Air Thrills.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18362, 21 April 1925, Page 8

Air Thrills.

Britain's excitement over the return of 833 was aroused in the first place by the gallantry of the crew. From the King down it was the victory against theoretically hopeless odds that was the immediate thrill —that and the joy of the crew's smiling return from the dead. But the secondary thrill was the thought that a further important victory had been registered in man's ceaseless struggle with the air. We have always understood, and it has been generally true, that airships are too dependent on weather conditions to be of much practical use in the meantime. On perfect days they can, as it, has been again and again proved, move with great steadiness and speed and majesty, but no one would over have suggested risking them in a storm. And yot the recent adventure of America's Shenandoah, the non-stop flight of 5000 miles made by the "reparation" Zeppelin which recently crossed the Atlantic, and now this latest exploit of the R33, suggest that we are passing out of the line weather stage and may soon bo flying to timc-tablo. And of course .the airship has possibilities which no other form of transport can rival. No airplane,' for example, can ,yet fly continuously for five thousand miles, and if it could carry the fuel for such a journey it could not carry passengers. No ocean liner yet built, or ever likely to be built, could cross tho Atlantic at the rate of a mile a minute, and if she could attain such a speed the lifo of the passengers on board would be intolerable. If the dirigibles so far : tried out have had an adventurous and largely tragic career, the hope persists, and has now been dramatically strengthened, that there will eventually be as regular sailings in the air as in the sea, and almost as safe.