CONQUEST OF THE AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17664, 28 December 1920, Page 5

CONQUEST OF THE AIR.

-o—_ FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. THE HORRORS OF WAR. GERMAN ZEPPELIN "LINERS." The most interesting features of the final sittings of the Air Conference at the Guildhall, London, wore expert glimpses of what a Tuture war will mean to civilians and Germany's plans tor an airship sen ice to America. Air-Marshal Sir H. M. Trenchard, dealing with war tactics, said that bombing to be effective must be continuous, and it was from the accumulative moral effect of attacks carried out day after day for a week or ten days that tne best results might be expected. Sir W. Joynson-Hicks drew a lurid picture of future warfare. The aeroplane would be the long-range artillery, and war in the air would be won by the longrange fast-flying artillery scouting machine, guarding the long-range bombing machine, which would be able to drop almost from an invisible heaven vast masses of explosives. The first people who would suffer in the next war would be the civilians rather than the armies. Vast ai-mies of aeroplanes would dash over into the en-miv's country-, and the first attack would be on some of the great cities in o-rder to destroy their moral almost before the war began. Sir Trevor Dawson, vice-chairman of J.ckera, Ltd. described what was beine done in the development of commercial ' arrships. It was on th e world's ocean routes that the airship would have its great opportunity, particularly for direct communication between Europe and America. South Africa, India Australia and the East. ' There would be no d : £cu]tv in obtaining the necessary support for running a weekly or bi-weekly passenger service from Europe : to South Africa. India, Australia or , South America once the reliability' and ' j saving of time had been practically demon- ( j strated. A rigid airship of at least four | million cubic feet gas capacity would be | required, which would enable suitable i provision being made for carrying about j 100 passenjers. The largest airshio yet | built was not much over two million cubic 1 feet. Germany, with her unparalleled experij encp in airship construction, was in a ' j position to go ahead. A recent report from • | Berlin stated that the Zeppelin Company ■ I was contemplating building airship liners j in the United States, so as to evade the ' j prohibition of the Allies. The scheme was | to b'ii!d two super-Zeppelins for use in I freight and passenger services between i Berlin and San Francisco, calling at Paris. i I New York, and Chicago, the scheduled ' j time for the entire trip from Berlin to j San Francisco to be less thin four days. • It was understood that the airships would i be capable of carrying loads of 30 tons.