RECORD AIRSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 34, 9 August 1921, Page 4

RECORD AIRSHIP

COMPLETION O^ THE R3B

BIGGEST IN THE tVORLD.

The biggeut airship ever built was launched at Cardington, Bedfordshire, last month. She is the ZR.2, of the United States Naval Air Service. She wag begun as the R. 38, and designed to take the.air with the concentric red, white, and blue rings of the British service. Now she carries her American number, and the red, white, and blue are on a white star. She was laid down in November, 1918, by Messrs. Short Bros. In April, 1920, the works were taken over by the Air Ministry, under whom most of the construction has been carried out. The design was decided by the Admiralty in the spring of 1918. The ship, 'indeed, embodies the result of war experience up to that date, and this taught, first of all, the need for great height-attaining powers and also of longduration of voyage combined with speed. 'Built for fliis country and for,co: operation with the. Fleet, the problem was~ more difficult, than that presented to German airship engineers, for Germany is a, land of comparatively light winds and has fairly equable weather. Moreover, for the German airship raids and patrols less dura tion capacity suffices, and the prevailing winds were from a direction that favoured a quick run for harbour. Our airships needed greater endurance because the circumstances were almost the exact opposite.' The ZR.2 is the first big rigid airship (except the first big naval rigid that never ascended) of pnreiy British design. The R.BO, a much smaller typo, is, however, almost entirely British. America is paying 2,009,000 dollars for the ZR.2. ■ The airship has fifty petrol tanks, each holding 190 gallons (about 13001b), • the total quantity of "petrol, being 30 ton.s Interspersed with thei are water bags, some designed for instant emptying wheft U is neoeusary to lighten the ship quickly! These contain a quarter of a ton each There are ten tons of water ballast. ■The fourteen gas bogs have, valves that can bo operated, . and also »fety valves that open automatically under a certain pressure of gas, and prevent the excessive inflation which would otherwise occur during, ascending movements.' The valves, the bal] M t,and the" tanks, like the control surfaces, we all operated from the control cabin. The engine cars each carry an engineer, instructions to whom aro conveyed by tho telegraph. The bomb-sighter and tho bomb release gear aro operated from the control cabin. In 'various parts of the ship fourtpen guns are placed, machine-guns and onepounders. The ZR2". hae bow mooring gear and a sea, anchor, and she/ can also bo moored by cables. The main dimensions and characteristics of ZR2, aro as follows :—Length, 695 feet; diameter, 85 feet 4 inches; capacity, 2,700,000 cubio feet; iotai lift under normal condition}, 83 tons; total h.p., 2100: 6 -Sunbeam engines' of 350 h.p.; r.orinal orew (officers and men), 28-30.

It is intended that aftor trials hive been carried out and the airship has been handed over to tho American Government, the American ctew will, aftor a few trial flights, fly aoross the Atlantio to a base in America, where a shed has bsen built to accommodate the ship.