SUPER-ZEPP SECRETS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 884, 9 December 1916, Page 8

SUPER-ZEPP SECRETS.

EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT.

ESSENTIAL PARTS OF L 33 INTACT.

MURDER MECHANISM

[By H. W. Wilson, in the "Daily Mail."]

All the secrets of the mysterious super-Zeppelin are now known to the British air services, including the secret of bringing these huge and delicate gas-hags down.

So much I can say after a close inspection of the super-Zeppelin 1.33, which on September 23 was forced by our lire to alight in Eastern Essex, and which has supplied our designers with all the drawings and patterns that they require. This is the first detailed description of a superZeppelin ever published by an eyewitness.

The externals of the airship, her outer fabrics and gas-bags, were destroyed by lire. But all the essentials remain, all the elaborate contrivances of murder, all the gear for operating the engines, all the tackle for manoeuvring the ship.

The skeleton of the monster is not visible until you draw very close to it. It is a strange, spidery affair of delicate trellis work in silvery metal with no sheen and no tinkle, but a sepulchral rustle. The girders are of almost inconceivable lightness. What looks a prodigiously bulky portion of the framework can be lifted with one hand. Instead of weighing a hundredweight it scales a few pounds. The whole structure seems like a device from another world and another age. Standing by trie Wreck we can reconstruct the scene aloft as the vessel (she is (580 ft long and 72ft in diameter, or rather larger in bulk than the Lusitania) whirled through the air to attack our British women and children at a speed of some 65 milos an hour—for nights were usually chosen when no wind was blowing, and her engines will propel her at that sneed in a calm. The work of navigation is carried out from the forward gondola, which was of layt'c size, 30ft or so lons. This gondola was made of stout fllvmiHinm and in annearanee closely resembled a covered-in boat, though from the weight of the p-whinery inside it would not have floated. The Murder Kevboard.

I! was divided into three compartmenis. In the first was the cantain, ri-'.'b.t in the bows of Ihe ship, lookins throueh non-inflammable celluloid windows, which wore pierced through the cotton fabric that closed the pondola in above. Conveniently placed for him were two wheels to operate '.he elevating and horizontal s'eerint* rudders, and other wheels controlling the water ballast and the P't'-ol t.i'ks. Before him was a little keyboard with which murder was Tt showed sixty small buttons 'ike the noshes of an electric hell, each of which operated one bomb-dropping hook and released a bomb. Another I>ver withdrew a which had to hj" withdrawn before the bomb could fall. Astern of the cantain's cabin in the same gondola was a little room, fvft by 4ft. used bv the wireless operator, and containing the wireless instruments, which were supplied with current from six- dynamos, one attached to each enf-'ine. as will nrescrtlv be seen, thus leaving nothing to chance. Astern of the wireless room, s!ill in the same gondola, and isolated from the wireless room bv an of about an inch, were one of the six engines ond a fhiiamo, also two machine puns of ordinary German calibre, nn tripod mountings of amazing lightness.

The ermine is still in cood working order. It is of Maybach (Mercedes) type and develops 240-h.p. One of the great surprises of this airship is that immediately behind the forward gondola and driven by its engine is n propeller amidships, underneath the ship. There was nothing of the kind in the Zeppelins brought down in Franc ant! at Salonica. It is one of the distinctive features of the super-Zeppelin.

"Cat-Walk" Inside.

To pass from this gondola down the ship one had to climb through a kind of trap-door framed in aluminium into the "cat-walk," a perilously narrow gangway only Din wide that runs the whole length of the keel. On the aluminium girder framings the thinnest of planking was laid. Some part of it has sur-

vived the fire and could be very plainly seen. Passing down this "cat-walk" inside the walls of thin | cotton fahrio, greyish white, one reached the compartment containing ibombs. Here hung the missiles on 60 hooks, and below them was the J sliding shutter. In (he "cat-walk" j was another interesting find, a lavatory with fittings of fairy lightness. Near the centre of the ship, progressing from bow to stern, were suspended two other gondolas. These 'hung side by side, spaced out a little on either beam. They are of much smaller size, only 18ft long, and each contains one Maybach 240 h.p. engine, one dynamo, and one machine | gun. The engines are fitted with ingenious starting gear, which, we were told, works exceedingly well. Each engine drives a propeller which is stayed out at the side of the ship I with aluminium alloy struts. These are circular, but to diminish the wind resistance the Hun has carefully covered them with thin threeply wood in a stream-like casing of ' astounding lightness and efficiency.

