GIANT AIRSHIP

Evening Star, Issue 20983, 23 December 1931, Page 15

GIANT AIRSHIP

THE NEW ZEPPELIN SMOKEROOM AND BATHS The new giant airship being built at Enedrichshal'en, at present called the “ L 5129,” will differ in vital particulars from the Graf Zeppelin (says the ‘Evening Standard ’). It will be considerably larger, and will embody many technical improvements, suggested by the experience of the Graf Zeppelin; it will surpass the present ship an its arrangements for the comfort and security of the passengers. The difference in size is shown in the following table giving the approximate measurements ot the two airships:— LSI29. Graf Zeppelin Maximum length 271yds 257yds Maximum breadth 45yds 93yds Maximum height 50yds 37yds Nominal gas cap acity ... 260,000 c.yds 137,000 c.yds Its carrying capacity, which is almost double that of the Graf Zeppelin, is; Fifty passengers, eight tons of mail and luggage, two tons of drinking water, two tons of washing water, six tons of ballast water, and sixtv tons of fuel.

The so-called “ bridge.” the. post of control and command, will not. as in the Graf Zeppelin, be close to the passenger quarters, which arc shifted to

amidships. The “bridge” occupies a space nearly 11yds long at the bow. It is fitted with a periscope, enabling the watch officer to observe the whole length and the stern of the airship. Above the “bridge” is the wireless station. This will not, as heretofore, derive its current from an air-driven motor, but will be supplied with current from the ship’s electric power station. The air-driven motor had the double disadvantage of only working when the airship was in motion, and of offering a certain amount of resistance that diminished the Sliced of the ship. This new disposition of the wireless station dispenses with the necessity for the special wireless gondola that is a feature of the Graf Zeppelin. The power station, served by two oildriven motors, supplies current for the ship’s lighting, for the kitchen, and for the heating apparatus. Incidentally it will enable passengers to have their daily warm bath, which was npt possible hitherto. TWENTY-SIX CABINS. The present ship offers rather limited passenger accommodation—some cabins, a very narrow interior lobby, and one common room that serves ns saloon, reading room, and dining room all in one. On the LSI29 this will he entirely different. In the first place, there will be twenty-six cabins with fifty-two berths. The dining room; 16yds by 6}yds, will bo spacious and well-ap-pointed ; so will the saloon. There will also be a separate reading and writing room with a library of books and facilities for typing. To starboard and to port there will be broad lobbies, fitted out with windows placed at an angle of 45deg, and permitting almost unlimited view around and below the airship. Besides the kitchen and the other conveniences, there will bo a bathroom, an officers’

messroom, and a purser’s office. Finally there will be a smoke room. This is a great boon, for tho chief objection many people had to Zeppelin travelling was that it was strictly forbidden to smoke.

The stringent prohibition of smoking in the Graf Zeppelin is, of course, because there is no separate smoko room so devised as to prevent danger of escaping gas floating about the ship catching hro from open lights. This danger is much smaller in the new airship which is designed to use noninflammable gas; also, the smoke room will be so constructed and isolated as to avoid all possiblty of conflagraton. The new airship will carry no petrol, and helium gas offers no danger of combustion. In addition, in the construction, care has been taken to avoid inflammable substances. Exception must be made in tho case of the cover, which is composed of strips of cotton and cloth, covered with aluminium powder to diminish the influence of the sun’s rays on the gas contents. The gas cell’s partition are of so-called goldbeater’s skin.

In principle the construction remains the same'; the new features are all improvements grafted on the present model. None of these ( changes is in any "way revolutionary or marks a departure from the principles adopted originally by the pioneer of airships. Count Zeppelin. They are merely alterations and additions designed to increase carrying capacity, speed, comfort, and security.