BIGGEST AIRSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 32, 6 August 1921, Page 5

BIGGEST AIRSHIP

FINAL TRIALS OF R3B

READY TO CROSS THE ATLANTIC.

(UNITBD PRB9S ASSOCIATION.—c6f>TMO«T.)

(AUMtALIAN - HBW ZEALAND OAILI ASBOCIATIOIt.)

(Received August 6, 9 a.m.)

LONDON, 6th August.

R3B, which has been purchased by America, is undergoing her final trials. 1 She will start across the Atlantic on tha 25th, and will carry an American naval crew of thirty, under Commander Maxfield. The vessel is driven by six 350 horse-power engines, and carries thirty tons of petrol for the voyage/

[The R3B, which is known in America as ZR2, belongs to the United States. Navy, and is the biggest airship -ever built. She was built in. Britain by British labour, to British designs, as American enterprise has not hitherto done much to develop the airship.', The dimensions of the airship are: Lengih, 695 ft; diameter, 85ft; gas capacity, 2-J million cubic feet; total lift, 83 tons; horse-power, 2100 tons; full speed, 70 miles per hour; endurance at full speed, 5000 miles; normal speed, 60 miles per hour; endurance at normal speed, 6500 miles. Armament: 14 Lewis guns, one 1-pounder automatic, four 5201b bombs, sis 2301b bombs; crew, 30. The R3B can climb to an altitude of 25,000 ft, which outdistances by nearly 13,000fv the hefeht altitude of the R34, ths only airship which so far has flown across the Atlantic Ocean and back. The most notable difference between the two is in the respective total lift and disposable lift of the two airships. The total lift under normal conditions of R34 was 59J tons, and the disposable lift 24 tons, while in the case of R3B the total lift is 83 tons and t)ie disposable 50 tons. The frame of the R3B is built of duralumin, and contains 14 compartments, in each of. which is a gas bag. Inside the bottom of the airship, and running from end to end, is a corridor containing the aluminium petrol tanks, the fabric water-ballast bags, accommodation for bombs, and the sleeping and living quarters of the crew when off duty.]