DESTRUCTION OF AIRSHIP.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11141, 3 December 1907, Page 5

DESTRUCTION OF AIRSHIP.

LA PATRIE BREAKS AWAY FROM' ■>- \ : 200 MEN. (Press Assn. — By Telegraph— Copyright) (Received December 3, 10.45 a.m.) . PARIS L December, 2. , A gale wrenched the balloon La Patrie, . while being- , repaired at Verdun, . from the grasp of 200 'men. The airship was seen early to-day 'above Tprr Island, Antrim. : The Government has ordered M. Joliot to build tWo, airships of a similar type. Meanwhile' the airship Ville de Paris replaces the La Patrie at Verdun. ;"■■ • A little .over a week ago" the French airship La 'Patrie made a, six and threequarter hours' ascent, covering 269 kilometres, v She steered back to Paris after ajrecord' run. ■ Sometimes she attained, a speed of thirty, miles an hour. La Patrie, with a crew of five, left Meudon (a-vil-lage five miles west of Paris) a little before 9 a.m., and -at 3.45 p.m., without replenishing her- hydrogen, arrived at Verdun (a French frontier fortress, 35 miles west by rail of the German stronghold, Metz). . The distance is" about WO miles. There was immense enthusiasm et the success of the airship. The longest "fly" of the ill-fated British military air. ship Nulli Secuhdus was 33 miles. The longest recorded voyage of a balloon is said to bo that of Count de la V^ubc m 1900, from Vincennes to Koros'ticheff, 1190 miles. "The superiority .of La /Patrie lies," wrote a Paris co-respondent, "m its perfect proportions. There is no" particular secret about the manner m which it is built up. The motor, the screws, and the envelope are visible to everybody with discerning eyes, biit the machine is something more than that. Each part is so carefully adjusted, the balance is so perfect,, .that -there isrnone of the pitching and rolling that accompany other airships built, apparently, on the same ' lines.. This perfect cohesion of all the parts is the real secret of La Patrie, which German money will not purchase. Neither can the plans be stolen, because the calculations remain hi-the- brain- of the constructor, M. Juliet." In her July "fly^c— with the Premier, M. Clemenceau, and the Minister for War, General Picquart, on board — La. Patrie was credited with a maximum speed with the wind of 31 miles an hour, and a minimum speed against-the wind of 18 ' miles an hour. In a subsequent interview, M. Clemenceau said that he was very favorably impressed by the wonderful sense of stability he experienced during the trip.' "One could not have felt more safe oh the deck of a great liner," he said. "We descended at the exact spot from which we had ascended, and so gently did the marvellous machine alight that we did not know we had touched earth again until we were told so." It was stated that La Patrie was to be permanently attached to. the fortress of Verdun, and that the French War Office intended to form a corps of 20 military airships, to be attached to various fortresses m the East of France. For following the movements of armies, and observing the position of an enemy, it was believed that the new airship would be of enormous service.