The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1935. AIRSHIP FAILURES

Southland Times, Issue 22507, 15 February 1935, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1935. AIRSHIP FAILURES

It would appear that in the meantime the giant dirigible, as a military arm or a commercial proposition, is doomed. When Count Zeppelin first launched his airships great things were expected of them and at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 it was anticipated that they would inflict heavy damage upon the enemy, but considered in the light of achievements, the Zeppelins were a complete failure. A number of raids were made over England, but the damage, though in some cases spectacular, was slight —the Zeppelins themselves were so vulnerable, that in the face of an alert defence, they were compelled to seek a high ceiling. One of their most effective manoeuvres was to sail over London at a tremendous height, and then drift back upon the wind, so that their engines could not be heard, but they were detected, and London was completely blotted out in shadow, while the commander played the hazardous game of taking no defensive action. The airships crossed the capital and dropped their bombs, but they did practically no harm. Then came the raid which was caught by a storm, and the German Zeppelin force was shattered by Nature’s . armaments. In the course of the war, however, one Zeppelin was landed intact in Britain, and from it the British obtained much information that previously had been hidden from them. Assisted by this new knowledge, they constructed some giant dirigibles of their own, but these had a chequered career, and in most cases the trouble seemed to be due to faults in design. The structures were too heavy or- too light. In some cases, they buckled or broke in the air, and in others, the weight of the airship militated against buoyancy. The Americans purchased one airship made in Britain, and she was wrecked in her first flight after being taken over. Sub-

sequently, they obtained a ship from Germany, the Los Angeles, and with this to guide them, they constructed giant airships for themselves. These have all gone under tragic circumstances, and America, like Britain, will probably abandon the manufacture of airships. The Germans with the Graf Zeppelin have demonstrated that they still know how to construct and how to manoeuvre these giant liners of the air, and it is reported that they purpose building another, but even the Graf Zeppelin’s achievements are not sufficient to convince one that the dirigible is safer or more reliable than the aeroplane for commercial purposes. The Zeppelins with their tremendous area open to the winds are very sensitive to the elements, and whenever they enter a storm they are in serious danger. In manoeuvring they have to be handled very delicately, and the records show that both for speed and for reliability, the aeroplane at the present moment has tremendous advantages. It looks as if the development of air transportation will go along the lines of larger aeroplanes, and that the Transatlantic service, when it comes, will be maintained by aeroplanes built along the lines of the Dornier Do-X. The experiments with the Zeppelins have been tragic, and at the moment it is not too much to say that Zeppelin’s hopes, in war and peace, have been blasted.