ITALY'S AIR FLEET.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1915, Page 6

ITALY'S AIR FLEET.

SPLENDID EQUIPMENT. Italy is particularly well equipped with airships, especially for lier peculiar needs. In August she had four Govern-ment-liuilt airships of 420,000 cubic feet capacity, each driven by two 250 h.p. engines, and having a speed of fortyfour miles an hour and ability to climb to about 7000 feet. These ships, which are built at Bracciano, are known as the "If." or "medium" type. She has al-30 two German-built Parsevals of 350,000 cubic feet capacity, each with two 180 h.p. Maybach engines, giving a speed of forty-four miles per hour. She has also a new "Forlanini," which has only just passed her tests and is said to have performed very well indeed, and she has "VI," designed by C'aptain Verduzio, which eame out some four months ago. with four ISO h.p. Maybach engines, and proceeded to beat sundry airship records for speed and height. For operations over the mountains of Northern Italy tbe-e ships should lie of the greatest value, for they can hang about over valleys and gorges where aeroplanes could neither start nor land, and most of thein have sufficient speed to work in quite a fair wind and sufficient climbing power to keep out of the way of any ordinary gun. For sea work, also, they will be very useful in patrolling the Adriatic, for they are faster than the fastest seacraft. Several of thein have already done quite good work in clearing the Adr'ia.ti<; QJ HoatJllgnninCS whichjiiid.broken loose from the Austrian defences at Pola and elsewhere. 11l this way the airship crews have had plenty of practice. A* pilots of aeroplanes, and as airmen—using the word" as being analogous to "seamen"—the Italians range with the first in the world. They <ire quick and daring, as one would expect from a race which has produced many of the finest living housemen, for the horseman's hands and eyes are just what the flier needs most. In August of last year. Italy had about-200 military pilots," and the number is now very much greater.