TO THE NORTH POLE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8813, 15 May 1907, Page 4

TO THE NORTH POLE.

Mr Walter Wellman announces that ills plans to make an attempt to reach the North Pole from Spitsbergen in his grenfe airship, the America, are complete, and that he will start in July or August. The airship, which has been largely reconstructed, is 18ft. long, 62ffe. across at the widest part, has a gas capacity of 365,000 cubic feet, and a lifting power of nearly nine tons. It is calculated that the ship wll be capable of romaimiug in the air for 35 days. Its car is 115 ft. long and built of steel tubing. Running the entire length of the car is a steel tank which will carry 1300 gallons of petrol for the motors—sufficient to drive the ship in a calm atmosphere at 16 miles an hour for 150 hours. The radius of the ship’s action is 2300 miles, or four times the distance from Spitzhergou to the Polo. The airship will carry a crew of four or five men, 13 sledge dogs, a complete sledging outfit, and one and a half tons of provisions—so that if necessary the men can return to Spitsbergen hy sledges, or _ pass the winter within the Arctic circle. The ship will he landed at Spitzbergon early in June, and it be tested there for some weeks before the start is made.