ZEPPELIN AIRSHIPS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 309, 30 December 1914, Page 3

ZEPPELIN AIRSHIPS.

A Zeppelin airship of the latest typo :has ,a .radius pi ovfin 10UO (writes W. H. Liddle in the Daily Citizen). From any. of the following towns an up-to-date craft could nifike a flight to England and return with ease:— Brussels, 250 miles fi;om London. Dusseldorg, 380 miles from London. Frankfort,, 500 pules frqjn London. Hamburg, 570 miles from Loudon.; If a Zeppelin of the newst type were stationed at Brpssels, it could jnake a voyage to Lpndon, to Man : Chester, on to the Hpmber, and then enough fuel to return to its point of embarkation. Thirty-seven airships were prepared for, and, since then, many others have been built, so it is probable that Germany has, or wijl have in the course of the next J&\y months, a fleet of 50 ajrships. It remains jto, be. seen whether tlje German,faith in, airsliip as a" war-machine will be justified. I donoi. think so. Our aerqplifnes, fitted with machine-guns and . grappljug irons, could make very short wqrk of a Zeppelin airship. A Zeppelin is a cigar-shaped, rigid gasbag, 620 feet long, 52 teet.in diameter, with a gas capacity of cubic metres. It has a carrying capacity of 23 tons, and is fitted Avith four motors of 205 horsepower each, which gives it an easy average speed of over 55 miles an hour. Fitted with an upper and lower deck, it carries tanks large enough .to hold over 500 gallon of petrol and oil,besides accommodation for a crew of 24 men with bomb-drop-ping appliances. Every Zeppelin has a bomb magazine (,'ontitining 50 bombs and mechanism for" dropping 12 bombs from each side simultaneously. The top deck is reaejied by a spiral stairway through the centre of the airship. On this deck are fitted machine guns and anti-aerial gun craft,and a promenade from the bow to the stern is wired off and made secure for aeronauts to walk on.