THE AIR DANGER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 79

THE AIR DANGER.

WHAT COUNT ZEPPELIN'S SUCCESS MEANS. The British public does not seem to realise the meaning of all that has been accomplished by Count Zeppelin. As a nation we seem to hol^L stubbornly to the idea .that aerial navigation is but a myth. Even our aeronauts content themselves with balloon sport, white those in France and Germany have worked grimly for years in solving the great problem of navigating tlie air. On© factor which no doubt has checked aeronautical development with us, apart from the apathy of our amateur aeronauts, is the fixed idea that airships are only of utility, in military operations. Accordingly the work has been entrusted to the Balloon Corps, in addition to their ordinary tasks; or, rather, the enterprising head of that department, by dint of much labour, obtained permission to spend a few thousands on the work. But for Colonel Capper and his assistants nothing at all might have been done, and no praise, can be too great for the uphill figiht they have had to make in getting the inadequate funds and, facilities at their | disposal. One of these days it may be brought home to us in unpleasant fashion that the airship must be considered from the naval as well as from the military' standpoint, and then, perhaps, the authorities may come to see the necessity of attaching an aeronautical section to the navaj as well as to ihe military forces. In effect, we ought to have one great aerostatical department, which would specialise in both branches of the work, one section being devoted to military aeronautics, the other to the creation and .training of airships for coast defence, raid repelling, and over-sea work. Few people realise how close Germany is to us as the crow flics — that is to say, by aerial routes ; — nor have they cal- ■ culated that the distance is now well within the range of the Zeppelin airships. A direct run of 240 miles would bring a " German airship from such a point as Aix-la-Chapelle to Sheerness, and 300 miles may be taken as a fair average distance for a German airship to travel in order to reach many important strategic points in this country, where at the present moment we have neither ppecial guns nor airships to meet them. - The Zeppelin could make 30 miles an hour on a calm day, or 40 with, an assisting wind. Even with * 10-mile-an-h.our offshore wind she could average 20 miles an hour. Let us foi purposes of argunaefit. assume her mean speed to be only

15 miles an hour, and we find that she could reach London or Sheerness or pover within 20 houife. At & 30-miie-an-hour speed her time would be but 10 hours; at 20 miles an hour eh© would take' 15 hours. - " l • The; shortestnfiea. route for a., naval raid on similar points would be over 450 miles, and, allowing a mean speed of 20 miles an lour, the time to reach our shores would be over §2 h_ours, and 24 hours might be taken as a very fair average, — An Aerial Raid. — - A naval raid could thus hardly be accomplished under 24 hours, and would be detectable for at least half of that time. i An aerial raid could be made in 10 hours, I at 30 miles an hour, in 15 'hours at 20 miles an hour, and in 20 hours at a speed of 15 mileß an. hour. The airship could leave its harbour with absolute secrecy, could cross the intervening space at a height which would practically prevent its being observed, and quite conceivably might only -be detected when it actually came over its objective. Fitted with wireless telegraphy, as the Zeppelin type of vessel will be, it could flash back to headquarters invaluable information, and even without making any attack it pould serve a very useful purpose. But as it hovered over the fleet at Sheerness, Dover, or Portsmouth it could wreak terrible destruction on the vessels, and these would be almost powerless to reply, since naval guns have not been designed or crews trained for overhead attacks. It would even gay an attacking enemy possessed of a few such airships to run considerable risk in dropping down explosives on a fleet, since even if a lucky shot brought the airship down the loss in lives would not be very great to the enemy, and the cost of the adrehip would be well under £100,000. A naval raid, no matter how successful, could not be expected to be made at such a cheap cost, and it would involve the loss of many ships to the enemy. Almost certainly before one attacking airship could be shot down it should have crippled or destroyed many important vessels in our fleet, and' possibly might cripple a section of it. The attackers would still have their fleet intact, and could not. be met with the same resistance. Though the Zeppelin airship has not yet made an oversea trip, there is nothing to prevent its doing so. Its range of action i 3 over 1000 miles, and thus it could easily get back to its base after a run I to ISngLand. Its record trip of 12 hours to Lucerne and back was very j arduous, aa it had to contend with cross winds, eddies, and other aerial disturbances which take place in mountainous regions. An oversea, trip with a steady east wind behinil would enable England to be reached almost without working the engines. Even with apparently adverse winds blowing the airship could take a circuitous route over France or some other country and so reach England. A powerful airship with efpeeds up to 40 miles an hour can reach almost any point on most days, as the wind speed must be well over that figure absolutely to prevent the vessel working round to its objective. The ri^id type of vessel can fight strong winds far better than the non-rigid type, such as the Nulli Secundus, or than the half-rigid type, such as the Lebandy. — "Dreadnoughts" and "Destroyers." — At the same time, for military purposes the French airship is superior in that she has better speed, greater ascensive power, and can make a landing practically anywhere. In fact, in an aerial combat, if the new Frencji airship JRepublique were pitted against the Zeppelin all the odds would be in favour of the lithe and speedy French, craft. She is much handier with 'ier helm, phe. could easily out-

distance lier rival, and finally soar far above her to the hawk-lite'pc^ition* x wiHcir in aerial warfare, t will v .?ei*§i'Afe3-ed^ur,«!<. victory. Attacked Trout^aftov^T'the^ 'GJeif^ man airship would- be quite helpless, and^ it would be for the Fps^eh.^to^drop darte^ fire rifle shots, or rain dovpa burning subv stances to destroy the vessel* completely.-" The crew of the German, ship would be underneath the huge-^-ga^jta-yelqpe, ,pf vessel, and coul4- make^iiro ifjpig attack. ? . I, -v T. /-' These considerations indicate that in our aerial- fleet — a fleet which now should be many J ships strong — we' should have Dreadnoughts of the rigid. Zeppelin type v for oversea work and harbour protection/and then; ire should have ;many vessels of the Leba^dy type, "destroyers," as they might be cabled.- k We should- have aerial 'harbours | built by this time to enable our, "crafty to seek shelter in their practice runs ',', and -both, army and-jiavy should be thoroughly "'conversant with the new pro- • blemsi whichf'aerial Jiavigation has set mp. our fleet should equip themselves^ with speciaHguns for vertical work,4. and we-'OQght' to 'Jo^y.^th© German .-3>lan of mounting similar "aaffisk^oni motOT %a%, ana employ thass'for.-'coast detencS tgocfeA so as to pursue an^p^per^any enfeinyls[ airship which hove in-siffhfe,',<'lir-no othssr j way can, airships be combated. — B. P. Hearne, in the Daily --Mail.