THE R38 CALAMITY

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 50, 27 August 1921, Page 4

THE R3B CALAMITY

The disastrous end of the great airship R3B, with the loss of all but five of the fifty-one people on board her, will be a severe blow to faith in large lighter-than-air machines. While Germany specialised in Zeppelins, such craft were subjected to a great deal of severe criticism on fundamental grounds; but since Britain began experimenting with big rigid airships, essentially of the same type as the Zeppelins, many people have allowed their views to' ' change. The accident occurred in ■fine weather, in the course of ordinary navigation. There was no stress of storm, no violent emergency manoeuvre, no collision with an unavoidable obstacle. The structure simply failed in somfe possibly small part, "apparently while 'the steering was being vigorously tested, with vital and fatal consequences. This occurrence, with its emphasis of death, will locus atten.tion upon the weakness of the rigid airship, with, we may jhope, beneficial results. The lost airship was a. great deal larger than any steamship ever seen in New Zealand waters. Yet the whole vast structure, including the propelling - machinery, weighed only about thirtyfive tons. 1 The mere* construction of a machine so light for (its size is a superb achievement. That men will cheerfully undertake to fly about the world in it shows how. unbounded .is human faith in human works. Mr. A. p. Ashbolt, the Tasmanian Agent-General, one of the most ardent advocates of world flying services, has explained that the R3B was not a commercial but a military type, and was therefore built very lightly. If she had, been designed for commercial work, he says,t the'framework would have been a ton and a-half or two tons heavier. This statement is itself eloquent of the lightness of the airship's structure. ,

No doubt, had the hydrogen with which E3B's balloons were filled not caught fire, there would have been a smaller death-roll, and perhaps none, as the result of the airship breaking in halves. Such, accidents have happened without very serious results. But the gas did ignite, and there was>a_ great explosion. Hydrogen is used" because it is the lightest known gas. "■ It weighs less than one-fourteenth of the weight of air. Its greatest defect from the aeronautical viewpoint is its inflammability. American experts have raised the point that the use of helium would have abolished the explosion risk. Unfortunately, helium isjnot so readily obtained as hydrogen. A few years ago it was knowiji only as a rare gas present in the air in a very small proportion, and obtainable by refined methods from various, mineral sources, still as a rare element. It is an important constituent of the sun's atmosphere, and its name derives from the Greek word helios, the sun. It has lately been found, however, that the' natural gases given off by certain oil wells in Texas contain a large proportion of helium, which can be separated without great difficulty; and it was used to a limited extent for filling balloons ( and airships during the war. ' This gas is nearly as light as hydrogen, and is absolutely uninflammable. It may be expected that the American Government will use helium in preference to hydrogen when it can. Whether enough of this gas is available to remove the gas explosion risk from all airship services is a question on which information is at present, lacking.