ZEPPELIN TRIALS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 239, 6 September 1928, Page 7

ZEPPELIN TRIALS.

LZI27 TO VISIT ENGLAND. (Australian Press Association —United Service). BERLIN, Sept. 4. The trials of tho Zeppelin LZ 127 have been delayed'. The difficulty is a sufficiency of new fuel. The trial was first expected to tako place on August 15. Formal permission has just been issued by the Air Ministry to visit England. The last Zeppelin was seen in England in war time, but LZ 127 is welcome because it will allow the crew to exchange technical data with the crew of the RIOO, which is now nearing completion. After circling London the German airship will flv on to Bedford and moor at a steel mast. She is expected to start out on her trans-Atlantic adventure early in October.

The Atlantic was first crossed by airship in 1919, when tho British R 33 made the double, crossing; but there is a race between tho German LZ 127 and tho British £IOO (Commander .Burney’s) for priority this year, and it is probable that the two ships will bo ready about tho snmo time. Tho LZ 127, which is being built at Friedrichshaven under the chief direction of Dr. Eckener, is a ship of 3,700,000 Cuba feet capacity, about 750 ft in length, fitted with five 530 h.p. MayTSch engines, and capablo of a cruising speed of seventy miles per hour and a range of 6500 miles. Sho will carry a crow of twenty-six, passengers to tho number of twenty, and fifteen tons of freight. The most important difference between this and previous ships is tho use of heavy carburettod hydrogen as fuel for the engines instead of petrol or other highly inflammable fuel. The advantage of using tho new gas fuel is that it develops more heating power. Tho RIOO is being built at Ilowden, in Yorkshire, and, like tho RlOl, the Air Ministry airship at Cardington, is of 5.000,000 cubic feet gas capacity. Tho RlOl will eventually be fitted with heavy oil engines, but in her first flights sho will use petrol motors.