GERMANY AFRIAL FLEET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

GERMANY AFRIAL FLEET.

The German military authorities are applying themselves to the problem of aerial warfare with keen interest. At present lilt l firman V>;ir Office possesses one airship, co^ 1 3LiL'*.t-«<l by Major Gross, which has a capacity Hi about 2000 cubic metres. Another airship" of the same type, but embodying. improvements considered desirable m the light of expeiicrtcc, m. being constructed at the military balloon" works at Tcgol, near Berlin. Tho capacity of this airship will hn about 5000 cubic ittGiVcs, and it will be provided with two motors, each of which will develop 1 75 horse-, power. This airship will be .ready for active Sei-Vice m April or May. The work of \cOrlstrtlctioil is ■ conducted, with great secrecy, larid Ho strangers are allowed to approach the filitid m. which it is concealed. Another airship is being constructed for the Gorman War Office- by Messrs Siemens and Schuckeii at their works m Berlin. The cubic capacity «{ this airship will be about 3000 cubic metres, mid it : will also be fitted with two' motors. The Standard states that the German military authorities intend to purchase Count Zeppelin's present airship, ,as well as the one which he is constructing on the shores of Lake Constance. The Budget Committee of the Reichstag has voted a sum of £10,000 as a gratuity to Count Zeppelin, m recognition of the services he has rendered to Germany by his experiments with navigable balloons. The present Zeppelin airship has a capacity of about 12,000 cubic metres, and the new Zeppelin airship , will have a capacity of about 16^000 cubic metres. Tho new airship will be supplied with two motors, each developing 85 h.p , and it is expected that it will attain a speed of thirty miles an hour. These two airships, together with the. two now. being ■ constructed at Berlin and Tegel respectively; ' and the one already m use, will form the nucleus of Germany's aerial'i . fleet. The problem, of how to drop explosives, from navigable balloons without courting : disaster through the sudden lightening of the aerial vcsssel lias not yet been solved, but the value of the balloons for scouting purposes must be very great.