GIANT ZEPPELINS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 252, 15 June 1932, Page 5

GIANT ZEPPELINS

U.S. CONSTRUGTION ROTORUA VISITOR GIVES AN INTERESTING SURVEY THE AKRON AND MACON A brief but interesting outline of the Goodyear activities in connection with lighter than air craft and a description of the giant Akron Zeppelin were given in an interview to a "Morning Post" representative yester- • day by Mr. H. D. Shilts, secretary of the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation of Akron, ' Ohio, U.S.A., who is at present on a brief visit to Rotorua. Tracing out the Goodyear Company's lighter-than-air experience, Mr Shilts said that their first balloon was manufactured in 1912 and in the following year one of their balloons took first place in the James Gordon Bennett cup race from Paris. Goodyear balloonists had won three international and five national contests. During the war period they built more than 100 airships for the army and navy and in 1923 built the RS-1, the first American semi-rigid ship. In this year they also acquired the American

rights to the German Zeppelin patents. Huge Dock Built • Before the Akron, the first of two ships ordered for the U.S. Navy could be built, a dock had to be constructed in which the worlc could he carried out. This led to the eonstruction of a building providing a floor area of 364,000 square feet — the largest building in the world to he made without supporting columns. The dock when completed was 11,075 feet long, 325 feet wide and 211 feet high and contained about 5,500 tons of eonstruction steel. The huge contract of building the Akron then commenced and it was well over a year before it was completed. Before it was handed over to the U.S. Navy, the ship was put throygh exhaustive tests especially in its capabilities of elevation, speed, landing, and duration in the air. All these after a few alterations proved entirely satisfactory and after flying the full width of the United States, the ship was finally handed over to the naval authorities and stationed on the Pacific Coast where it will act as a unit of the aerial defence system. A huge dock is at present being built near San Francisco to house the Akron when not in active use. °Secon.d Being Built The second of the two ships ordered under the contract, the Macon, is now in the course of eonstruction and work was well advanced on the metal portion of the hull when Mr. Shilts left America. This Zeppelin will be practically the same as the Akron only minor alterations being made, and its ultimate destination is with the navy on the Atlantic Coast. Snialler Ships At present the Goodyear Corporation had six smaller airships varying in cubic capacity from 51,000 cubic feet to 156,000 cubic feet, and these were used for training purposes. One of these ships is stationed in New York, another in Ghicago and a third in Los Angeles. They are easily managed and mobile even when on the ground. A spec-

lal motor bus is provided which carries the landing crew and the airship itself is hitched to a mooring mast on top. In this way the ground crew and the ship may he transported to whatever position is required for taking off, or brought back to the dock after returning from a flight. Two passenger service companies had already been formed in America, the Pacific Zeppelin Company and the Atlantic Zeppelin ServicT, and on the completion of the Macon, it was the intention of these organisations to procure airships even larger than the two giants for civilian and mail transport. These ships will carry up to 200 passengers in perfect comfort and it is confidently hoped that the trip from New York to Great Britain and the Gontinent will he reduced to two days journey. The success of the Graf Zeppelin has greatly added to this confidence as continued encouraging reports are given out by its eommander Dr. von Eckener.