HOTELS OF THE SKY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18291, 14 June 1929, Page 2

HOTELS OF THE SKY.

GIANT BRITISH AIRSHIP. Views of the R-101, completing at Cardington, near Bedford, England, show'ing her streamline body, exterior arrangement and some of the details of her remarkable interior indicate that she deserves more fully than any aircraft yet evolved the appellation “floating hotel.’’ With accommodations for one hundred passengers and a crew of forty-eight, the R-101 and her sister ship present the comfortable features of a well-appointed hostelry or club. But Instead of a landscape of still tranquillity, one will see, through the outward-sloping windows of the promenade decks, a swiftly changing panoroma by day, and by night, the myriad light dots of cities perhaps thousands of feet below. The monster dirigible is 724 feet long, with a maximum diameter of 131 feet 8 inches. She has a gas capacity of 5,000,000 cubic feet, giving a lifting power of 152 tons. To carry twenty-nine tons of fuel, thirtyeight main tanks have been provided, attached to the fragile work inside the envelope, and, in addition there are eleven compensating tanks which can be filled when a full passenger load is not on board. Quick emptying facilities have been provided for emergency and some of the main tanks have been fitted with a device by which their bottoms can be cut away in the manner of opening a tin can. MOTORS BURN HEAVY OIL For the first time in airship practice heavy oil-burning engines will be used in these ships. The fuel will have a flash point of 210 degrees, a point which is held to greatly increase the factor of safety. Each of the five highcompression motors will develop 585 horse power with a maximum of 650. The lowering of fire hazard in the ships is brought home by the fact that passengers will be permitted to smoke and that a smoke room is a feature of the 10-wer deck. It has an aluminum floor. Naturally, the lightest available materials have been used in construction. The tubing' is a stainless steel, solid drawn, and joined without welding. Duralumin and aluminium have been freely used, even in the galley, where they replace iron and steel in the cooking apparatus, and aluminium is used for the lighting fixtures. Ornamental columns are of balsa wood, one of the lightest woods known, while the walls of the two-berth cabins are of fireproof canvas interlined with a black material. Rattan is the material of much of the furniture. If one of the novelties for comfort In airship travel will be the smoking privilege, another will be the fact that the cabins and public rooms of the air-’ ships will be heated and cooled to suit the conditions of temperature. Air is drawn in by an electric fan, according to “The Illustrated London News,” which describes the dirigibles by special permission of the Air Ministry, and for heating purposes, is passed across the face of one of the engine radiators. In warm weather the radiator is lowered outside the ship, and Cooled air thus can be supplied to the living quarters. SPACIOUS LOUNGE. The passengers of the R-101 wdll be accompanied on to decks, of which the upper, excluding the promenades, has an area of 5650 square feet. The lower deck has an area of 1730 square feet. A lounge, 60 by 32 feet, surrounded by green cane settees and flanked to port and starboard by promenades, features the upper deck. The floor is of polished linoleum and the panelled walls are broken by columns In cream and gold. On this deck also are the dining saloon, with seating; accommodation for fifty persons, sleeping cabins and wash rooms. On the lower deck are the smoke room, crew’s quarters, galley and chart room. The wireless room adjoins. The control car is outside the main body of the ship, which has been so designed, however, as to have a minimum of excrescences and offer as little head and parasitic resistance as possible. Some idea of the intricacies involved in constructing such an airship may be gained from the fact that in the R-101 there are twenty-seven miles of metal tubing, 30,000 tie rods, 65,000 bolts and nuts, eleven miles of bracing caljie, 600.000 rivets and 27,000 shackles, according to figures collected by Major C. C. Turner, aviation correspondent of “The London Daily Telegraph.”