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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0545.PDF
AUGUST II, 1921 THE COMING TRANS-ATLANTIC VOYAGE OF " R. 38" Departure Towards End of August HAVING been completed towards the end of July, the " R. 38," one of the passengersor, as she will be called under American ownership, " Z.R. 2," ;" now at Howden, Yorkshire, where her American crew "is getting used to her little ways, and whence she will start for ' America towards the end of this month. " R. 38 " is by far the largest airship built and designed in this country. It is therefore with a good deal of regret that we see the ship, 'and with her all the lessons she has taught us in the course of her design and construction, getting ready to depart on her trans-Atlantic voyage. With her overall length of 695 ft., and diameter of 85 ft. the "R. 38 " has a cubic capacity of 2,700,000 cu. ft., giving her a gross lift of 83 tons. As the weight of the airship is considerably less than half of that weight (she is very efficient as regards structure weight), she will have ample lift for fuel, ballast, etc., sufficient for a far longer journey than that contemplated. Originally it was decided by the Admiralty, in the spring of 1918, to build four airships of this type, but when the change in airship policy occurred only the " R. 38 " was building. Construction was commenced in November, 1918, at the Cardington (Bedford) works of Messrs. Short Brothers. In April of last year the factory at Cardington was taken over by the Government, and there the construction -was continued, ultimately coming to a conclusion a few weeks ago. The American Navy Department is to pay us -£500,000 for the airship, but we had far rather seen her remain in this country to provide data for the running of commercial airship services to India and Australia. The American crew has been in this country for months learning how to handle a big rigid airship, and on her trip to America " R.38 " will be manned by American officers and men, although it is expected that several representatives of this country will also be on board. The airship will be in charge of Commander L. N. Maxfield, of the U.S.N., who will have with him Major P. E. van Nostrand, of the U.S. Army Balloon and Airship Section. Lieut. T. A. Tinker will be in charge of the official log of the voyage. We understand that Mr. C. I. R. Campbell, Superintendent of the Royal Airship Works at Cardington and designer of the " R. 38," will be as will Major Pritchard, who madethe double journey with Scott in the " R. 34." ' It is the intention to station four U.S. warships in the Atlantic so as to enable " R. 38 " to be in constant wireless communication with one or the other the whole way across. The route to be followed will probably be approximately the same as that followed by "R. 34." As the cruising speed of the airship is in the neighbourhood of 60 m.p.h. with her six Sunbeam engines, she should do the journey in rather less than 60 hours, but as adverse winds may be expected over a great part of the route, it is not expected to do the trip in much under 90 hours. In any case, speed is not the first consideration on this trip, and every attempt will be made to take the opportunity of learning as much about the weather conditions in the Atlantic as possible on the way across. The destination of " R. 38" is Lakehurst, New Jersey, where a huge shed has been built for her reception. If the trip is successful it is, we understand, the intention of the American authorities to send "R. 38 " across America to the Pacific coast, in order to determine weather conditions on different trans-continental routes, so as to discover the best air route between New York and San Francisco, where, it is thought, a very considerable saving in time might be effected by an airship service. As a matter of fact, the journey by train occupies four days, while the airship should be able to do the trip in from i\ to 2 days. In this respect America is very favourably situated, having great distances between large cities, and therefore airship travel may be presumed to offer a more promising field there than it does in smaller countries. It is true that in Europe the distances are some- what short for the full utilisation of the capabilities of airships, but on longer journeys—as, for instance, from London to India and Australia—they should be capable of good service, although this would entail flying over different foreign countries if the direct route were to be followed. Before starting on the trans-Atlantic flight it is hoped that there will be time for the crew to get a practice flight of about 24 hours' duration, so as to become accustomed to the hand- ling of the ship. It is possible, however, that there will not be time for this, as it is getting somewhat late in the season. THE SCHNEIDER CUP RACE AT VENICE Will Italy Retain the Cup? 1" -Y.J FROM being a keenly-contested event, the annual race for the Schneider Cup seems to have degenerated into a sort of one- man show, in which no one takes any particular interest. In the years before the War one could always be certain of seeing representatives of at least three countries at the seaplane race of the year. Now the entries are few and far between, and often those which do turn up manage to get deleted in the preliminary tests. In a great measure this country must be held responsible for this state of affairs, not by any sins of commission (unless one so classes the unfortunate affair at Bournemouth in 1919), but rather by sins of omission, by refraining from sending any representatives to the race last year, and again this year. This is all the more regrettable, as this country*has all the requirements for becoming the world s leading seaplane power. Our seaplanes are second to none, but we do not seem to realise their possibilities in the develop- ment of commercial aviation. It is true that the Schneider Race is a speed event, pure and simple, but even so the lessons learned and the experience gained would be invaluable to the designer of commercial types. The present state of the country's finances is mainly to blame, but we cannot help thinking that with a little good-will the Royal Aero Club and the S.B.A.C. between them ought to have been able to^send representatives fo Venice this year. Last year the race was a walk-over for Italy, there being no foreign competitors for the Cup, which was won by Bologna on a Savoia. This year one French competitor was entered— Sadi Lecointe, on a Nieuport with 300 h.p. Hispano engine ; but we regret to learn that he had bad luck in alighting after a test flight, damaging his undercarriage to such an extent as to preclude his taking part in the race. . The question now arises whether or not Italy is to retain the Cup. By the rules of the competition the country which has won the cup three times in five years has the right to retain it After the lamentable affair at Bournemouth in 1919 it was at first stated that Janello on the Savoia had failed to round one of the mark boats properly, but ultimately it was decided to give the Italian Aero Club the custody of the Cup, and to hold the next race in Italy, under the organisa- tion of the Italian Aero Club. If Janello is declared to have won the 1919 race properly— as we think he ought to be if there was sufficient doubt in the minds of the Royal Aero Club officials to let the Cup and the race for the following year go to Italy-—it would appear that Italy becomes the permanent holder of the Schneider Cup—in which case we shall probably have to write finis to the annual Schneider races. Perhaps in that case some other public-spirited sportsman may be found to present a new Cup, As regards the Schneider race this year, Sadi Lecointe was the only foreign competitor entered. As we have already said, he had the misfortune to crash his undercarriage (it does not appear to have been the floats themselves in this case) after a test flight. This left only the three Italian competitors. It is of interest to note that no less than ten Italian machines had been entered for the race. (We wonder if this country would have produced ten machines, had the race been held here ?) The eliminating trials left three competitors for the actual race. These were :— Briganti on a Macchi flying boat, type VII, with 200 h.p. six-cylindered Isotta engine. This machine has an area of 215 sq. ft. Zanetti was flying a considerably larger machine, ,viz., a Macchi, type XIX, with 12-cylindered Fiat engine of 700 h.p., with a wing area of 485 sq. ft. Corniglio was flying one of the Naval flying boats with 250 h.p. Isotta engine and a wing area of 290 sq. ft. In the actual race two of the competitors dropped out. Zanetti's machine caught fire, but happily he and his mechanic were rescued. Corniglio ran put of petrol and had to abandon the race. This left only Briganti on the smallest machine, who completed the course at the average speed of 119 m.p.h. It was, as a famous French pilot put it on one memorable occasion at Monaco, a " Valk-vaire." 545
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