NEW ALL-METAL AIRSHIP.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XI, Issue 243, 18 October 1921, Page 6

NEW ALL-METAL AIRSHIP.

ADDED STRENGTH CLAIMED FOR DESIGN. The Bourke airship constructed , wholly of metal, is being tested in . model in England. I According to the patent specification recently published the framework and covering from a composite structure of I thin metal sheet, consisting of three < fish-like hulls of different cross-sec-tiona’. diameters, the smaller being contained within the larger, and all three meeting in a point at the bow ; and stern. Perpendicular to the line ! of flight, other transverse sheets are to be welded to tho main hulls, and will : serve to give strength to the vessel. J Space is left in the bottom of tho structure to provide a gangway running the ’ whole length of the ship, and fuel and ' water are carried in tubes contained I therein. Additional strength is : obtained by a vertical web running 1 from bow to stern above this gangway. ! It is believed that this system of construction, which in effect consists of J three self-contained hull structures i mutually strengthening one another, I will render impossible such fractures as that which happened to R. 38. i The inventor’s principle can be tested with thin flat strip of card. The ends can without difficulty bo curved upwards or downwards to form a bow. But if the card is curved in the other direction over its whole length, so that it forms part of the surface of a cylinder, it will be found very difficult to bend it in tho other direction. I The inventor of this all-metal hull claims for it great strength and ; rigidity in relation to the weight of i metal employed in its construction. It '.will be equipped with a rotary outer shell in sections, and the airship gondolas will be hung vertically as in the case of the ordinary rigid airship. The ’.ifting medium will bo hydrogen gas, stored in gas-bags carried in the hull, which is divided into compartments for that purpose. .