GIANT ZEPPELIN TO VISIT ENGLAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 451, 5 September 1928, Page 9

GIANT ZEPPELIN TO VISIT ENGLAND

FIRST SINCE WAR TO ATTEMPT ATLANTIC

| (United I*.A. — By Telegraph — Copyright) ; (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) Reed. 1.20 p.m. BERLIN, Tuesday The trials of the Zeppelin LZI27 have been delayed owing to the difficulty of obtaining: sufficient supply of the new fuel with which she is driven. The trials were first expected to take place on August 15. and formal permission was issued by the Air Ministry for the airship | to visit England. The last Zeppelin seen in England | was during the war. but the LZI-7 j will be welcome because the visit will j allow her crew to exchange technical i data with the crew of the RIOO. the giant British airship which is nearing completion. After circling London the Zeppelin will fly on to Bedford and moor to the steel mast there. She is expected to start out on her transatlantic adventure early in October. The 1.Z127 is 235 metres in length 30.5 metres in its maximum diameter. It is the largest Zeppelin yet built. Tlu great frame gives a striking of its size and weight, and yet the duralumin used is so light that a man can easily lift a section several times larger than himself. The airship is desigm-d to carry a crew of 26 with 20 passengers and 15 tons of freight. Its average speed is estimated at between 70 and 75 miles an hour, and its range at about 6,250 miles. The quarters for the crew, the luggage, mail and freight holds, and the storerooms, are in the interior of the hull, along the whole length of which a gangway runs with connections to the engine gondolas. There are five of these, two on either side of the central portion of the ship and one at the rear, and each contains a 530 horse-power Maybach engine. A certain amount of petrol will be carried, but it is stated that in the main a gas fuel will be used, which it is claimed is practically non-inflammable, and of approximately the same weight as air. It is the general hope that the new Zeppelin will establish Germany at the head of an industry which, under her leadership, will dominate the future of civil aviation. Plans are being considered for the airship to make a flight round the world next year.