AN ATLANTIC AIR LINER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 6 October 1928, Page 11

AN ATLANTIC AIR LINER

'THVO airships twice as large as any of the. kind vet built are being completed at. the works of the Airship Guarantee Company, Ilnwden, Yorkshire (writes the 'London correspondent of the Melbourne “Argus”). With a gas ' capacity of fi,000,000 cubic feet, and engines of 32u0 horse-power, these monster vessels are air-liners. The cabin space alone gives accommodation ft.i- 100 persons, and the dining-room will seat. 00 persons. The 10 gas-bags have not been installed. -It is hoped that. R. 100, the more advanced of the aircraft, will be ready for her trial trip at. the end of September. Already the comfort, and even luxury of the livingrooms is plain. The framework of R.IOO is 709 ft long, and she is 133 ft in diameter; so there is ample room for the three floors into wlvic-h the livingrooms arc divided. The bottom floor will serve for the crew of 40. The pas-senger-rooms are on the second 'and third floors. 'The dining-room, which will also be available 'for dancing and concerts, is the chief feature of the second floor. Prom it a substantial double stairway- leads to the third floor, where there is a spacious gallery overlooking the dining-room below.

Here, too. are .the rest of the cabins. Both the dining-room floor and the gallery floor are provided with verandah promenades 4ft wide. These are not open to the air, as this would be dangerous when the airship is travelling at a high speed, but there is ample window space, giving glimpses of

BUILDING THE R. 100

earth, sea, or skv. The cabins on fit her side of the dining-room and the upper gallery contain two or four berths. A, bar and a kitchen, fitted with electric heating, are other rooms on the passenger floors. The livingrooms have been built as a unit separate from the hull. The materials employed are plywood and duralumin. Balsa wood is used where strength is not. essential. Each wall is of cotton, treated so that it. is both fireproof and lightproof. The framework of R.JOO is made of duralumin. The gas-bags are of goldbeaters’ skin and fabric, and are being made at the Zeppelin factory in Germany. Each bag will be held in place 'by a diaphragm, which may be described as a spider’s web of wires. These webs arc so arranged that if one ’gas-bag becomes deflated the alteration in pressure will 'be passed to other parts of the structure. Undue pressure ou any part of the airship will thus be avoided. One reason for tin 1 long time taken in building R.IOO has been the necessity foj- devising and testing safety devices and construction methods, some o'f which are very ingenious.

The R.IOO. is provided with three engine cars, two amidships and one nearer the stern. In each of these will be installed two Rolls-Royce 700-horse power Condor engines. At any time one of these engines can be dispensed with, so that it should never be necos-. sary to force the engines.