ZEPPELINS FOR AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1924, Page 11

ZEPPELINS FOR AMERICA.

COMPLETION IN GERMANY. TRIAL FLIGHT SUCCESSFUL. London, Sept. 8. The luxuriantly appointed Zeppelin built in Germany for the United States has concluded a trial trip of 600 miles, which was covered in ten hours. The Zeppelin will leave for America on October .5, The new airship, which has been completed at the works of the Zeppelin Company, at Friedrichshafen, Germany, is known for the present as the ZR3. It is to become the property of the United States as part of the reparation payments. The ZR3 represents the last word in Zeppelin design, embodying it does many detail improvements!

based on the experience gained with the many ships (some hundred odd) built during the past twenty-five years—especially with the commercial ships Bodensee and Nordstern. The United States Navy Department, being charged with the. development of rigid airships, and complying with the conditions referred to above, entered into negotiations with the German Government and the Zeppelin Company, for the construction of a commercial type ship of 70.000 cu. m. (2,472,400 cubic feet) capacity, which, upon its completion, was to be delivered by «ir with a German crew to the United States Ni\\al Air Station at Lakehurst, N.J. All the details in connection with these contracts were completed in June, 1922, and the representatives of the United States Navy Department forthwith took up their residence in Friedrichshafen for the purpose of following the progress of the ship day by day. While in general design the ZR3 (or LZI26) follows usual Zeppelin practice, there are, as previously stated, many detailed improvements incorporated in its construction, especially as regards the requirements

of a commercial ship carrying passengers, particular attention being directed in matters of strength, safety and conveniences of passengers. To obtain an idea of the luxurious appointments of the passenger quarters and officers’ staterooms on the ZR3, which will have space for thirty pa»sengers. one has only to recall the equipment on the larger ocean liners. For the officers and passengers on the ZR.3 there are the same sort of quarters, arranged in a series in the main cabin, which is fixed close to the keel under the forward end of the ship. Recall war-time transportation bcbAmmodatlon for enlisted men. and yon can picture the crew of the ZR3, in all about 24 men, their belongings and themselves stowed away neatly in hammocks and bunks inside on the keel running all the way' along the belly of the rigid. Quarters are geographically located so that the .mechanics and others will at all times be near the scene of their duties It is known that many new instruments and other innovations will be tries! out for the first time in actual flight on the ZR3’s voyage to America. That accounts Xor the all-German crew