WORLD’S GREATEST AIRSHIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 4, 26 March 1927, Page 11

WORLD’S GREATEST AIRSHIP

SUPER-ZEPP NOW BUILDING AT FRIEDRICHSHAFEN Aeronautic engineers are again turning to the development of rigid airships of huge dimensions. The United States Navy Department has called for design data and bids for the construction of one or two dirigibles with a gas capacity of more than 6,000,000 cubic feet each, three times the size of the wrecked Shenandoah; the British Government is building great ships for the projected empire air routes. Meanwhile the Germans, proud of the development of the Zeppelin in their own country, are concentrating all their skill on the building of a new super-Zeppelin, the features of which are described in the following article. A T the famous airship harbour of Friedrichshafen, on the shores of Lake Constance, Germany is building her greatest Zeppelin—a super-Zeppe-lin compared with the 126 ships of the same type that have preceded her. Under the original plan this titan of the air was to have explored the Arctic zone. Now that both Byrd and Amundsen have flown over the North Pole, the one in an airplane, the other in a dirigible airship, this superZeppelin must find other employment —perhaps in exploring regions of the earth about which little is known, perhaps in carrying passengers across whole continents and oceans. Spidery Shapes. Gigantic web-like rings built up of intricate, delicate struts, braces, cross-pieces and wires, the shimmering duralumin working upon the eye almost like silver in the ashen light, lie prostrate upon the floor of the shed at Friedrichshafen. The winter twilight in this grey void gives power and awe and imagination to the sight. And a kind of pathos, too, for the helplessness that attaches to inanimate things broods over these spidery shapes lying inert in this silent place. They are still mere parts; they lack the vital form and the informing, guiding hand of man. There is as yet little majesty about the separate sections of the LZ-127, as the super-Zeppelin is provisionally called, but presently the ship will take form and grow into a mighty thing. The signboard, "Passengers’ Waiting Room,” dating from the days when. Zeppelins cruised to and fro between Friedrichshafen and Berlin, seems to presage the day when the newest and largest airship will set forth on her voyages. Actual construction of the LZ-127 has been delayed partly by the adoption of new engineering ideas, but chiefly by lack of funds. When Count von Zeppelin brought himself to the verge of bankruptcy because of his stubborn belief in the type of airship he had created, the German people enthusiastically poured money into ‘ a popular fund which saved him from ruin and enabled him to continue his work. So strongly rooted is the Zeppelin idea in the German people that they have once more come to the rescue. The LZ-127 will be their child, in a sense, for the funds so far available have all been collected by popular subscription—the so-called "Zeppelin Spende.” A third of the money necessary to complete the airliner is still lacking, but this the Government has expressed its willingness to supply. Will Stay a Week Aloft. This new Zeppelin will be larger than her immediate predecessor, the Los Angeles, which, it will be recalled, was piloted across the Atlantic Ocean by Dr. Eckener, chief engineer of the Zeppelin Company, and which has been seen voyaging through the air by the people of the principal American cities. The Los Angeles is 660 feet long; the new airship 764 feet. The gas Capacity of the Los Angeles is 2,400,000 cubic feet; while that of the LZ-127 is 3,400,000 cubic feet. Both ships have about the same speed—-seventy-five miles an hour. Unlike the Los Angeles, the LZ-127 uses ethylene gas as fuel—an innovation in airship propulsion. Before the war the world marvelled that a rigid dirigible could stay aloft twenty-four hours. The endurance of the LZ-127 will be at least a week. At the outbreak of the World War the best naval Zeppelin could lift eight and a-half tons in addition to her own weight. Dr. Eckener, designer of the LZ-127, states that her "disposable lift,” as engineers call it, will be fifteen tons for a voyage for 6,200 miles. A thousand cubic feet of hydrogen will lift sixty-eight pounds, and the LZ.-127 has a gas capacity of 3,400,000 cubic feet. Dr. Eckener’s estimate is clearly very conservative, even if we make every allowance for the dead weight of the ship, stores and crew. A disposable lift of fifteen tons will enable the LZ-127 to carry 100 passengers, with fifty pounds of baggage and fifty pounds of food for each. On a short flight—one between New York and Chicago, for example—fewer supplies would be required, so that the LZ-127 could easily carry 200 passengers, provided accommodation could for them. Colossal as the LZ-127 is, she is a veritable dwarf compared with other ships that have been proposed. Soberminded English engineers have discussed the advantages of building a ship of 10,000,000 cubic feet capacity and 1,000 feet long. So eminent an engineer as Sir Charles Parsons has suggested that a vessel 1,500 feet long be constructed "to see how it would work out.” Zeppelin himself advocated bigger and ever bigger airships ir. his lifetime. The reason is easily understood. If a box contains nine cubic feet it is not necessary to double each dimension to make it hold twice as much. A small increase suffices. So it is with an airship. A comparatively slight enlargement is followed by an enormous increase in gas and lifting capacity. Here lies the secret of the rigid dirigible’s commercial possibilities. Build a ship of staggering proportions, as the English engineers have proposed, make her a veritable Leviathan of the air, and her profitable lift increases astoundingly. Could Be a Mile Long. But this does not mean that the designer may be prodigal in the use of metal. To carry as many passengers and as much fuel as possible ounces must be saved without sacrificing strength. Aluminium naturally suggests itself. Something stronger is needed. Long before the war German metallurgists developed an alloy called "duralumin,” which has ever since been used both in constructing the long, cylindrical frame in which the gas containers are confined and in fashioning those metal parts which need not be of steel or brass. To use as little duralumin as possible and thus save even more weight, and gain more lifting power for passengers, crew and fuel, the small metal braces as well as the larger rings and struts have been designed with scrupulous regard for lightness and strength. Thus is to be explained the lace-like aspect of the seemingly delicate members of which the skeleton of the LZ--127 will be composed. The cylindrical, cage-like duralumin frame of a Zeppelin is like a bridge. It can be made miles long, if there were any sense in doing so, and the load is distributed as in a bridge, so that each member, how ever frail it may appear to the eye, bears its proportionate share.