TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 19837, 7 April 1926, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

A recent meeting in Auckland suggests that it would be a good thing if any body that adopts the word “New Zealand” in its title, or takes any name suggesting that it is national in character, should be made to prove that it can justify that claim. There is really nothing to prevent a small party of people in a small town calling itself a New Zealand organisation and issuing statements, for consumption on the

other side of the world, in the name of the whole Dominion. The State safeguards some words against undesirable use, and why should it not protect the Dominion against deceptions of this kind? The completion of the designs for the largest metal-clad airship in the world, two and one-half times the size of the Shenandoah, to be built by the Aircraft Development Corporation at the Ford Airport, Dearborn, Michigan, was announced recently by Carl F. Fritsche, general manager of the corporation. Speaking at a meeting of the * American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Mr Fritsche said that the ship would be luxuriously equipped for commercial use, but could be equipped for military purposes in 48 hours. Another smaller ship one-tenth the size of the Shenandoah would also be built. The large airship is to have a gas capacity of 5,000,000 cubic feet and the smaller a capacity of 200,000 cubic feet. Both ships are to be fireproof, lightning proof and weatherproof, requirements which are not fulfilled by fabric lighter-than-air craft. The smaller of the two will be used for demonstration and experimental purposes. Discussing the future of lighter-than-air craft, Mr Fritsche said, “the transcontinental metal-clad commercial airship of the future will show an operating cost of fuel and power plant charges per passenger, mile not greatly in excess of the present cost per passenger mile of .touring in a first-class limousine automobile.” Mr Fritsche, however, declared that airships would not be used extensively for trans-Atlantic travel, as too much of the available space would have to be used for fuel.