NEW YORK TO HAMBURG

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1923, Page 14

NEW YORK TO HAMBURG

TEE LATEST THING IN AIR

LINERS.

The first step towards the establishment of the much-discussed airship line from New York to Hamburg has been taken with the laying down of the keel of the Arno-Borner dirigible, which it is intended to use on the route. The journey will take about 45 hours. The dirigibles, which are • the • design of Borner, the famous Dutch, .airman, states a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian," are. equipped with a hull, so that they may float- into dock and be boarded by passengers as easily as they now walk on board an oceangoing liner. The need for hug? hangars or mooring masts will "thus be eliminated. Cabins will be provided for 300 passengers. By utilising what is known as the Vthree-chamber" system it is claimed ■that all risk of fire or explosion and all danger from lightning are eliminated. The gas cells containing the hydrogen, each' of which is made separately, are all completely surrounded by another envelope filled with nitrogen. This prevents the hydrogen from mixing- with the air, and, it is claimed, should the outer 'envelope catch fire the flames would be extinguished as soon as the nitrogen began to escape from the smallest hole burned through the envelope. There would be no risk of the hydrogen becoming involved.

In the passenger deck, which is built in the form of a bridge chassis, which j|s» carries the machinery at a con: venient distance from the passengers' rooms, there is space for the staterooms, dining-rooms, and other essential accommodation. As the danger of fire is eliminated it will be possible for the first time on aircraft.to provide smokerooms. Along the whole length of the vessel a kind of roof garden and promenade are to be built. This will be reached from the passengers' quarters by a lift. Food will.be served from electrically-equipped kitchens, and the ship will/be-lighted throughout by electricity. . ■ ■ Power for driving this leviathan will be provided by twelve motors, each developing 260 h.p. By ah arrangement of the propellers, each of which is separately driven, it is possible to link them up together or in groups adjusted to drive the airship in any direction. The "three-chamber^' system is also claimed to reduce.the loss'of hydrogen due to diffusion to less than 1 per cent.