A NEW AIRSHIP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 237, 30 September 1908, Page 2

A NEW AIRSHIP.

All account of mi airship, which, its inventor claims, i.s capable of j);'i'K)rminjr tlia voyage from Pretoria to LOll- - in six days, is published by the Transvaal Weekly. The average man is in the lialiit of accepting, at a generous discount, tiie highly-optimistic assertion to which would-be aerial navigators arw prone. In Ulis ease, liowever, it is pointed out that tli« invontor, a (lerniau engineer, lias succeeded in convincing several of the Wstknown public men in the Transvaal, that his ideas are worth developing, and that they have advanced hundreds of pounds for the purpose. Air Ileinze states that, as the result of years of I study and experiment, he has evolved | an airship that can be controlled in all sorts of weather, -and steered as eas--1 ily as ft motor ear. Of course, the es- | sential details are. not divulged, but tiro following particulars, supplied on I:l]r' authority of the inventor, show thai, in the matter of expectations Mr. Ileinze in no wise lags behind other potential conqirerors of the air. "The. movements and soaring of the machine will be in every way similar to those of birds, and it will readily respond To the rudder and elevation eon- | irol, It will carry 12 to I I passengers. The ship will lie about 308 ft long, the routre 43ft in diameter; tli'e halloon will contain in volume 15,(100 cubic, feet o'r hydrogen, ami the machine will have a lifting power of 30,00011), the ship ittott weighing about. 2ft,oooll>, The vessel will be driven by compressed air, worked by four motors, each having 100 horsepower. Tt i s easily steered, and in adverse weather will make about 05 miles per hour, and in favorable wcatlnr. anything un to almost double (hat <igure Tt will have accommodation rivalling that of the Fnion-Oastle line—cabins, a saloon, a promenade deck—evei'vthinir excepting baths. Tt will dive in the teeth of the hardest gale, sail before a-javorablc wind, or heat up again-t winds from nnv quarter. The cost of the airship is estimated at about■ £30.000 and mosf.of the money for the forerunner of f ho coming fleet has been guaranteed. Vor the scheme which Mr. Ileiuze propounds is not to stop at the building o'f a single ship. IT,> is sanguine of sucoesc - the working ,>f his models Ims assured him that—aild once success is demonstrated, a syndicate will "he formed for the .purpose of running a service between South Africa and England. The complete service would be a ship ipr day, keeping its in. weelclv touch wilh "Europe, and revolutionising passenger transit the world over."