HUGE AIRSHIPS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3719, 16 November 1926, Page 2

HUGE AIRSHIPS

LONDON TO SYDNEY TWELVE DAYS' FLIGHT The two immense airships that are now in course of construction in England, and should be completed in (he autumn of 1927, will be capable of dying to Australia in from ten to twelve days via Ismailia and Karachi, or in seven days’ flying along a direct route via Bagdad and Colombo to Perth (states the Londor correspondent of the Sydney ‘ Morning Herald ’). Kothing approaching the magnitude and strength of those mighty vessels has even been attempted before. But they are not sister ships. One is being constructed at the Air Ministry’s own station at Cardiugton, in Bedfordshire, to the designs cf the Ministry's experts. For the other a contract was let to Commander Burney, HP., of the Airship Guarantee Company, which is associated with Vickers. Between the tvo there is a certain amount of rivalry as to who shall turn out the best job. So (hat facta about one are not necessarily facts about the other. Both will have Lags capable of containing live million cub:c of gas, whereas the greatest capabilities of any previous airships have b ;en tho British R3B, which went down m the Humber, capable of bolding 2,750,000 cubic feet; and the Zll3, which was built in Germany, and handed over to America under the reparations agreement, capable of containing 2,470,000. That affords some idea ot their immensity compared with anything previously built. Their gas capacity is practically double. In certain other respects also a standard has been fixed. But apart from these the experts engaged in each arc working out tho problems of construction in their own way. Wo, although 1 have been able to glean some facts about, the progress and structural details of that which the Ministry itself is constructing, they do not necessarily apply also to the Burney airship. The construction of an airship is like tho construction of Sydney Harbor bridge. In the embryo stage there is nob a great deal to see. For months and months the shops are hard at work making all the girders and the intricate parts. 'But it's not till the work of assembling starts that it becomes really spectacular. So there is not much to see in the busy station at Cardington beyond the giddy tower, at the summit of which airship RlOl will be moored; the cathedral-like shed capable of containing it, and a vast amount of fabrics and metals and bolts and girders —multitudes of parts; in fact, that no mere layman would think could ever be got together in a multitude of years. The lower itself is a masterpiece. It has just been completed, and looks like a fabulous, unbelievable piece of Meccano work, starkly rising to tho heavens and dominating the countryside. It is, in fact, two hundred feet high. On the top there is a cone, to which the airship will be moored. Then there is a control room, and below it a gallery, from which a gangway will give access" to the passengers’ quarters on the airship. The ascent of the tower is made in a specious and rapid elevator. Pipes for gas. oil, and water run up the tower to teed the airship. AN AIR MONSTER’S HOME.

The shed also is a wonder to behold. It is an old one enormously enlarged. The dimensions of the airship itself are worth dwelling upon. It its to be 720 ft long, or nearly ‘five times as long as the Commonwealth Bank buildings in Sydney is high. The maximum diameter is 130 ft, which means that were it ravenously inclined the envelope could comfortably swallow the whole of the Sydney General Post Office if one omits the tower. To house such a monster, it is not surprising that something unique in the way of sheds is required. And something unique there certainly is, for the shed is not less than 850 ft long, 170 ft high, and 180 ft wide—truly a cathedral of industry to awe dwarfed man. The area of the station in which this little pet lamb or the Air Ministry will gambol is a thousand acres, and a similar tower, a similar shed, and a similar area to those at Cardington are being prepared at Dry road, outside Karachi, in India. Many an Australian ex-soldier will be interested to know, also, that it is intended to erect a similar mooring mast at Ismailia, in E°Tpt, which will be the halfway house bet\£cen England and India. There it will be possible to obtain fresh supplies of oil, gas, and water, although the vessel will be capable of doing the journey comfortably without such replenishment. It simply means that the more intermediate replenishing stations there arc, the less will be the original bulk ot the stores taken aboard and the more weight of passengers and cargo will the vessel be able to carry. The gross ‘lift —the maximum weight, including the weight of the vessel itself and everything carried by it—will be about 155 tons. Of that total the airship, engines, fittings, will account for about eighty tons, so seventy-five tons will be available for fuel, water, ballast, gas, and passengers. If replenishments can be made in Egypt there will be about twenty tons available for passengers and goods. Later on another intermediate lower will lx. erected, either on the south coast of Franco or in Italy, and that will permit of still more of the carrying capacity being devoted to passengers and goods.

ALL-STEEL STRUCTURE. The fruits of the most exhaustive research and tests ever applied to aircraft are being embodied. Nothing to compare with this vessel iu engineering strength has ever rested- in the air bctore. Hitherto there have been huge airships, but their structure has been like a vast flimsy latticework The frameworks have been composed of a fine network of girders made of an aluminium alloy called duraloum. Now for- the first time we come to solid stainless steel . .riders. Their adoption was the result ot prolonged and severe tests, and there is even still to bo made one final test, the result of which is not in doubt, before the manufacture en masse is finally embarked upon. !It is to be an all-steel structure. Even the propellers will bo of steel in order to resist tropical conditions. The day is not. far distant, in fact, when all-steel structure m l be the rule for all Government aircraft. Vnd this is a development that been Ion" foreseen by some experts, notably by Alessrs Boulton and Paul, of Norwich. The rise of Ibis firm as aircraft manufacturers has been remarkable. Before the war they were makers of greenhouses, summer-houses, "arden scats, and similar homely things. As carpenters and joiners they were able lo turn their attention to aircraft, and so successful were they that they established their own designing departments, and threw themselves wholeheartedly into the new industry After the war they saw far ahead, and decided to build nothing but metal aircraft. Only one other firm —Armstrong’, Whitworth, of Coventry—were turning out an all-metal aircraft. But they stuck to their conviction that steel was tho proper material for aircraft, and to-day the Air Ministry has practically come to their view, and has o-iven them the contract for all the steel "ardor work. Many experts now take, (lie view that the day is at hand when there will be nothing but all-steel craft in the an-