AMERICAN AIRSHIPS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 23 January 1926, Page 5

AMERICAN AIRSHIPS.

TH E LOST SITEIYANi 10AH. LARG ER Dl IMG I RLE PROPOSED. WASHINGTON, Jan. 13. The Secretary of the Navy, Air. Curtis Wilbur, gave evidence before the Naval Committee to-day. He advocated it he construction of a dirigible twice as large as the ill-fated Shenandoah, to replace the latter. Mr. Wilbur .said experiments with the Shenandoah type of airship had ■shown that their cruising radius was too .small for them to operate efficiently with the fleet. The airship Shenandoah was destroyed at 4 a.m. on September ‘2, 1925, in a ,storm which broke her into three pieces while she was cruising near Cambridge, Ohio. Travelling at an altitude of 3000 ft. the airship was endeavouring to escape the .storm when she encountered a line squall, which lifted her rapidly to 5500 ft. The valves were opened to let out gas and lower the airship, which was drawing away from the ■storm at 50 miles an hour, when a squall suddenly enveloped her, breaking her into three pieces. The rear part, 450 tit 'long, fell into a field near Ava. The control compartment, in which the captain and the navigation crew were riding, fell 50ft away. The fore parti, about 150 ft. long, drifted another 1.0 miles southwards as a free balloon, landing at Sharon, near Caldwell. The casualties were 13 killed, one missing ami two injured. The dead included Oommader Zachary Lansdown, United States Navy, Commander Louis Hancock, United States Navy, and nine member* of the crew. The total complement was 11 officers and 31 men.