Regular Trans-Atlantic Air Service Planned by Expert.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 301, 19 December 1931, Page 17 (Supplement)

Regular Trans-Atlantic Air Service Planned by Expert.

Dr. Eckener Negotiating Big Scheme.

Graf Zeppelin has Proved Practicability of Proposal.

J)R HUGO ECKENER, famous Zep-

pelin designer, has been discussing with British officials plans for a transAtlantic airship service. For his purpose a base in England is necessary. With his service in operation it will be possible to journey from Europe to America and return in one week. By 1933, says Dr Eckener, four giant airships now building—two in Germany and two in the United Stafes—will be making regular weekly flights, each to carry fifty passengers and ten or fifteen tons of mail each trip. Since its memorable trips to America and around the world, the Graf Zeppelin airship has not been idle. It has already carried out—including its journey to Egypt—l69l flights of various lengths, in the course of which it has covered 300,000 kilometres. It has flown over eight oceans, braved all kinds of winds and storms and overcome the most unfavourable atmospheric conditions. Those journeys have proved that the Graf is no toy of the elements and that it is suitable for regular traffic. “ This is why we have started to build at Friedrichshafen another airship, larger than the Graf Zeppelin. It will be the first of the airships which, beginning in 1933, will, as we hope, carry on a regular service between Europe and America,” said Dr Eckener in a recent interview.

“ When the Graf Zeppelin was built, the limited size of our workshops obliged us to make the airship smaller than we could have wished, but we nevertheless succeeded in proving what we set out to prove.

“ According to present arrangements, it is intended to have. four of the latest type of Zeppelin. Each will have

a capacity of 200,000 cubic metres, with a length of 240 metres and a breadth of 40 metres (against 302 metres in the presf - Graf Zeppelin). The engines will develop 4000 horsepower (against 2400).

“ The traffic speed (and not the top speed), which is the most important point, will be 130 kilometres an hour, against the present speed of 120 kilometres. This difference of ten kilometres an hour will be very useful, especially in the case of contrary winds. With a wind blowing against us at the rate of 50 metres, the speed of the new airship will be 80 kilometres instead of 70, as at present —an appreciable advantage. “ The principal change on which we decided after the disaster to the R-101 was to fill the new airship with helium instead of hydrogen. This change will delay the building to the extent of about a year, as the Zeppelin now on the stocks should have been ready at the end of the present year, but under present circumstances it cannot . be finished until the end of 1932. This is due to the extensive nature of technical alterations in the gas-filling arrangements and other parts of the airship. “As far as our negotiations have gone at present, we have no reason to think that any difficulty will be placed in the way of our obtaining a sufficient quantity of helium. -The assertions that the United States Government will prohibit the export of this gas are an echo of the wartime situation, when it was thought that the quantity of helium in the United States was limited and would have to be kept for the army and navy, but it has since been learned that the supply of helium can be increased virtually ad libitum and that there will be no trouble about obtaining what is needed for our airship service. “ Moreover, this service will not be an exclusively German but a German-

American enterprise, as two of the four Zeppelins will be built in Germany and two in the United States. The cost of construction in Germany will be about £400,000, in America it will probably be more, though I cannot say the exact amount. We adopt this course so as to show the international character of the enterprise even more clearly than before.

“ In my opinion, the accident to the RlOl does not in any way prove that airships are unsafe. Examination has shown that the root-cause of the disaster was too great a loss of gas following the leaking. I attribute this to the fact that the English adopted an innovation intended to do away with the loss of gas to which airships of the Zeppelin system are theoretically liable.

“ This innovation was not a success, and experience has shown us that this loss of gas, which is very small, has no practical importance, inasmuch as it did not cause us any trouble in the course of our 160 trips. We therefore prefer to adhere to the old system, with this difference: that we replace hydrogen by helium, which does away with all danger of fire.

“ This change raises another set of questions. To fill an airship only once with helium will cost at least £20,000. We must therefore try to operate more economically than with hydrogen, which is much cheaper. It has sometimes happened, while manoeuvring the airship, that several thousand cubic metres of gas have escaped. This did not make much difference to a total volume of 110,000 metres, but it was nevertheless enough to make us fill up again before starting. We shall have to be more economical with helium and adopt a different system of manoeuvring.

“ According to my calculations, the cost of each voyage, including ,the installations on the American side, amortization of plant, etc., will work out at about 200,000 marks.

“ We intend to fix the passenger fare at £l6O, which is not a great deal in comparison with the rates charged by the big liners. At the moderate estimate of fifty passengers per trip, we shall almost be able to cover expenses. Later on we shall be able to carry a larger number of passengers without making any great structural changes, as the extra weight of twenty or thirty passengers would make little difference to the forty tons of deadweight carried by the airship. The greatest chance we have of making a profit is by the conveyance of mails. Reckoning one mark per letter, this works out at 80,000 marks a ton, and we shall be able to take ten or fifteen tons of mails and even more, at lower rates. 4 ‘ I have no fear of not obtaining enough passengers. At the present time, the total of first-class passengers travelling between Europe and America is 260,000 annually. Out of this number, we may fairly suppose that some thousands would prefer the Zeppelin, because it would take them across the Atlantic in one-half or onethird of the time required by the fastest sea liner. As at first there would be only one Zeppelin' on the service, making one return journey a week, this means, at the rate of fifty trips a year, 2500 passengers a year for each Zeppelin, which is not a high figure for our estimates, especially when it is remembered that every new form of locomotion invariably attracts a new clientele

“In regard to terminal points, we think of Friedrichshafen in Germany and either Chesapeake Bay or along the Delaware Bay or River, where an aerodrome is to be laid out in the United States. In the course of my last stay in France, however, I negotiated with the French authorities about an airport in France. Apart from technical considerations, this would have considerable advantages from the material point of view. In the traffic between America and Europe at least two-thirds of the French passengers pass through French ports on the way to the old continent. It would be a great mistake to ignore this fact, and also the need for an airport for mails from France.

“ The Zeppelin would, of course, remain at the French port only about half an hour, or just enough time to embark passengers and mails. “ We hesitate between two ports in France; one near Paris, at Orly, which already has a suitable modern aerodrome. or another near Tours, where everything would have to be done from the beginning. Tours, of course, is much farther from the capital than Orly, but has better atmospheric conditions, which is Very important from our point of view.* 1