WONDERS OF R 101

Hokitika Guardian, 16 November 1929, Page 6

WONDERS OF R 101

(By Capt. Paul Bewsher, D.S.C.)

C ARLINGTON, October 3

When the Rlod, tho State-owned passenger airship which has just been completed hero after three years’ incessant worn, was revealed to members of the public to-day for the first time, they stood gazing up at it in silence.

its size was staggering. This mammoth flying hotel, which, with the .sister -ship ItlCO, may cost- more than £2,000,000. • ' ' ■ It is about as high as the Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square.

Has the circumference of Piccadilly Circus. Is One-seventh of a Anile long—nearly as long as the Haymarket, S.W.

Has four stabilising fins .at the tail, each almost as large as a tennis court and twice as thick as the body of the winning Schneider Trophy seaplane. I climbed up a ladder into the huge liull to-day and lost myself in a maze of corridors and staircases. In the passenger quarters, which resemble those of a liner, I found a. white and gold dining-room with flower-decked tabled, lighted by great windows at one side, and served by two lifts fr.om the kitchen below. PICTURES ON THE WALLS.

I passbd to a lounge as spacious as that of many big hotels. It ran right across the ship, and- at either end was a verandah. Pictures on the walls gave the room a restful and solid appearance. It seemed absurd to imagine it floating away to Egypt or India.

Close by were the white corridors from which opened the tiny . twoberth cabins. 4 Down below, on the “ground floor,” was 'the smoking <*room, with a metal floor as a safeguard against fire; the electric kitchen; and the crew's quarters.

The lUOI is a State airship, but not a military one, and on its firstflights Major G. H. Scott, the commander, his officers, and the c-rew will all wear civilian clothes. Probably the only man in uniform on board will be the chief steward, Mr A. H. Savidge, who was steward in the 836.

When the TUOI makes its first flight, which it is hoped will be early next week, it will be under the carp of a patron saint. Among the instruments in the control cabin there hangs a beautiful reproduction of an old painting of a saint hovering in the air. This picture was given to tho airship yesterday by somebody who bad brought it from Italy and said that it represented “The Lady of the Fair Winds.”