AERIAL NAVIGATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8550, 7 October 1907, Page 5

AERIAL NAVIGATION.

COLONEL TEMPLERJS AIRSHIP. SUCCESSFUL TESTS. Received October 7, 1.15 a.m. LONDON, October 6. Colonel Tempter's military airship, the Nulli Secundus, leavinc Fam,boroughat 10.40 o'clock in the morning and starting against a light wind, steered via Staines to London, and pasaed.over.St.Paul'a at 12.25 o'clock. Whor. Atthad travelled 33 miles it circled a dome and finally skilfully descended -in the centre of the cycle track at Crystal Palace at 2.15 o'clock. Colonels Capper and Cody and Lieutenant Waterlow were aboard, and were delighted with the 'behaviour of the ;ship, which rose and fell at their bidding. The aeroplane steered perfectly and the journey aroused intense public interest. The whirl of the screw and the noise of the motor were plainly audible.

Colonel Tempter's airship made a successful preliminary. ascent at Farnborough Common on September 10th. The aii-ship circled in the air under perfect control, but it descended prematurely owing to an accident to the driving belt. Colonel Capper, superintendent of the balloon section of the Royal Engineers, expressed the greatest satisfaction at the manner in which the balloon answered its rudder, both with and against the wind. A second and thoroughly successful ascent was made later with three occupants, Last week, at another trial, the airship attained a speed of 20 miles an hour with the wind and 12 miles an hour against it. The Daily Mail recently stated that the War Office, after two years' secret experiments, had built an airship approximating to the type of La Patrie. It was a sausageshaped balloon Bft by 30ft. Propulsion, it is believed, wiU be by the use of petrol, and thci motor is said to be a great advance on the French and German engines. The airship floated at Aldershot for a fortnight. About six weeks ago a new German airship manoeuvred successfully above the chief streets of Berlin. On reaching the Reichstag building, the balloon traced accurately the course of the Siegesallee and Unter den Linden to the Imperial castle, round which it circled several times. Already the rapid advance of the dirigible balloon is causing a certain anxiety in Berlin, and an interesting table has been published of measures proposed as the basis of a law to set limitations upon the liberty of airships before these become a "menace to the State." After the sound-. ing of an alarm to the effect that there is nothing to prevent the French dirigible airship sailing today with a camera over German fortifications, the proposal is made that the Government alone shall possess the right to build, own, and use airships except in cases in which a special license has been issued. From the day on which such a law is passed, it is proposed, all private airships shall be expropriated and foreign airships bar.ished. Foreign balloons intruding illegally, and private ballouns refusing to comply with the laws, are to be fired upon if necessary. Inmates of the former, if the circumstances are suspicious, are to be tried as spies. Persons making use oE non-dirigible balloons, it is suggested, shall notify each ascent in advance, receiving a certificate which they must uroduca on landing, when also details concerning their route must be furnished to the authorities. The authorities are to be privileged to forbid an ascent, and may also search a balloon and confiscate suspicious objects. All use of private balloons, it is further proposed, shall be forbidden in war, and it is suggested that an international agreement be concluded providing that where fortifications are situated on frontiers • dirigible balloons are not to approach within a radius of ten miles. Reuter states that the German airship travelled 12J miles an hour against the wind. The French airship Patrie reached a speed of 18 miles an hour against the wind while manoeuvring over Paris.