AIRSHIPS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8527, 3 September 1907, Page 5

AIRSHIPS.

BRITISH WAR OFFICE EXPERIMENTS. Received September 2, 8.33 a.m. LONDON, September 1. The Daily Mail states that the War Office, "after two years' secret experiments, has built an airship approximately to the type of the La Patrie. It has a sausage shaped balloon eight feet by thirty feet. Both planes and fan propellers will be used. In the direction £of propulsion it is believed that the petrol motor will be a great advance on French and German engines. The airship will be floated at Aldershot in a fortnight. The French military balloon La Patrie recently did some excellent trials, proving very tractable. There have been so many atterrpts to solve the difficulty of aerial navigation, that were it not for the success which attended the "La Patrie" trials, one might well be pardoned for doubting if ever it would be overcome. In November of last year M. Santos Dumont conducted a series of experiments, which threw into the shaie his prior achievements, for he actually maintained an equal and uniform flight for a distance of 240 yards without touching the ground, nearly 20 feet above it, and travelling at the compartively low speed of 25 miles an hour. M. Dumont appeared to have the aeroplane fully under control.

Another aeroplane, of which great things were expected, was the German machine the Kapferer. Behind the main structure, which measures 35 feet in length by 6 feet in width, are two smaller planes 12 feet by 6 feet, while in front is the rudder, which works vertically. The two bladed propellor is about 5 feet in diameter, and is placed at the back of the principal bi-plane, the motive power being supplied by a Buchet motor of 24 h.p.' which, however,'is to be replaced by another of 50 h.p. The apparatus is mounted on two bicycle wheels, and weighs altogether nearly 5 cwt. This was the model, and it appeared to have worked so satisfactorily that on the same principle the larger concern may have been made. Yet another German airship, of which much was expected, was the dirigible airship constructed by Count von Zeppelin, who carried out his experiments over Lake Constance. His dirigible airship is 410 feet in length, and is credited with being able to lift three tons additional to its own weight. It is said to have held itself stationary against a 33 1-3 mile-an-hour v/ind. The motive power consists of. two 85 h.p. motors driving four propellers, two on each side of the ship. During the trials which were held in the latter part of 1906 the airship at one time was aloft for a period of over two hours and reached a height of 1,000 feet above the lake. It was under perfect control during the entire period, being steered readily ir. various directions. The immense proportions of the Zeppelin design form its most notable feature. The craft utilised in 1900 was about 420 feet in length. The one which made the last ascent is but 10 feet shorter, while its diameter has been somewhat increased, giving it a capacity of about 370,000 cubic feet of gas. This is 32,000 feet more than the former type. The total weight of the present airship, however, is 2,2001b less than the original design, being 19,8001b with ballast and equipment.