ARMY AVIATION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1966, 24 January 1914, Page 6

ARMY AVIATION.

THE AIRSHIP OF THE FUTURE,

At a meeting of the Aeronautical feo■ciety of Great Britain,' held at tho United Services Institution recently, a paper on the airship of the future was read by Captain C. M. Watorlow, Royal Firing Corps. ■Ho said that the development of airships in England and on tho Continent had proceeded on different lines. 1)1 this country . wc* had set rather the maximum power of control and Imndiuess as our aims, whereas abroad tjhev had gono in for weightlifting capacity, and long-distance work. Tho English typo was well adapted to this country. , With regard to speed the Astra-Torres airship, or, as it now was, Naval Airship No. 3, had achieved a speed, independently of tho wind, of over 51 miles per hour. It- was, therefore, tho Fastest non-rigid airship in tho world,, and mifflii well be even better than the Zeppelins; but prcciso information on this point was lacking. Competent designers had assured them that 55 miles per hour could bo easily obtained, and anotlier year or so might produce tho GO miies per hour airship, • GJatpain Waterlow continued: —From the war point of view this increase had a most important corollary; it means that the era of tho slow-speed aeroplane,, that is to say, those under 60 milos per hour, v,ill be gone fo? ever. Everything that they 'can do can bo doae so much better by tho airship. If over airships achieve 70 miles per hour, ;t is difficult to see where tho aeroplane, as know it to-day, will come m at all for war purposes; and this, of con_rsc_, applies equally to seaplanes. This is no idle boast, but the natural result of increase of speed. For commercial purposes, tho lecturer said, ho believed the airship had a great future. Airships; lie went on, will doubtless come into use in connection with tho post office, and, as time goes on, for newspaper delivery. I can imagine reading in an enterprising, -daily newspaper that t'ho.y have established a special airship servieo to deliver their paper in every village its Norfolk every morning between 6 and 8 o'clock. } oil can reckon that tho ship will leave London at 2 or 3 a.m., and, flying low over tho various villages, will drop a small parachute with a bundle of inails or newspapers; Tho lecturer predicted that a few years hence a ship the size of the Beta would be tho aerial yacht of many men who liotf kept a big motorcar. ' Such a ship eou!d be produced: at a vcrv moderate figure with, the prospect of a sale of 100 ships Hydrogen would be as cheap as coal gas, and one "fill" would inst a year. Tlio meeffanism would be as simple as a . modern motor-car, sncl would bo won within tlio capacity of a man of the. ordinary motor-mechanic class. Captain Waterlow, in conclusion, described an imaginary trip of the coining airship from London to Paris. Tho airship would take a complement of- 50 crew and passengers, and would do GO miles per luntr with case and comfort. He pictured tho piissengers sitting dovru at dinner during the Channel crossing.