AIRSHIPS IN WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 19 July 1907, Page 4

AIRSHIPS IN WAR.

j GKKMAX oFFK'FJt OX '■ UTOPIAN" [ VISIONS." Major Parseval, the constructor of the airship now being experimented with by the German army, has expressed similar views with regard to the use of these vessels in time of war to those of Lieu-tenant-General Lilzmaim. recently published.

-Major Parseval described as mere fairy tales those utopiaii visions of "the nations' airy navies battling in the airy blue," wln'eb lu! ve lately occupied the attention of some romancers. At the piescnt momeui there are no preparations being made for the building if aerial battleships, or, added the aeronaut. of aerial transport-'. "All the talk alt i-e-satiou of the advantages which F.ng jlaiul possesses from her insular position, 'owing to her future inability to prob-ct herself with the licet against a military invasion per airship, is just talk. : i ii, speed and steerage of airships is still very largely dependent on the wind and the carrying power of an airship is not. great. A vessel which could not transport ,i ci-mpa'iv weald nee'! to be of monstrous proportions, and would make an easy target on approaching the enemy's coasts. At present it would be almost entirely out of lmc c.nesthm to keep such a leviathan out of the range of the enemy's guns. Major I'arseval is also more sceptical than General Litzmann as to the adaptability of the airship in actual warfare. He points out that an army in the Held would be unable to convey for any distance the cumbersome and complicated apparatus necessary for filling such a vessel with gas. Hence the chief value of airships in war for a long time to come lie in reconnoitring from permanent fortified camps. The aeronaut is sceptical as to the usefulness of the airship as a bomb-vessel It would have to maintain a considerable height to be out of range of the enemy's guns, and at such height it seems at present dubious whether bombs dropped could be depended upon to strike anything like exactly where they were intended.