INQUIRY RESUMED

Hawera Star, Volume L, 30 October 1930, Page 9

INQUIRY RESUMED

LATE EDITION

OF RlOl DISASTER

ESSENTIAL FACTS UNRECORDED

TECHNICAL EVIDENCE GIVEN. United Press Association —By Electric Telegrapo Copyright.) Receiver! 12.30 p.m. to-day. LONDON, Oct. 29. The airship inquiry was resumed to-clay.

Sir John Simon said it would he •most important to ascertain whether during the trial flight it was necessary to use emergency fuel or to drop ballast. and whether the trial flight was carried out with a load corresponding to that being taken to India. “I find it difficult to believe there was no record of these things,” he said. Sir William Jowitt, K.C., appearing for the Air Ministry, agreed it was remarkable that no record was kept. “It is of first importance that every endeavour should be made to get all existing documents hereanent,” Sir William stated. Professor Bairstow, F.R.S., Director

of the School of Aviation, Imperial

College of -Science and Technology, said had examined new information llmpplied by the Royal Airsliin Works and was satisfied that the RIQI, as now existing, with the addition of a bay, complied with the special requirements of airworthiness of an airship. He was surprised by the magnitude and difference of conditions of loading now and those of the original design. Sir William Jowitt said that it seemed that there had been a lack of liaison'between the designers and Professor Bairstow; consequently Professor Bairstow was reporting on the airship as he thought it was, not as in fact it was. He added that Squad-ron-Leader Booth, commander of B-101, had considered the R.lOl’s trial flight unsatisfactory hecau.se it was not longer and the dirigible did not encounter more diverse weather conditions.

Concluding, Sir William Jowett said there were four main conclusions of the preliminary investigations: Firstly, no part of the main structure broke in the air; secondly, the impact occurred while the airship was in a nose-dive; thirdly, the elevator control was found at full upwards and the rudder amidships; fourthly, there was one violent explosion.