AMERICAN AIR SERVICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19144, 9 October 1925, Page 9

AMERICAN AIR SERVICES.

EVIDENCE BEFORE BOARD. GREAT DIRIGIBLE ADVOCATED SHENANDOAH'S HANDICAPS. By Telegraph—Press Association-—Copyright. (Received 7.5 p .m.) A. and N.Z. WASHINGTON. Oct. 7. A recommendation that the airship Shenandoah, which was recently wrecked in a storm, should be immediately replaced by a dirigible three times larger was made by Rear-Admiral Moffett, chief of the United States Naval Bureau of Aeronautics, before the Aircraft Board. The witness said the capacity of the Shenandoah and the Los Angeles was about 2.000,000 cubic feet of gas, but both were too small. They should have an American-built airship with a gas capacity of at least 6,000,000 cubic feet. Parachutes had not been carried on the Shenandoah because experience had shown that if the dirigible fell suddenly they would be of little value. If the descent were slow the dirigible would serve as its own parachute. He urged the establishment of a Bureau of Civil Aeronautics in the Department of Commerce, and an airship base on the west coast. The use of helium had handicapped the Shenandoah from 35 to 40 per cent., because she was built in 1915 for hydrogen inflation. Witness added that the aeroplane P.N.9 No. 1, which crashed on the attempted flight from Sa.n Francisco to Hawaii, had been tested at Philadelphia early this year. It had remained in the air for 28], hours, a time which would have been sufficient for her to reach Honolulu.