NAVY AIRSHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 50, 8 June 1910, Page 3

NAVY AIRSHIPS.

GRKAT I.UI'UOVEME.NT OX THE ZEPPELIN.

Never before have the possibilities of aerial navigation in regard to !i_'hter-than-air machines been the sudjccv 01 such thorough investigation as now i>,v the Admiralty and the experts pawed on the naval airship building at Barrow. This vessel is to be generally similar to the latest Zeppelin. It will be somewhat smaller, but it will be faster. The Zeppelin Iras the same circamference from bow to stern, with bluff conical ends. The British authorities may at one time have favored this design but experiments at the P.riti-h Air Office, which is an adjunct of the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, have proved that there is a better.

It was found at Teddington that models which tapered gradually to each cud offered the least resistance to the air, and generally the better result-. The Zeppelin shape caused a drag aft owing to its extended wide beam. The design which gave the best figures was similar in outline to the deck plant of a cruiser. England's first naval airship will, in fact, be mackerel shaped. Its greatest beam will be forward of amidships, as is the case with all up-to-date designs of warships. The extremities will be bluff pointed, and from the widest beam the ship will gradually taper aft. It win .«• octagonal, and the greatest diameter will be about 48 feet. The design will necessitate the most careful distribution of suspended machinery, controlling cars, stores, etc., and the propellers will have to be placed further forward, so as to place the weight beneath that part of the ve ; sel having the greatest buoyancy. As to the length of the new airship, it is enough to say that the shed at Messrs Maxim," in which it is to be built, is 000 feet Ion?, and that when the vessel is complete there will not be much more than SO or !10 feet to spare at the ends. The revised lines of the No. 1 will mean yresiter rigidity, ft will be divided into eight or nine sections, each independent gas-holders. The framework is to consist mostly of half H shaped aluminium alloy, which is the lightest metal obtainable, and is several times stronger than aluminium.

Speed is being aimed at, and elaborate experiments are being made at Teddington and at Barrow. The machines will be made by the Vickers firm n.t their Wolseley-Siddeley works at Birmingham. The vessel will carry electrical generating machinery, which will be used for wireless telegraphy, and for the creation of eas from water for filling the gas chambers. There is much to be done yet. and many tests and experiments have to be made before the design is complete, but everything points to a 'big step being taken forward in aerial navigation by H.M. Naval Airship No. 1.