In the amidships gondolas were neat little aluminium cupboards, which at the time of the capture contained Hun comestibles. They were of good design and took little space. The last and fourth gondola was placed astern in tbe centre line and was of large size, about 30ft long. It contained two machine guns and three engines, all of Maybach type and 2-10 b.p., each driving one dynamo and propeller. Two of these propellers were stayed out on either beam of the airship; the third was at the stern, about 30ft in from the end of the ship. A similar propeller was observed in the Zeppelin brought down by the French at Revigny. 1440 Horse-power.

Thus this ship has six propellers ; in all and engines of 1440 h.p., as against four propellers and engines of 540 h.p. in the first naval Zeppelin. The propellers were connected with the engines hy aluminium shafting, which seemed to be of great strength. But a large piece of one shaft broke away from this ship, and fell at a j distance of three miles. Whether it j \yas through damage from gunfire is not certain, but the airship showed marks of hits and seemed to have been struck on her petrol tanks.

I No observation car for lowering was found, but it is possible that if she carried one it was thrown overboard shortly before she landed, as j she made an effort to proceed to sea i and did go some little tlistance out before returning and making her landing. The reason she came down was presumably that the breaking of this shaft | and loss of petrol made it impossible for her to cross the North Sea. She threw out many objects, including most of her guns. The interior of the airship, as it now is, in a somewhat dismantled state, has been compared with that of Ihe Crystal Palace. The comparison is not satisfactory; there is an eerie fairy-like effect in the great framework, which has visibly sagged down amidships and has now in places been cut away for closer examination. An extraordinary tangle of wires stretches from girder jto girder, and makes it appear as though gigantic spiders had been at work. These wires, which are exjquisitelv attached to the frame- : work, were used to keep it taut, and ; can be tightened by a central cable which runs from the bow to the stern and has an arrangement for tightening of the simplest and most efficient character. Possibly the work of making the ship taut can be carried out when she is still in the ; air.

i The gas was contained in 24 bal- | lonels, each connected by a valve I with a central gas supply pipe. The 1 ballonets were burnt, but enough of | the fabric remains to show that it I was of a thick silk or cotton, waterj and gas-proofed. They were separated, not, as some have supposed, by sheet aluminium bulkheads, but iby spider-webs of wire, a web beI Iween each pair of ballonets. The gas capacity was 2 million cubic feet, nearly thrice that of the first naval Zeppelin, and the total weight in the air 50 tons, of which 9 tons j was aluminium framing. Of this i the weight of bombs would probably be li to 2 tons; the petrol tanks could contain 2000 gallons. A mark on one of them gave the date ot the ship. It read in red paint:

H 14 7 16. So that she was apparently completed on July 14, 1916. For defence against attack from above the super-Zeppelin was well equipped. Forward were two gun platforms near the nose of the ship, in each of which was mounted a .sin. (half-an-inch) quick-firing gun. A similar platform was placed astern, so that in all three .sin. guns were mounted on the top of the ship. They were kept well away from the ventilators which carried off escaping gas.

The tales that between the ballonets and the outer cover is a chamber warmed by gas from the engine exhaust do not seem to be true, though the exhaust from the engines is led up through the airship and thus kept its interior tolerably warm. The fabric used for the outer cover at a little distance looks like newspaper printed with microscopic type. It is exceedingly tough, and though thin can scarcely be torn, and is dilßcult to cut. It resembles a very strong twill. The crew were not—as some might have expected—chosen for their lightness. They were a mixed assortment, light and heavy men, and numbered 22 in all. There was an object which seems to have been a smoke-producing apparatus, to enable the airship to make her own clouds.

Many of the parts have now been removed for use by our constructors, for whom also the aluminium alloy (worth £4OO a ton) will be smelted down.