ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 3829, 4 July 1919, Page 2

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

R34 SETS OUT

PROGRESS REPORTS

By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). CAUB.-N.Z. Cable Association '

London, July 1. The British military airship, 1134, left the aerodrome on ils trans-At-latic flight at 3 o'clock this morning. Vancouver, July 2. At 3.52 a.m. tho airship sent a wirel<*s report that she was off the coast of Ireland in a fog. Tho position of R'.ii at 8 a.m. was 3-1 deg. 20tnin North, and lOdeg 4.omin West. She had travelled at an average speed of 45 knots. I/Tho R.'34 is a great rigid airship, built by Messrs Beardmoro at their works on tho Clyde. It made ( its maiden trip on March 14, when *tho cruise lasted about 4J hours, with a crew of 30 men on board. It took about 400 men to haul the airship out of the hangar. The airship is notably different from the Zeppelin in appearance, being of much, more graceful outline, with a long tapering.stern. It is 700 ft long, 80 feet in diameter, and has a displacement of about two million cubic feet. It had previously been reported that tho 1134'e trip was t-j bo made via the Azores, but tho position given in to-day's mos»age— about 220 miles west of Glasgow—suggests that the route now being followed is direct, for the course of the Azores is south-westerly. Tins voyage is the first attempt by an aircraft to cross the Atlantic from east to west, and the first by an airship. The R34 was to carry fuel enough for the. return journey, as there is no hangar accommodation in American (unless recently built) large enough to houso the ship.] London, July 3. The Air Ministry is receiving wireless progress statements from R34, which is obtaining Atlantic weather reports from Ireland, Azores, and Newfoundland. Tho airnhip proceeded by a more southerly route owing to fog- The latest reports are, "All well." A thousand miles have been covered, flying at an altitude of 2000 feet <n brilliant sunshine above the clouds. They expect to arrive in New York on 1 Friday morning, completing 3500 miles, and resuming the return journey to England without delay, via tho A ores. In the House of Commons, Mr MacNamara said that R34 had cost £350,----000. Six other airships of the improved type were being constructed. PROGRESS OF BRITISH AVIATORS (Received July 4, 8.55 a.m.) London, Jul.y 3. The British airship R34, which is •rossing the Atlantic, is halfway to Newfoundland. The weather is reported by her pilot to bo good. A WELCOME PREPARED. (Received July 4, 1 p.m.) St. John's, Newfoundland, July 3. Vice-Admiral Kerr has abandoned bis Trans-Atlantic flight in his Hand-ley-Pago aeroplane, and is coining to welcome tho R34 at Atlantic City.