TRIALS OF GIANT AIRSHIP

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1930, Page 11

TRIALS OF GIANT AIRSHIP

NAVIGATION ‘ PROVED SIMPLE. FIFTY-THREE HOURS IN THE AIR. British Wireless. Rugby, Jan. 29. The giant airship RlOO was again flying throughout last night, a.nd at 7 o’clock this morning was near Land’s End, Cornwall. The course of the aii'ship was not mapped out in advance. The flight was the last of the voyages to test the ship’s airworthiness, and there wore people on board the vessel. On her return to the mooring mast after 53 hours in .the. air Major Scott, the commanding officer,' said, "During our flight we flew at an average speed of 50 miles an hopr, ,aj|d we covereel a distance equal to'' that to Egypt. We used about 15 tons of fuel and had 7J tons left, so. that wo could have, remained, in the,,air another 24 hours at least. "The RIOL and RICO arc very similar in behaviour and control. We were above the clouds to-day nearly the whole of the time,- and I have never been on such a long, flight when I saw so little of the ground.” Sir Denniston Burney, who was on board, said, “After leaving the Channel Islands on the first night we saw nothing until next morning, when we found ourselves over Felixstowe. We located our position the whole time by wifeless crossbearings. There is no doubt whatever, I think, that wireless crossbearings have a great future. I am greatly impressed by the ease with which we were able to keep our position. Nearly all the time yesterday we were flying in fog, and when we crossed over London we could see very little.”