AERONAUTICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2571, 4 August 1909, Page 5

AERONAUTICS.

THE ZEh. ELIN’S FLIGHT. CARRIES SEVEN PASSENGERS. United Press Association— Copyright. BERLIN, August 2. The Zeppelin is making continuous journeys. It travelled from Friedrichshafen to Frankfort, and carried seven passengers. The airship, rising through a hailstorm to a height of 3000 feet, passed over Ulm, Stuttgart, Heilbroun, Heidelberg, and Darmstadt, and made the journey under twelve hours.

EDISON’S PROPHECY. A FRENCH DURATION RECORD ESTABLISHED. (Received August 3, 9.55 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 3. The United States have paid the Wrights 30,000 dollars, including a bonus, because the speed of their aeroplane exceeded 40 miles. Edison prophesies that in 19 years aeroplanes will carry mails at a speed of 100 miles per hour. PARIS, August 3. Sommers, on a Farman aeroplane, in 110 minutes covered 70 miles, at a height of 80ft, starting from Chalons camp. This is a French record in duration. (Received August 3, 10.20 p.m.) BERLIN, August 3. Count Zepppelin attempted to reach Cologne, hut a strong wind and a defective motor forced him to return to Frankfurt.

On March 22 the aeronautical correspondent of “The Times” wrote: “In 1912 Germany will have at least mammoth Zeppelin ships, each capable of oversea excursions, and probably speedier than any naval vessel! In the present year she will have four Zeppelins, and tho magnificent factory at Fricdrichshafen, endowed with over £300,000 by the German nation, will be able to turn out at least eight vessels a year after their autumn. Thus, by 1912 Germany can have 24 Zeppelins, and 'her other military dirigibles will number at least a dozen. . Our rate of production is one vessel per annum, and by 1912 we may have at most five small-sized, slow, non-rigid airships, which as compared with the Zeppelins, Vill bo as antiquated cruisers to Dreadnoughts, We' have no up-to-date facilities for building large dirigibles even of the. non-rigid type; and as for the faster rigid craft of the Zeppelin type, we have absolutely no experience or resources, either of the Government or private, which would enable us to. lay down such ships successfully. British experts have sneered at the Zeppelin, and they have never built a ship of the kind, though it is now established to be the fastest and the most powerful, and the only craft which can attempt long oversea voyages. Our fleet of five ships in 1912, if built according to the present estimates, will be _ fitted only for overland work, and will be quite unable to cope with the larger and swifter German vessels, which can. mount better guns and carry more explosives-. A Zeppelin of the presentday type could reach this country in ten hours and do enormous damage m a brief space of time. Our experts have no adequate idea of the improvements whiph can be effected in the Zeppelins in the next year or two. Twentyfour great vessels of a vastly-improved type might, in 1912, put ten or more of our Dreadnoughts out of action, and damage our naval bases seriously ; while Germany would still have a wentried second aerial fleot of 12 dirigibles to carry out further operations. . I say nothing of the moral effect of this sudden aerial attack, or of the panic which would be created by a single German ship making a demonstration over London. The majority of people in this country laugh at the whole idea, and. even aeronautical writers pooh-pooh the possibility of attack by dirigibles; and vet the records made by the Zep>elin in. 1908 show! that a ship of tins type have travelled over 360 miles, and late records show its speed to be up to *35 miles an hour, with power, to ascend to an altitude of over a mile. It can carry at least a ton of explosives and sufficient supplies for a run of over 800 miles. The bee-line distance between the most contiguous parts of England, and Germany is under 250 miles. Yet the whole notion of aerial attach by vessels of the- Zeppelin type is ridiculed in this country. At least three, highly-equipped factories in Germany are now making dirigibles, and Count Zeppelin alone lias £300,000 for the work. Are. we wise to shut our eyes to the steady, scientific progress of skilled and serious men, and to trust to our theorists when they assert that Zeppelin and his compatriots are foolishly striving after the impossible?”