£ S. D. OF AERIAL NAVIGATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 210, 9 October 1909, Page 3

£ S. D. OF AERIAL NAVIGATION.

l WHAT FLYIXG MACHINES COST. : (The triumph of Bleriot. the first man to ily across the Channel, was dearly , bought—that is, in regard to the expenditure of money. It is nine years ago since he made his first aeroplane, and since thru he has tspent about .120.000 in aerial experiments. I This amount gives some idea of the [costliness of striving for the mastery of the air. While Bleriot, however, has expended .v' 20,000, Ihe German Covernment has been spending hundred 6 of I thousands. Last year no less than | £107,000 was spent by the Fatherland on the actual construction of aeroplanes ' and dirigible balloons, in addition to which £300,000 was contributed by the nation to a fund which has been used to equip a factory capable of turning out ten Zeppelins a year. What a contrast to the £SOOO spent bv our (lovernmeijl; last year on aerial experiments, and the £78.000 which Ah*, ilaldane announces, will be spent on aerouautics during the | k'lirrent year! 1 ' SOLD FOR £BO.OOO. | 1 /•Itni'ether Zeppelin spent £25.000 on hi- ;)<rinl < xperiments before he obtained «t-ioe'iVts from the (Government and syndicates. although he is said to have sold one of his airships, with its shed, for. £BO.OOO to the German Government. | An airship of the Zeppelin tvpe coais' between £30.000 and £40,000 io construct. and recently a German engineer, 'apropos of the suggested passenger service by airship between different points •n Germany, made an interesting calculation of the expenses and profits. A dirigible of about 20,000 cubic yards like the Zeppelin would require to he halfreinflated once a week, he estimates, and this process would consume 40,000 cubic yards of gas a month. At about 2d per 1 cubic yard, the cost of the lifting force would be £335 a month, or £2OIO per year, reckoning the actual service as extending over six months. COST OF VOYAGES. The airship has two 150-h.p. motors, the working of which costs in petrol and oil £1 10s per hour. On the assumption that tne day's work consists of twelve hours, if the airship works twenty days a month, the motive power for the six months wiil cost £2IOO. The staff would consist of a captain at a salary of £4OO, two steersmen receiving £250 each, and four engineers at £l5O. The total expenditure on the staff on board would therefore be £ISOO. The dirigible would have to pay at each aerial nation a duty of about £lO for ' each stoppage, and this item would amount to £I2OO for 120 annual vov-

1 The total cost of each voyage would] ,be about £2OO. A dirigible of 20.0001 cubic yards can carry from twenty-fnv to thirty passengers, but supposing that it takes on an average twenty passengers. the co6t per passenger would be £lO for a twelve hours' voyage. If an| .aerial company, therefore, charged £151 j for a voyage, it would allow itself a I good margin for profit. I ! PRIZES TO BE WON. Aeroplanes, of course, cost much less, varying from £250 to £ISOO. The Wright machine is priced at £I4OO, although the inventors have spent, many times that amount in perfecting the-r machine. Incidentally it is interesting to note that there is still an enormous number of prizes to be won by aviators. Thb\ range from the £IO.OOO offered to the man who flies from London to Manchester in twenty-four hours with not more than two stops, to the £4O offered to the first Frenchman to beat Wright's high fly record. Amongst other interesting prizes might be mentioned th} £IOOO offered by Sir William Hartley to the first person to make a successful flight in a heavier-than-air machine between Liverpool and Manchester, and the £4OOO offered to the first Englishman who flies the Channel in an English aeroplane; and if he cannot win this £4OOO, the British aviator might try for the Cup and £SOO offered to whoever before sunset on 31st March each year shall have flown the greatest distance in the United Kingdom.—Ho:ne paper.