AERIAL COMMUNICATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9180, 1 September 1908, Page 4

AERIAL COMMUNICATION.

It is reported that in case the Zeppelin airship finally succeeds in passing the tests prescribed by the German Government, that is to say, in descending on to terra, firma without sustaining any damage, a large company will be at once formed for establishing lines of aerial communication. Krupps are said to be prepared to put several hundred thousand pounds into the scheme. In a lecture which he delivered in Berlin, after his eight-hour cruise last year, the inventor submitted a calculation to show that a line of airships might sail very profitably between Berlin and Copenhagen., The capital outlay he put at £50,000 to cover the cost of one airship, a main station at Betlin, and a landing-place at Copenhagen. One hundred journeys in a 'year in each direction, with twenty-five passengers a time, at £2 10s per head, would bring in £12,500. Deduct £7,500 for expenses, and a dividdnd of ten per cent, would remain. The journey, he said, would occupy only half the time at present needed to traverse the same distance Several papers, however, express doubts whether Count Zsppelin's arrangement with the German Government is likely to permit the exploitation of his invention for purposes of public traffic.