In the Air

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 83, 4 November 1916, Page 5

In the Air

LC3T AEROPLANES.

OCTOBER TOTAL, 181. Press Association—Copyright, Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received 10.55 a.m.) London, November 3. j According to the communiques, 171 ' aeroplanes were lost on the west front in October. The British downed 39, the French 65, and the Cer'mans 77. The September total was lover 300. THE FALLEN ZEPPELIN. VALUE TO AIR SERVICE. ALL SECRETS REVEALED. ENGINES AND CEAR INTACT.

London, October 25

A detailed description of the superZeppelin L 33. brought down on the Essex coast on .September 24, states: The length is 680 ft, and the weight estimated at 50 tons. The cubic capacity is 2,000,000 feet. There are 24 inner balloonets, four gondolas,, two on each side amidships; six engines, aggregating 1.140 h.p.; six propellers. The petrol capacity is 2000 gallons. The speed is presumed to be 60 miles an hour in a still atmosphere. She was armed with nine quick-firers and apparatus for 60 bombs. The crew 'was 22.

Mr H. W. Wilson, writing in the "Daily Mail," says: "The British air service now knows all super-Zeppelin secrets, including the manner in which to bring them down. Fire destroyed the outer casing and the balloonets of L 33, but all the elaborate contrivances of the murder gear, the operating engines, and the tackle for manoeuvring the ship remain. The monster's skeleton is a strange spidery affair, a delicate trellis work of silvery metal. The girders are almost inconceivably light; what looks like a prodigiously bulky portion can he lifted with one hand. ■ The whole structure seems like a device from another world and age. It is almost as long and rather larger in bulk than the Lusitania. The navigation was carried out from forward, in a stout aluminium 30-foot gondola containing three compartments, in which were the captain's wireless and the engine-room. Also there were two machine guns. The gondolas amidships were smaller; each contained a 240 h.p. Taibach-Mercedes engine, and dynamo and machine-gun. In the large gondola astern there were three similar engines and dynamos and two machine guns. These gondolas were linked up by a narrow gangway running the whole length of the keel, in which were bomb compartments; also the lavatory. The bombs were released from the captain's compartment. They hung on hooks over sliding shutters. The vessel was well equipped against aerial attack. There were two gun platforms forward near the nose and one astern, each mounting a half-inch quick-firer. No searchlights were found, but the crew may have dropped them at sea. There was apparatus aboard apparently for producing smoke clouds in which to hide. A petrol tank marked 14-7-'l6 indicates that the vessel was completed on or after that date."