THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1910. THE PASSENGER AIRSHIP.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10030, 2 July 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1910. THE PASSENGER AIRSHIP.

Although disaster has again overtaken a German Zeppelin type of passenger airship, it may be taken for granted that the occurrence, which fortunately was unattended by the loss of life, will not in the least damp the [ardour of those enthusiasts who have set their minds upon conquering the air. The determination o£ Germany to establish an aerial passenger service, already at a cost of several valuable Zeppelins, certainly deserves to be crowned with success.One of thess day she will fkid the missing link with the air, and the prediction of Santos Dumont will be verified. Only a few years ago that celebrated "fiyine man" elaborately explained in an English review the trips that he would presently take hia friends in a lighter-than-air ship consisting of a balloon, a motor, and a passenger car. Although Santos Dumonf, like many another pioneer, has been outdone in competitive progress, his description broadly tits the typical Zeppelin airship, which has a cigar-shaped combination of Em ill ballcon3 containing hydrogen and enclcsed In a stiff aluminium framework; engines driviDg fore-and-aft screws; a passenger car betW3en the two engine-cars; and fixed and movable planet* acting as fins and

ludders. This huge- contrivance pro bably 400 feet or more in length, is the most immune air vehicle yet invented, for although there have been accidents they appear to have only been such as may be expected to happen to the beat-regulated contrivance in the course of development. In France, indeed, the Parisians daily I expect to hear of reguar services actoss the English Channel and over Europe, presently with extensions to Africa and Asia There is no longer any "problem of flight," apparently, for men "fly'' with facility and swift approximation to security. One | aviator has aeroplaned from France, to England, another from London to I Manchester, while a third —the first of the "star" British fliers—has gone over the Channel and back again as coolly as he could have done it in a steamer. These latter are the more wonderful, as well as the more significant feats. The big balloon-airship only improves, though greatly, on the old balloon, while the aeroplanes are true fliers as closely as that word can bejjpplied to human effort. Moreover the indications are that the swift aeroplane is the vehicle which would count for most in tha aerial warfare that has to be considered as a certainty of the future.