IN PEACE OR WAR

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 57, 8 March 1923, Page 7

IN PEACE OR WAR

VALUE OF THE AIRSHIP

AMERICA'S BIG PROGRAMME

USE OF HELIUM SAFETY GAS,

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIGHT.)

<ASSTRAUiN ■ NEYf ZEALANB CABLE ASSOCIATION.) NEW YORK, 7th March.

Rear-Admiral W. A. Moffett, in a speech, said the United States Navy was now building a rigid dirigible, utilising helium gas, which would make a tour of the world, probably proceeding to the North or South Pole for scientific purposes. The dirigible would embody the latest improvements in aeronautic science, and be capable of long-sustained voyages, carrying heavy loads. Germany was building for the United States similar craft.

Rear-Admiral Moffett predicted that the dirigible would be a tremendous factor in future warfare, and a vital agency in national defence, and stressed the fact that aeronautics produced a serious defence problem for the Unj.ted States, in view of the neatness of foreign island possessions to the American main coast, notably the West Indies. The United States could easily be subjected to bombing from these places, as centres of operations.

Earlier messages stated that the workshops at Friedrichshafen have built a dirigible for the United States Government for the Berlin-Chicago service. The airship, which is declared to be the best in existence, was built at the Zeppelin factory, and will be flown to America by a German crew. It is equiped with six engines, and will attain a speed of 85 miles an hour. The ship will be able to fly 8500 miles without a stop. Its gas capacity will be two and a half million cubic feet. The craft will be used for. experimental long-distance flights. Provision will be made for forty staterooms in the event of the ship being put to commercial use.