Mammoth R101

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 520, 24 November 1928, Page 16

Mammoth RlOl

LAST WORD IN AIR LUXURY

Safety Fuel Eliminates Fire Risk

A MAMMOTH airship, replete with most of the luxuries of an Atlantic liner —comfortable two-berth cabins, spacious lounges, drawing rooms and promenades, and a restaurant at which one may enjoy, while travelling at a minimum speed of 70 miles an hour, an excellent meal, served from an electric kitchen —must seem a vision as fantastic as those of Jules Verne; yet such things are promised in the RlOl, which is in course of construction at Cardington. a remote village some miles from the little town of Bedford.

To the casual visitor there is inspiration in the sight of 600 people busily assembling this leviathan of the skies, which is to so dramatically challenge time and distance. One enters a huge iron shed, that squats like some uncouth prehistoric monster In the centre of a pleasant plain. Never was beauty more hideously housed. Once inside, the visitor is awed by intricate webs of wire woven into harmonious patterns, and by the delicate fabrics of steel and aluminium which vanishes Into the dim height, like the tracery of a Gothic cathedral. The beauty and boldness of the design are paralleled by the careful finish of each individual part. Not a bolt or a rivet but is fitted and polished with meticulous care. The work of the mediaeval builders, who joyously laboured over each and every part of a great design, has its modern counterpart in this triumph of engineering skill. , The actual work of construction has been repaid. The central portion of the ship, the main weightcarrying and lifting section, has taken only two months to complete, and it is expected that the ship will be ready for home trials by the end of the year. So often has the ship been constructed and reconstructed on paper that at its present stage the work resembles the assembling of a gigantic meccano. The component parts, even to the bolts, are all numbered. and have simply to be assembled on the floor and hoisted into position. Years of the most careful calculation lie behind this apparent simplicity. The initial brain-work would not, of course, be repeated when new ships are built. As the cost of materials and assembling is small in proportion to that of designing and research, future ships should be constructed with the greatest economy. Great Care and Accuracy

which should enable him to meet all emergencies. Driven By Diesels The machinery of the airship consists of five independent power units, each arranged to be self-contained and easily replacabie in case of breakdown even when the ship is lying at the mooring mast. Each unit consists of a Beadmore Diesel engine of 650 h.p. and a small auxiliary engine, which not only starts the main engine through a Bendix gear, but also helps to drive the air compressor for the transfer of fuel and ballast, and, when the ship is travelling at low speeds, an electric generator. The airscrew has blades of variable pitch, which can be reversed, or, if necessary, set to neutral so as to give no thrust at all. The engines are cooled by the evaporation of steam instead of by water circulating through a radiator. This not only economises in water weight, but permits of the radiators being placed in any part of the ship. Heating of the passenger quarters is thus provided for without difficulty or extra expense. The risk of fire, so frequent a cause of disaster, is negligible in the R 101, thanks to the replacement of petrol by an oil-fuel with a flashpoint of 210 degrees Fahrenheit, which is considerably higher than that of the fuel used in ships boilers. So safe is it, indeed, that it will extinguish blazing petrol if thrown upon it. An equally impressive test, which is carried out at Cardington, is to play the flame of a blow-lamp casually over the surface of a tin of oil. A fuel which refuses to ignite under such tests, which is fluid at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and can be bought for £5 a ton, is, indeed, a unique discovery. Six Months’ Trials Not only Is every care being taken with the construction of the RlOl, but a staff of trained scientists in various parts of the world is busy investigating meteorological conditions along the projected routes. The Air Ministry is determined that the RlOl shall not share the fate of the famous R 33, if science and the forethought of man can prevent it. After home trials, lasting for some five or six months, the RlOl will start on her long voyage to Egypt and India. Meteorological stations at Cardington, Malta, Ismailia, Bagdad and Karachi -are already preparing daily charts showing the distribution of winds and weather along the whole route, so that the navigating officers of the RlOl are quite familiar with the general conditions which they will experience. Before an airship can come to rest in even moderate winds, it must be linked up with a mooring tower by means of a universally joined coupling. A 200 feet mooring tower with hydrogen plant, passenger lifts, and all necessary equipment, costs about £IOO,OOO. Such masts have already been built at Cardington and Ismailia, and are under construction at Karachi, St. Hubert (Canada) and Croutville (South Africa). If the patience, ingenuity and forethought ot the designers meet with their deserved reward, these trials j should be splendidly successful.

The general design of the ship is well known, but there are some peculiar details which were disclosed only recently. The hull consists of three portions, the central body, the nose, and the tail. The central body is composed of 10 large transverse frames, which differ considerably from those of the Zeppelin type of airship in that they are sufficiently strong to bear almost any strain without cross bracings. The joints are accurately finished within five-thousandths of an inch—one of the many' examples of the infinite care which has been taken. The system of gas-netting, which is employed in conjunction with the frames, is specially noteworthy. It absolutely prevents the gasbags from touching any of the girders, thus eliminating a souce of weakness common to all earlier airships. The gas valves are equally novel and ingenious. As a ship shoots into the thinner air. pressure outside the gasbags naturally decreases, and the hydrogen within them expands. The valves are so constructed to relieve automatically the pressure from within. The same valves can also be operated from the control cabin, and in order to trim the ship in rough weather the whole of the fuel and the water ballast can be blown from tank to tank by compressed air. The commander has thus a measure of control, apart from the ordinary elevators and rudders,