DIRIGIBLE FOR AMERICA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16668, 25 February 1922, Page 9

DIRIGIBLE FOR AMERICA.

PURCHASE FROM GERMANY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. WASHINGTON, February 23. Tho Secretary of tho Navy. Air E. Denbv, lias announced that the Roma disaster will not change the United States plans to purchase a German dirigible. (On December 17 last the Council of Ambassadors at Paris granted) permission to the United; States to contract lor the construction at Friednichshaffen, Germany, of a Zeppelin of the L7O type. Tho application for tho construction of the Zeppelin arose out of tho destruction in Germany of five tho big dirigibles, on © of whk?h! j had been allotted to the United States j during the Peace Conference. The United States based its application on i the ground) float it was entitled to an- j other airship under the reparations agreement. Under the Council’h decision Germany will construct the Zeppelin at the only hangar in Germany large enough to permit of the building of an airship of that size,, and then will tear down the hangar and disperse the staff. 'The airship, when completed (which is expected to take itbout nine or twelve months) will be delivered to tho United States in Germany without the expenditure of a penny, and will then be flown across the Atlantic by a crew of Navy Department aeronauts. The L7O is to be of 70.000 cubic meters capacity. This class of German airship measures 743 ft in length (48ft larger than the British ZR2). but has the standard German diameter of 78.4 feet. Its useful load is more than 88,0001 b, and carries a crew of thirty men.)