AER.OPLANE V. AIR-SHIP.

Grey River Argus, 2 September 1908, Page 4

AER.OPLANE V. AIR-SHIP.

Some people refuse to share the enthusiasm, wonder, and alarm whicn theflights of the Zeppelin air-ship have: inspired i nthe eneral public. A writi er in the "Age" declares that the air-ship is only a fair-weather sailer. In ? gale the most powerful vessel ever built must drift with the wind or risk wreck in attempting to alight. When at rest for temporary repairs v is at the mercy of a storm. He does not "deny the air-ship's considerable i utility in war, but"he thinks the alarm ist have allowed their imagination to run away with them. It would certainly be demoralising to have a Dreadnought put out of action by an an ship, but so soon as the airship acquires real powers of offence, the air torpedo boat will be devoloped to hold it in check. "The air torpedo boat will be a small airship, or more probably a flying machine, constructed for swift flight during a rather short time. Its duty will be to launch from any point threatened by a large air-ship, to mount rapidly to a higher level,. to soar above it, and drop a few small shells upon it. A few rents in the dydrogen chambers of the ship will suffice to send it tumbling to earth an uncontrollable wreck, but in m6st cases the hydrogen will catch fire explosively, and the airship will blow itself to pieces. The 'Daily Express' eve a before the catastrophe to the Zeppelin air-ship reported that the conviction was steadily growing among English inventors and aeronauts that any great advance in the conquest of the air must be in the direction of heavier-than-air machines, and that balloon-ships were doomed to extinction so far as serious aerial locomotion was concerned. Sir Hiram Maxim is very emphatic on the point. "In my opinion the balloon , can never be> more than a plaything. A balloon is too large, too fragile, too unmanageable, too subject to every i wind that blows. If a balloon be made strong ' enough to be handled even in a moderate wind, it will be too heavy to ascend. A balloon must be lighter than air, and so can hardly be expected to resist- the rapid movement of the snrrounding air, which is of greater density than itsel.'." He ( pins his faith to aeroplanes, and deI dares that in putting their money on vessels of the Zeppelin type, the Germans are backing the wrong horse. Thi work of the Airway Motor Club, recently founded, is to be strictly confined to flying machines.