The Aerial Dreadnought and its Builder.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 22, 1 June 1910, Page 9

The Aerial Dreadnought and its Builder.

M. Clement, the builder of the great airship which will essay the first aerial voyage (as distinguished from drifting before the air) between Paris and London, is as different as possible from the nian-in-the-street’s conception of the Frenchman. Though not a Parisian born, he has been identified all hie life with the city He has a great deal of the typical Amei iman business man’s devotion to work, and possesses a fine physique. He has the manner of the man who feels that he has no time to waste, but has too much innate courtesy to treat the stranger- with brusqueness. To pass from M. Clement’s physical to his mental aspects, he has one stronglydeveloped feature, which reminds me of another distinguished figure in aeronautics, Mr. Wilbur Wright—a lack of expansiveness. Both men much prefer what is to what may be, and established facts to the possibilities. Having wrestled with many mechanical problems, and tasted the disappointments of the inventor, they are deeply imbued with the deceptiveness of theory and the foolishness of counting upon anything which has not withstood the test of time and experience. “I do not understand why people are in such a hurry to discuss my future airship,” he said to me in his office, with the plans of the Clement-Bayard 11. on the desk before him. “Of course, I hope and believe she will be a success, and that she will have no difficulty in making her way across the Channel, but I do not actually know; and I think it would be much better to keep the enthusiasm until after she has shown beyond all possibility of doubt what she can do. "In building ships for the air, as for the water, one has to establish a balance between different factors; and you cannot modify one without affecting the others. You may figure out the lifting power of your gas, the weight and power of your engines, the efficiency of your propellers, the area of resistance to the air, and dozens of other points, but you cannot be sure of the result until you have put all these forces together, and found out how they behave themselves under varying conditions. Yes; it is true that I am embodying some new ideas, such as springs to absorb the vibration from the engines, but I am not going to talk about them now, because I have no idea how they will work out in actual practice; and I shall not attempt to say when the airship will be ready for use, because no one can possibly foresee how long the trials will occupy. Go through the workshops, and see for yourself how far the mechanical parts of the airship have advanced, but do not ask me to speculate on the future.” Availing myself of this permission, I made an inspection of the factory, which is a very large and well-equipped establishment, employing between 750 and • 800 men in the manufacture of ClementBayard automobiles and their motors. There was, of course, no sign of the great cotton and rubber gasbag, to contain 227,500 cubic feet of hydrogen, this part of the airship being in the hands of' a balloon-maker, but plenty of other portions of the machine in the making were in evidence, notably the propeller-shaft and its ease, and the two yet unfinished 200-h.p. motors which, it is estimated, will be able to propel the ship at a speed of nearly 40 miles an hour over the ground, thus allowing ample margin for making headway against even a strong wind. The 300 ft cigar shaped gasbag is of the flexible type; that is to say, the car is suspended from it, and not from any rigid support. In this respect, therefore, the ClementBayard 11. adheres to the earlier practice in aerial shipbuilding. As in other dirigibles, the car is simply a long, narrow platform, with strong wire guardrails round the sides, and the engines in the centre; the two propellers, one on each side, at the stern, and the rudder in front. There should be enough gas to lift the whole fabric and 25 people, including the crew of four—captain, engineer, steersman, and deckhand—as well as sufficient petrol to keep the engines going full speed for 24 hours. The parts are to be put together in an immense shed, 400 ft long and 100 ft high, erected on the military paradeground at Issy-les-Moulineaux, which has been the scene of so many important experiments in aviation; and it is very appropriate that thia spot should be the starting-point of the “Clement-Bayard ll.’s” tr ial trip. Her cost depends large-

ly upon the extent of the alterations that may be found necessary during her trials, but is not likely to be less than £20,000. The Clement-Bayard 11. is about 300 yards square. Her speed, with both engines going, will be thirty-five to forty miles an hour; with one engine, twentyseven miles. Using both engines, she can remain in the air for fifteen hours, with six people aboard. The cost of the airship will be about £20,000. As a fighting unit the value of an airship is problematical. In Germany and France some data have already been obtained with regard to the destroying power of dirigible balloons. Great Britain has practically no experience as yet. We know that there are difficulties in the way of the effective discharge of explosives from a moving airship. Marksmanship will be difficult. But while it has not been proved that airships have any offensive or defensive value, it is certain that for reconnoitring purposes they have an immense value. For that function alone they have become absolutely necessary. The Power without them will be terribly handicapped when opposed bv a Power that possesses them. G.A.R.