DOOM OF AIRSHIPS

Southland Times, Issue 19518, 18 May 1922, Page 7

DOOM OF AIRSHIPS

“GOOD-BYE FOR ALL TIME.” APPEAL FOR BRITISH RESEARCH. The recent decision of the Air Ministry to abandon the Imperial airship service scheme, and offer the Government’s airships for disposal—for whatever they will bring in the open market—is editorially commented upon by Flight It remarks that however these great machines are sold, the returns cannot be more than a fraction of the cost, which has been set as high as forty millions. “The experience gained with these ships cannot be assessed in money values, but it is very great, and at one time we were entitled to claim co have at least caught up with, if not over-taken, the world’s leading nations as regards airship designing and construction skill. Possibly the fatal accident to America’s Roma may have hastened the Air Ministry’s decision. The Ministry has never been sympathetic towards airships, Captain Guest’s statements to the contrary notwithstanding, and this decision, coming so shortly after that regrettable accident to the Roma, has every appearance of being the result of an effort to derive public support from the state of mind which may be expected to obtain among the general public after such a catastrophe. Possibly, the Air Ministry has counted on even airship enthusiasts being somewhat subdued after the publication of the R3B report and the newspaper accounts of the Roma accident. , “Nevertheless, even in America, the general tendency is to regard tliese lamentable accidents in their true light, and, excepe for certain sections of the community, which are always ready to sey: There you are you see,’ America is more determined than ever not to be deterred from carrying on the pioneer work of developing the airship. “Here the Air Ministry has a certain amount of excuse, and has made the most of it—in the fact that all but Australia declined the suggested arrangement for carrying on exceptional airship services to India and the Antipodes. But even if these schemes were found unworkable at the present time, there is another aspect of the question, of which the Air Ministry appears to have failed to take account. If there is any lesson to be learned from the two accidents to airships it is surely that research is wanted, not only on models in the wind tunnel, but also, and more so, on actual airships. Under the mantle of economy two of the older airships were prevented from participating in experimental and research work for which they were quite suitable. Necessary apparatus had already been installed in one, but only inconclusive results had been obtained when the ship was withdrawn

“Now, if we are to benefit at all from the money, work, and lives spent on airships, we have an opportunity to do so by recommissioning one or two of the present ships, keeping, at any rate, sufficient personnel to operate them, and sufficient material to keep them in the air, proceed with such experiments as are known to be required before the design of an improved ship can be laid down with the certainty that there will be no weak spote, and no broken girders when manoeuvring the ship. The static safety of R3B was admirable, but the strength against aerodynamic forces was too small. It is clearly indicated in the report of the Accidents Investigations Subcommittee along which lines research is needed. Such research could be carried out with relatively little outlay, and the results would be of the very greatest value to future work on airships. Without it the road to further progress is barred . . . . It seems not a little unfortunate that, so far as can be seen, nothing at all is likely to be done with the existing airships. Even if they were only retained in commission for Research purposes, we should at least get some results from the money exipended on them up to the present time. Otherwise that money will have been entirely wasted. Not only so, if the policy outlined by Captain Guest represents the Government view, we have no hesitation in saying that it means the renunciation by tiffs country of all future claims to a place in the world as airship constructors. That we can leave airships alone for ten years, and then start de novo, as Captain Guest suggested. is simply absurd. It cannot be done. By that time other countries will have made enormous progress, will have the experience, and, moreover, will have established themselves as airship manufacturing nations in the world’s estimate. Who will then dream of coining to England for airships? No. if it is good-bye now, it is probably good-bye for all time. Let the Government well ponder the problem before too late.’’