GIANT AIRSHIPS ARE A FAILURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18926, 23 November 1929, Page 28 (Supplement)

GIANT AIRSHIPS ARE A FAILURE.

OUT-OF-DATE BEFORE BEING LAUNCHED. SEVERE CRITICISM IS MADE BY SIR D. BURNEY. (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, October 10. The giant airships RIOO and RlOl, Which have cost the British taxpayers nearly £2,000.000, are virtual failures from the point of view of what they were supposed to prove—their suitability for long non-stop voyages carrying considerate commercial loads. That is the only conclusion one can arrive at after reading “ The World, the Air, and the Future,” by Commander Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, which has just been published. Just what was in the minds of the authorities as to what the airships were expected to be capable of accomplishing is indicated by a speech on the 1927 Air Estimates by Sir Samuel Hoare, the then Air Minister. Sir Samuel said: The two airships which we are building . . . are capable of carrying 200 fully armed men and a whole squadron of aeroplanes. The committee will see how airships of that kind, if they proVe to be successful, can speed up the concentration of air force at any threatened point in the Empire. The Airship Guarantee Company, of which Sir Dennistoun Burney is the head, are the constructors of the RIOO, the RlOl having been built in the Government airship works. Greater Speed Needed. The RIOO is to have a speed of eighty miles an hour, but the RlOl, owing to the weight of her engines, is not likely to reach more than seventy miles. Sir Dennistoun writes: America and Germany have been obtaining considerable experience with the Los Angeles and the Graf Zeppelin, and it would not be too much to say that one of the principal lessons has been that the cruising speed of airships is far too low for commercial purposes and should be increased to not less than ninety miles an hour. Upon the score of safety alone the speed of the passenger airship should be raised, if possible, to not less than ninety miles an hour. Consequent-

ly, the RIOO, the RlOl, and the Graf Zeppelin must be looked upoin as merely preliminary steps in the evolution of a practical commercial vessel. Unable To Carry Pay Load. Sir Dennistoun gives a table showing that while the RIOO could carry 12.5 tons of pay load on a flight to Egypt, the RlOl with her heavier engines could carry no pay load at all. The original idea of the RlOl was that she should give a convincing demonstration of what a giant airship could accomplish from a commercial point of view when operating on longdistance routes to Egypt, India, and Australia. Now we learn before she has been launched that even on the first stage to Egypt she is not in a position to carry any pay load. “ The R 100,” says Sir Dennistoun, “ wants at least ten tons extra lift, and the RlOl 22.5 tons extra lift to make them commercial propositions on the London-Egypt route at the low cruising speed of seventy miles an hour.” If an attempt were made to raise the speed of the airships to ninety miles an hour, Sir Dennistoun’s conclusion is that as a result of the increased weight involved the RIOO could carry no pay load and only about half the fuel required, while the RlOl could not lift off the ground with either fuel or pay load.

Sir Dennistoun advocates an airship of between 350 and 360 tons. The RIOO and RlOl are approximately 150 tons. Elliptical Water Ship. Dealing with the future of airships, Sir Dennistoun says that their size must be increased to a point that will render them incapable of being handled by man-power, and he foresees a new elliptical ship to “ land ” on the water instead of land. He is already working on that problem, and concludes: It is not too much to say, I think, that this revolutionary development in airship construction may make the airship of the future more of a seacraft than a land-craft. Taken in conjunction with the fact that flying boats admit of greater possibilities of .development than do land planes, this means that for along distance air transport it is probable that airships and heavier-than-air craft will utilised terminal and intermediate bases situated on the water. The RlOl crossed the Irish Sea four times in the course of the longest flight thus far made, stated a cable yesterday. During speed tests she attained a speed of seventy miles per hour, and also did sharp turns at a rate of sixtytwo m.p.h. At times she was carrying 97 per cent of her full load, or about 145 tons.