ÆRONAUTICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2767, 23 March 1910, Page 5

ÆRONAUTICS.

GERMANY’S BIG FLEET. United Press Association —Copyright BERLIN, March 21. Fourteen German airships are in commission, and nine are being constructed. • a. A TOURIST SERVICE. ' PARIS, March 21. A Paris firm is supplying a Lucerne company with two dirigible airships for tourist service round the Rigi, Mount Pilatus, and Lake Lucerne. AEROPLANES POPULAR IN ENGLAND. LONDON, March 21. Fifty aeroplanes were sold at the Olympia Exhibition. The total price obtained was £30,000. ANOTHER AUSTRALIAN’S FLIGHT MELBOURNE, March 22. Houtlini made another bi-plane flight. He covered six miles in 7 minutes 37 seconds.

BUILDING AN AIRSHIP.

Describing a visit to the Clement Bay_ aid works, a writer says'The first inn pression you would get, if you did not know what it was, would be that a battleship wa© in course of - construction here. In the middle are the engines, the captain’s bridge, the passenger’s deck. Forward and backward from these sweep long, harmonious lines of metal. In front tlie framework, fifty yards, long in all, end© in a pointed nose with a strong light attached to it for signalling. At the rear are the great rudders, worked by two wheels on the bridge. These govern both direction and the upward and downward movement. Let me note now, as an indication of the precautions which have been taken in every respect, that the wires which work the rudders are in duplicate, with separate pulleys, and with an ingenious contrivance for cliquing them down into the pulleys, so that they cannot break loose. Most impressive are the giant propellers. High up on either side of the engines they hang smooth and shining. Of polished walnut they arc made, by Chauviere. the famous designer of helices.; and covered with aspecial varnish which prevents them from being weakened bv wet. Nearly twenty feet long they are, more than three times the. height of an exceptionally tall man. You can see their power by the hurling past of pieces of paper and waste when they are set going. The wind thev create is tremendous Yet so cleverly arc they placed that on the bridge one feels very little of it. I did not even have l to hold my hat on. Another surprise. I had when the engines were started—two beautiful motors of 130 li.p. each. Lher e was scarcely any vibration.