GIANT NEW ZEPPELIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22193, 21 August 1935, Page 11

GIANT NEW ZEPPELIN

MANY INNOVATIONS PLANNED IN SERVICE EARLY NEXT YEAR FRIEDRICBSHAFEN. Aug. 10 " I don't expect in my lifetime to see aeroplanes carrying substantial loads of mails and passengers across the Atlantic. I have fought for airships since the war, and have always been told that two years hence aeroplanes would be making regular commercial Atlantic crossings. That two years is a long time coming." That was how Dr. EL Eckener, commander of the Graf !Zeppelin, declared his faith in airships to the special representative of the Sydney Telegraph, who interviewed him here alongside the new Zeppelin, LZI29. " Meanwhile," added Dr. Eckener, " the old Graf Zeppelin continues its regular crossings." The LZI29, which at Dr. Eckener's suggestion is to be named Hindenburg, is expected to be completed by the middle of November, and will commence transatlantic voyages early in the new year. It will have a range of 10,000 miles, without re-fuelling, but Dr. Eckener said that it was unlikely thit the Bfindenburg would ever be seeri i" Australia, owing to the lack of a mooring mast and the difficulty of arranging - the refilling of the gasbags. He intends, however, to fly the airship to Batavia, in which case an opportunity may be found to continue to , Sydney, and return to Batavia without refuelling. The Telegraph representative' was conducted by Dr. Eckener and his son, Eurt Eckener, who will be the Hindenburg's navigator, on an inspection of the monster. The refinements include a smoke. room, writing room, and a showerbath, which has a gadget to prevent any of the 50 passengers the airship will carry from bathing for more than 10 minutes. Dr. Eckener will! personally command the new airship on her early flights, in order to study many innovations, including the new MercedesBenz crude oil engines. It will take 'lO days to inflate' the gasbags, as the Friedrichshafen gasholder contains only one-tenth of the Hindenburg's capacity of 675,000 cubic feet. A constant stream of visitors, at 6d a head, is helping to defray the construction costs.