', means to built a emaller one of .30,000! cubic metres content for experimental purposes.