WAR AIRSHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 227, 18 September 1908, Page 4

WAR AIRSHIPS.

" XUTUIiNG TO BE FEARED I ; UR A LONG TIME," OFFICIAL VIEW. In the highest military circles in Great Britain it is accepted tluit so far airships are a failure. The military authorities have had experts employed in watching the llights of the various airships and aeroplanes, and the impression is that for a long time to ceme there is nothing to be feared from them. The Government has not stinted the necessary funds for experiments at Aldershot and elsewhere, but the ltoyal Engineers,' on whom lias devolved the task of finding at least a dirigible balloon, are contenting themselves with cautious experiments. From time to time reports are received of the performances of various airships and -aeroplane; on the Continent, and in every case details of mechanism and construction have been available. The Army Council is therefore thoroughly aware of all that is taking place both on the Continent and America, in aerostatics. Consultations have been held at the. , War Ollice with expert artillerists as t u how airship attacks can best be mat. and the plan of campaign, ill which the ■ principal feature will be the use of liighI angle fire and high-explosive shells, has I been evolved.

The military authorities point to the fact that nowhere has any machine designed for flight in the air proved effective. Tlie English Dirigible Xo. 1 broke down under stres s of weather. Count Zeppelin's airship, when it was put to a serious test, involving no less a sum than CUI0,0(1(), promptly broke dowa. 111 - .' Farman's aeroplane was to' have been tried in 'England, but no place was found suitable for his- experiments because of the presence of trees, telegraph wires, and so on. All this points to a lack of practical working in the various designs of which *o lniuh has been made in the Continental press. When it is possible to cross the Channel, say, with a party of excursionists mid land at airv fixed point the War Ollice may lie prepared to regard experiments seriously.