IMPERIAL AIRSHIPS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19202, 7 January 1928, Page 13

IMPERIAL AIRSHIPS.

RIOO TO BE FINISHED IN APRIL.

HOSTEL FOR 100 PASSENGERS

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LONDON, November 2<5,

The RIOO is to bo finished in April. It will carry 100 passengers, 40 of a crew, and 10 tons of mails or other freight. Tho metal framework is practically complete, and privileged members of the Press have been permitted to inspect it at the works- at East Howden, Yorkshire. This ship is being built to a toiii "act for £330,000 by tho Airship Guarantee Company, the inspiration of which is Commander Buruey, who has fought consistently aud cogently in Parliament and out. for a definite airship policy, when few people had aiiy interest in the lighter-thun-air vessel. This and a sister ship under construction at the Royal Airship Works, Gardington, are designed to a specification calling for a gross lift of 150 tons, a structure weight not exceeding 90 tons, and a speed of 70 miles an hour. This ship is so far advanced now that it is a complete framework, except for nose, and tail, and is suspended from the huge shed roof towering 140 ft or nioro from tho ground, whlio its three iuternal decks to accommodate 100 passengers and a crew, of 40 are already taking shape within tho hull.

Duralumin Girders. Unlike tho State airship, in which stainless steel is largely used for tho girders, 8100 remains faithful to duralumin, but it is used in a radically different way from Zeppoliu practice. The main members of the triangular girders are of duralumin sheet wound Fnto a helical tube and riveted along the continuous overlap; this enables cleaner, metal ..to. be secured, facilitates inspection of tho raw material, and improves uniformity. A machine: ' produces readily this tube, and the cross bracings of the triangular girder are also made from dural sheet by stamping out the shapes from the flat strip. The passenger unit, with its two and four-berth cabins, its lounge, diningrooms, verandahs, etc., is suspended, as it were, in the ship, and does not rest on any girder or frame. The only proiections outside the clear lines of the hull a'ro the three engine nacelles and the commaiidera's control cabin, which is sunk through the under side pi the vessel amidships. The engines ..to he used aro six'Kolls-Kovee condor units of 700 h.p. each, and this is a regretted departure from the proposal to eliminate petrol as a fuel, necessitated by the fact that the alternative engines, burning hydrogen and kerosene or crude oil, are not yet available.

A Dancing Floor. .Tho dining-room, with its five-ply wooden floor, will be 36 feet by. 24 feet. It will seat 50 people, or,.cleared, provide dancing space for an equal number. The music will be provided by wireless. There will also be 36 bunks in two and four-berth cabins- and two promenades on this .floor. , The floor above is a lounge, from the, centre of which you look over a balcony into the dining-room. Surrounding this lounge are CO more berths. Below tho dining-room are the kitchen quarters, 1 connected by-service lifts. ' . - The length of the ship is '709 feet, and tlie' greatest, diameter -is;-130 feet, with the 1 trah's'vbrse frames'so'-spaced that ho one gasbag b'ctweort" frames takes more thaii'lo per cent, of the total lift; Commander JBurney is ' satisfied that 'his' ship -will-.' withstand , all wcatliers;'and -certainly, if human skill and foresight can accomplish:that end, .Gonimandor Bumey and his associates have« reason for optimism. •:His .view is 4hat for Empire, operation the airship .must be'able to weather the worst conditions.- '

Larger Ships Yet. Commander .Burney is satisfied, from the knowledge gained in building this ship, that he can go to larger .sizes; in fact, he has such plans 1 in hand for an airship • capable of - operation between Europe and America, • which, lie. 'said, would* represent as big an advance on .EIOO as she is on the war-time, ships. Such a ship should carry out the trip from Lbndon ; to New' York 'in 48 >hpurs, at 'an average fare of -£loo:per ;.passenger. The initial cost per ..ship-, he thought, would be about £450,000. Ho, insisted that the success of the commercial operatibn .* of airships • lay in private and not State enterprise, and not unjustifiably ho is apprehensive .of the position next April,-when; with his ship completed and no immediate prospect of more > work, '.the trained staff now; gathered at Howden will become an uriremuneratiVe" burden or be dispersed.: : St) far. as can. be-seen at present, the trials of the : ship,are to wait until the second Bhip at '. Cardington is .completed. This may mean that not until the summer will any practical flying be possible, and it is obvious that most exhaustive trials of gradually increasing severity must be undertaken before the wider aims of Empire airship' communication can even be considered ,froin a practical standpoint.