Airships in War.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 5, 31 January 1912, Page 45

Airships in War.

Mr. Howard Wright, the well-known constructor of airships does not attach much importance to the alleged plans of the German War Office to construct giant airships capable of carrying three hundred persons at a rate of fifty miles an hour. In an interview in the “Standard,” he points out that such a vessel would cost £200,000, would consume over half a ton of petrol every hour, would need a thousand men to handle it in getting it off the ground and easing its landing—and proliably another thousand to pick up the wreckage after it had landed. The bigger the airship, obviously the greater its liability to destruction by wind, and although the construction of such vessels is practicable, so, also, unfortunately, is their destruction. Mr. Wright, in fact, says that the three hundred passengers would only be able to ensure a sense of safety by having themselves filled with hydrogen, and lie takes leave to doubt whether any self-respecting German person would care particularly for that. In short, he thinks England is doing -wisely in aiming at the creation of smaller ships with very high horse-power.