VALUE OF AIRSHIPS.

Wairarapa Age, 5 August 1930, Page 3

VALUE OF AIRSHIPS.

BRITISH MINISTER’S COMMENT ON ATLANTIC VOYAGE. i IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME. BIGGER AND SWIFTER VESSELS TO BE BUILT. United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, August 3. “The RIOO’s arrival at tne mooring mast in Canada built for airships still in the experimental stage will go far to justify your confidence in British engineering skill and enterprise,” writes Lord Thomson in a letter which the RlOO carried to the Premier, thanking him for Canada’s co-op-eration in a great experiment fraught with precious possibilities for the British Commonwealth of Nations. He adds: '‘lf the experimental programme, of which the flight to Montreal is one of the most important features, fulfils expectations, larger and swifter vessels will be built and then all great cities will require a mooring mast for Leviathans of the air crossing the Atlantic. The adventurous spirit which has made the British predominant on the seas only needs encouragement to secure a like advantage in the air. NOT BADLY DAMAGED. LESSONS OF RIOO’S VOYAGE. RUGBY, August 2. The airship RlOO, which is now swinging at her mooring mast at Montreal, underwent examination yesterday and the Air Ministry states that it revealed no structural defect or failure, but there is a stripping of fabric over a fairly extensive area on the underside of the horizontal tin. The materials for repair are on hand. It is probable that no extensive flights will be undertaken in Canada. In any ease, the flight over Ottawa scheduled for August 5 must be postponed. The officers and crew of the airship are being officially welcomed at Montreal to-day. They have received scores of telegrams and messages of congratulation. Wing-Commander Colxnore, however, deprecates any exaggerated significance being attached to the voyage. It has, in his view, demonstrated' the efficiency of the thickbodied, blunt-nosed type of airship, but all her officers are agreed that the vessel does not conform to tiro requirements for an adequate and regular trans-Atlantic service. Sir Denniston Burney, at whose airship. works the vessel was built, is of opinion that a ship twice as large as RlOO, and capable of doing 85 miles an hour, is necessary for such a service.—(British Official Wireless.)