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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0762.PDF
I/DCHT) probability that in the modern Zeppelins some of the constructional features of the Schiitte-Lanz have been incorporated, when the necessity for speed rendered a stream-line form of hull advisable. In the official report of the bringing down of the airship it was stated that the employment of wood might indicate a scarcity of aluminium in Germany. With this we can hardly agree, in view of the fact that Germany has inside her boundaries vast resources of the aluminium ore from which the metal is produced. The duralumin used in the construction of the German airships does not, of course^ consist of pure aluminium, but is an alloy of which the chief constituent in addition to the aluminium is magnesium, which forms the hardening agent. Also of this there is every reason to suppose that Germany possesses ample raw material. The a a V.C. for Lieut. W. L. Robinson, R.F.C, THE following appeared in the London Gazettf of the 5th inst. :— " H.M. the King has been graciously pleased to award the V.C. to the under-mentioned officer :— " Lieut. Wm. Leefe Robinson (Worcester Regt. and R.F.C.). For most conspicuous bravery. " He attacked an enemy airship under circumstances of great difficulty and danger, and sent it crashing to the ground as a flaming wreck. " He had been in the air for more than two hours, and had previously attacked another airship during his flight." Born at Tellidetta, South Coorg, South India, Lieut. William Leefe Robinson was 21 on July 14th last. He is a son of Mr. Horace Robinson and a grandson of Mr. W. C. Robinson, R.N., Chief Naval Constructor at Portsmouth SEPTEMBER 7, 1916. reasons for substituting wood for the duralumin are, therefore, hardly to be sought for in any scarcity of raw material for the manufacture of the metal, but must be attributed to advantages which the wood has been found to possess for construction of stream-line structures. One of the chief troubles experienced with the duralumin construction was, we believe, that the rivets joining the various component parts of the framework were in the habit of shearing under the effects of the vibration from the engines and other stresses to which such a large structure is subjected. This departure in constructional methods might be kept in mind by our own designers, and the lesson thus learned taken advantage of when building rigid airships. H H Dockyard. He came to England when six months old and returned to India when he was seven. At fourteen he came back again, and went to St. Bee's School, Cumberland. After travelling in France for some time, he entered Sandhurst in August, 1914, and on December 16th of that year was gazetted to the Worcestershire Regiment. Later he joined the Royal Flying Corps, and was in France as an observer from February last until on May 9th he was wounded in the right arm by shrapnel whilst flying over Lille. He came back to England, and, after convalescence, began training as a pilot, taking his certificate on July 28th, 1915. Subsequently he was trained as a night pilot, and was up on all the raids near London for the last seven months. Lieut. Robinson's only surviving brother is at present in Mesopotamia. [Just as " FJLIGHT " is on the Press it is announced that the airship brought down was "L. 21,"] THE ZEPP. HOLOCAUST.—R.F.C. men collecting the wire—some wire—of the destroyed airship at Cuftley. On the left is a motor lurry with a load of other " relics " of the monster dirigible, and beyond the lurry is seen the little chapel where the mortal remains of the airship's crew found temporary sanctuary, 758
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