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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 1 October 1927, Page 9

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FACTS ABOUT CONSTRUCTION EMPHASIS ON STRENGTH. NOVEL FEATURES. London, Aug. 24. Commander C. Denniston Burney, C.M.G., writing in the “Observer,” discusses the construction of RlOO, the 5,000,000 cubic foot airship that is being built for the British Government by the Tirship Guarantee Company. So important has the question of strength been considered, he says, that the Rl6O is being built to a strength of approximately double that specified by the British Air Ministry upon tlie advice of the air worthiness of airships panel. This great increase in the structural strength of the vessel has, of course, only been obtained by adding many tons of weight to the hull structure, leaving a correspondingly smaller margin of lift available for supporting fuel and passengers. Those responsible for the design of the RlOO, having sacrificed performance to strength to so great a degree, were then faced with many difficult consequential problems. From the practical point of view it was no use building a vessel sufficiently strong to withstand the elements if she could not at the same time carrying sufficient fuel to reach her destination.

To overcome these difficulties three novel features have been introduced in the RlOO. Firstly, the shape of the vessel is different from the usual Zeppelin type and to the eye will appear to be a shorter and fatter ship. The second innovation has been to arrange the passengers’ and crew's quarters entirely within the envelope of the ship, thus avoiding the air resistance that would otherwise be encountered. This development has necessitated prolonged investigation into the problem of ventilation and the avoidance of any danger from the proximity of the hydrogen contained in the gasbags.

QUESTION OF EQUILIBRIUM. Each of the above developments has ,in part, been directed to reducing the actual resistance of the vessel when being propelled through the air, and in consequence saving fuel; but, although the next idea embodied in the RlOO is directed to achieve the same end, the method is different. Hitherto, in airships lifted by hydrogen, it has been usual to compensate for the weight of petrol or other fuel burnt in the engine by releasing hydrogen through the valves. The necessity for this course is evident when the usual flight conditions are considered. Suppose a vessel starts upon a voyage with 30 tons of fuel and burns half a ton of that fuel in its engines every hour, it is evident that if the gasbags contained a constant amount of hydrogen the airship will become lighter by that same half-ton every hour. If no alteration were made in the amount of hydrogen carried, the airship would rise higher and higher above the earth’s surface for every ton of fuel burnt, and to avoid this happening it has hitherto been the practice to allow an , amount of hydrogen to escape from the gasbags equal in lifting capacity to the amount of fuel burnt. In this way the equilibrium of the airship is maintained HYDROGEN FOR FUEL. A series of experiments were carried out to see what would be the result of using the hydrogen as fuel in the motors. The results were satisfactory, as it was found that an engine gave about two-thirds of the horse-power when using hydrogen as a fuel that it was capable of giving upon petrol. In the RlOO this idea is adopted and utilised, and two of the main engines are, or can be, operated upon hydrogen drawn from the gasbags, and the other four are arranged to operate upon petrol or Diesel oil. The result is a saving in the weight of fuel to be carried of between 15 per cent, and 20 per cent. The actual effect of these three innovations has been more than to compensate for the loss of weight incurred in increasing the structural strength of the vessel, and the actual performances of the RlOO in carrying capacity, speed, and radius of action will be far in excess of any vessel hitherto built. A HUNDRED PASSENGERS. The actual usful lift of the ship will be about 72 tons, and this will be available for passengers, mails, crew and fuel. Accommodation is provided for 100 passengers, and reasonable comfort will be provided in the form of cabins with bunks, a restaurant to seat 50 people at a time, and adequate promenade decks and smoking lounges. The top speed of the RlOO will be about 82 miles per hour in still air and a cruising speed of 74 to 75 miles per hour should be maintained with comparative ease. The radius of action or endurance of the vessel will be about 3000 miles at this cruising speed when carrying a full load of passengers and fuel, These figures show that the RlOO will demonstrate to the world that a practical air vessel for commercial work has been produced.