AIRSHIP VERSOS AIRCRAFT

Evening Star, Issue 20317, 28 October 1929, Page 7

AIRSHIP VERSOS AIRCRAFT

Captain Olhvcr expressed tho view, speaking of the future of tho airship, that it was almost a certainty that over long distances such as tho transatlantic route dependence would have to be placed on the airship ns opposed to 44 heavier-than-air ” craft. It had to he remembered that the Atlantic had been crossed from east to west only once by airplane, but it had been crossed and recrossed by airship. The 1134 crossed the Atlantic in 1919, the I,os Angeles followed later, the Graf Zeppelin had crossed and recrossed, ho believed, three times,.and now the German craft had completed a lliglit round the world in thirty days. “ T road somewhere,” ho said. 44 that Sir Hubert Wilkins, travelling on tho Graf, had expressed tho view that the flight had become monotonous. That is what wo want on flights like that, monotony.” Tho RICH) and the RIO] represented big strides in progress, and a comparison between tho 11101 and. for instance. the R 33 showed it. The figures for tho two were;— R 33. 11101. Length (feet) ... (145 724 Diameter, max. (fectl 78 130 via pacify ■ (cubic feet) ... 1,920,000 5,000,000 Speed (knots) ... 4.5 75 Gross lifting power (tons) ... 01 156 Captain Olliver expressed the view that one of tho airships would be used for transatlantic crossings, and the other, the RlOl, would • probably go to Egypt. It had been stated several tinies that airships in the tropics would not bo a success, hut a Zeppelin had been in the tropics during the Great War, and the crude oil engines of the RIOI would reduce lire danger by 90 per cent.