ZEPPELIN SECRETS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1651, 16 December 1916, Page 4

ZEPPELIN SECRETS.

The most serious blow to the Germans in their airship raids on London in September and October, in which they lost four airships, was the present they were eompelled to make of a super-Zeppelin, L 33, to the British authorities. A close inspection of the machine has now jheen permitted to certain correspondents, and what most impresses the observer at first sight is the frailly of an engine of war carrying some 30 lighting men and 00 ■bombs, and armed with nine Maxim guns, whieh in its own element was -expected to prove so destructive and terrifying. The vessel was a (dirigible of {he very latest type, and it is calculated that her cost may •have been anything up jo quarter -of a million. As old aluminium ;i-

lone, the value to the army and ;navy may be reckoned in hundreds 1 of pounds. (’ylipdric,a» ip form, the L 33 was approximately to fiSOft. in length, and the diameter, ’att greatest: width, 72 ft. Fully v equipped and armed, ami manned jby the crew, the vessel weighed 50 ions. Her lifting power was derived from 24 balloonetles, separated and netted, taking two million cubic feet of hydrogen, . and her means of propulsion was supplied Sty six water-cooled Maybaeh-Mer- •, -cedes engines of 240 h.p. each, and each weighing 1,000 lb. The tire consumed all the fabric covering the framework, and an explosion damaged some minor parts, bpt all the essentials of it he vessel were foppd to be sufficiently mfact to enable the authorities to recop.sitriwd her if need be, and to make aeeuf.afe -drawings of her. _ v.