BRITISH AIRSHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 109, 4 November 1925, Page 5

BRITISH AIRSHIPS

R33 READY FOR FLIGHT

FURTHER EXPERIMENTS,

(NlOlf OUR OWN CORRISPONDINT.)

LONDON, 17th Sept.

Work on repairing the,airship 833, whiah broke away from her moorings at Pulham last April, is rapidly approaching completion, and Air Ministry officials expect that her first trial flight ■will take place within the next three weeks. -

Au official of the Air Ministry states that the Ministry is eager to proceed with certain experiments which -would by now have 'been partially • undertaken but for the airship's mishap. "The K33," he said, "in addition- to having had a new metal nose constructed, has been completely overhauled. When she leaves the ground for the next trip she will be a better ship than" before her i accident.

"The Air Ministry, as the result of the accident, have decided that a, metal nose shall also be fitted to her sister ship, 836. Mechanics ate engaged in effecting this at the present moment, but the task has been slightly delayed owing to the fact that all available meu were required for a like work on K33. The first purpose of reconditioning these two airships is to enable them to carry out the scientific tests \fhich are essential before the construction of the two largo airships .which are to be built under the Government v grant. R33 will operate, more or less, in Home localities;, R36 is to make a special voyage to the Near East. It had been intended that this tour should have been made this summer, but owing to difficulties in erecting a mooring mast and a supply station at ißmailia, in Egypt, and to tho accident to R33, this has been postponed. The experiments , which these two ships will undertake cover the important factors of atmospheric and wind stresses, in addition to those caused by tropical conditions."

THE AMERICAN DISASTER

Another Air Ministry official, while unwilling to discuss the recent disaster to the American airship Shenandpah and its effect on airship construction, expressed the opinion that the tragedy would be a stimulant rather than a. deterrent.

"Airships during the recent war were constructed on three lines," he said; "a maximum altitude, the widest possible range, and a capacity for'carrying the heaviest load possible. In consequence lightness of construction became the ideal, and the safety line was. slender. These principles do not hold for civil aviation. Airship construction should be on tho samo lines as that of ships—safety first, with 'the question of speed and range as subsidiary items." i 85, Fleet street.