ZEPPELIN SECRETS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 2 January 1917, Page 3

ZEPPELIN SECRETS.

The most serious blow to the Germans in their, airship raids on London in September and October, in j which they lost four airships, was the | present they were compelled to make | of a super-Zeppelin, L 33, to the Brit- j ish authorities. A close inspection of the machine has now been permitted to certain correspondents, and what most impresses the observer at first sight is the frailty of an engine of war carrying some 30 fighting men and 60 bombs, and armed with nine Maxim guns, which in its own element was expected ot prove so destructive and terrifying. The vessel was a dirigible of the very latest type, and it is calculated that her cost may have been anything up to a a.uarter of a million. As old alluminium alone, the value to the Army and Navy may be reckoned in hundreds of pounds. Cylindrical in form, the L 33 was approximately 650 feet to 680 feet in length, and the diameter, at greatest width, 72ft. Fully equipped and armed, and manned by the crew, the vessel weighed 50 tons. Her lighting power was derived from 24 balloonettes, separated and netted, taking two million cubic feet of hydrogen, and her means of propulsion was

supplied by six water-cooled MalbachMercedes engines of 240 h.p. each, and each weighing 10001 b. The fire consumed all the fabric covering of the framework, and an explosion damaged some minor parts, but all the essentials of the vessel were found to be sufficiently intact to enable the author ities to reconstruct her if need be, and to make accurate drawings of her.