"FLYING CRUISERS."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3119, 20 February 1909, Page 4

"FLYING CRUISERS."

The German Ministry of Marine has decided to order four airship cruisers from the Zeppelin Airship Construction Company at Friedrichshaven. Naval experts who recommended this innovation propose that the cruisers shall be used for scouting rather than for destructive operations. Each of the four aerial warships will have a capacity of from 12,000 to 14,000 cubic metres, so their size will be approximately equal to that of the latest Zeppelin vessels. They are to be built under Count Zeppelin's personal supervision, with all the latest improvements of the Zeppelin system embodied in them, and they will cost £50,000 each. It is proposed to station two at Wilhslmsnaven and two at Kiel. Simultaneously with the construction of the aerial cruisars the supreme naval authorities propose to construct a new type of floating docks, which when covered with a roof, will become floating balloon sheds. Hithrto the Ministry of Marine has abstained from the purchase of airships, all aerial vessels bslo::ginsr to the Government having been acquired by the War Office. The decision of the naval authorities that four

aerial cruisers are necessary is an additional proof that German experts are very much in earnest in attributing extensive possibilities to the use of airships in warfare.