BIGGEST AIRSHIP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 169, 22 July 1935, Page 8

BIGGEST AIRSHIP

SOON TO BE LAUNCHED The biggest airship ever made, LZ 129, is nearly ready jur launching. J visited her at historic home of airship.-, Eriedticiiohaxen, where 35 jeiua ago tae first Zeppelin was i.iuiichca from a floating sued he,e vii Lake Constance, writes Major L. C. iinner in the Daily Telegraph. The new ship will pruuauly be launcacd about the enu of Ju.y. There are named personnel io spare for her. Dr. Hugo Lckener, chief ol the Zeppelin Cl-., is lying very ill at his home just outside tins town. It is hoped that ne may leccver in L'.me to be present, at the launching of the airsnip. Dr. Burr, Dr. Eckener’s chief designer, superintended the building or ‘he snip, ©lie is dlO leet m length and Jui feet in diameter amidships. Her Cjiormo’js construction shed alongside the L-ae u.-e.l by earlier airships •s vaiy a few leet longer than inc snip itbCli. It is lb2 icvt high and 20d feet uiJe. The now completed skeleton seems to look bigger than the sued uhich contains ii. The skeleton is now being cwtred with launc. is one of the uiggest sights oi Germany. Ju one 'lay alone about 6000 people, cacn of them paying fid, passcu me gates. Largo i.umbvis ul people v is;t beie every day. it \vas confirmed that Dr. Lckener will Jay down three new airships one for the North Atlantic under Ameiican auspices, one fur the South Ailautic (a German enterprise), and one fur India and Batavia, with Hutcn cu upcialiun. Friedrichshafen will in future be only concerned with construction. An airship operating base is being built at Frankiurt, watch has (be advantage of being nearer to inaiu traffic routes, and at a lower level, does not impose the altitude handicap of I liedii' h shafen. This has the effect of roduc iug by three tons the load wi.h which tne airship can start a voyage. Dr. Eckrner has arranged with the Spanish Government for the const rm: t ion of a mooring mast and gas plant in Seville. Tl:e new operating company. in which the German Government is interested is expected to .siait with a capital irvestmentj of about £835,