FOR USE AGAINST ENGLAND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 75, 25 September 1914, Page 7

FOR USE AGAINST ENGLAND

FEVERISH IUILDING OF, ZEPPELINS. (TIMBB 1M) SIBNBT BUN SERYICBS,) (Received September 25, 8 a.m.) LONDON, 24th September. It is reported that the Germans ar» building Zeppelins in feverish haste., These, with mysterious big guns, greater than anything yet constructed, will be used against England. [In the early part of this year, Ger* many had a dozen Zeppelins, and ten other airships. _ She _ had also forty-one airship sheds, including ten which were then building; and, in addition, four portable sheds, which could be erected m 24 hours. Fourteen of the sheds,, and the four portable ones, are all too small to accommodate Zeppelins, the smallest of which are 465 feet in length. Several of the big sheds will accommodate two airships side by side. There are no data available as to the time it takes to build a Zeppelin under urgent demand, but every airship has to be erected in a shed, and kept in one when it is built. The German Government decided last year that all its sheds we're to be of the revolving type— almost', a, necessity if airships are to be available at any time, because they cannot safely be run out of a, shed with a wind on the beam. Such sheds cost £70,000 each. At the beginning of the year there were in Germany eight sheds able to hold the new 32-ton naval Zeppelins, and thirteen capable of holding 22-ton ships. The reference to big guns may be intended to apply to the arming of the Zeppelins, or to the construction of special guns for other use. In either case, it is interesting to note that only small guns can possibly be carried' on air-craft. The load a 22 -ton Zepbelin can lift is about six tons, and a 32-ton ship may perhaps lift nine tons. i.Au increase in armament means a very big increase in the size and power of a balloon, because every increase in the load means not only a bigger ship, but a heavier one, requiring a further increase to compensate lor this added weight. The recognised armament of airships consists of one-pounder guns and rifle-cali-bre machine guns, one of each b«ng"as many as a 22-ton Zeppelin is usually fitted with. These, together, weigh ,six cwt., and require for their carriage tmi I an airship shall be 1£ tons bigger than it would be without the guns. If four of each type were fitted, or bigger guns used, to make up an armament weighing three tons, the airship would have to b& increased to 37.5 tons lifting capacity, made 600 v feet longer instead of 500, and have its horse-power doubled to get the same speed.]