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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0797.PDF
AUGUST 30, 1928 AIRSHIPS His Majesty's Airship R.I01 By MAJOR F. A. de V. ROBERTSON To people who have kept in touch with the progress of theairship R. 101 a visit to the Royal Airship Works at Cardington on Thursday, August 23, was quite a surprise. It had beenknown that the assembly of the framework was not being hurried on, and that a few months ago all that could be seenin the shed at Cardington was one transverse frame erect in position, and another in process of assembly on the floor.On Thursday, eight frames, numbered (from the nose) 3 to 12, were erect and connected up by sections of the longitudinalgirders. The total number of transverse frames will be 15. In bay 9-10 was a gas bag almost fully inflated. In thelower portion of bays 6-7 and 7-8 the metal floor girders of the living compartments were in place and carpenters were fixingthe ply-wood floor on top of them. Infact, R.I 01 is be- ginning to assumethe appearance of an airship in skeleton,and it is now possible to get some idea ofwhat she will look like when completed,and of what life on board will be like. Though airshipswere more advanced than aeroplanes be-fore the war, there has since been stag-nation. At least there was completestagnation until Sir Samuel Hoaredecided to proceed with a programmeof building experi- mental airships forcommercial pur- poses. There werenaturally many heart-burningsduring those years of stagnation ; andat the time it seemed deplorablethat no one could be found to makeuse of R.33, R.36, R.37 and R.80.Airships have many unfriends, just asaeroplanes had for several years, andit was possible (and still is possible) forsuch people to say : " We know whataeroplanes will do, and we do not knowwhat airships will do ; so why worrvabout the latter ? " But now we are able to see that all has been for the best.No commercial future could possibly lie before the Zeppelin type of airship of about 2,500,000 cub. ft., and radically novelmethods of design and construction were not possible in that size. It would have done airships no good, and consequentlywould have done the commerce of the world no good, if efforts had been made to use the Zeppelin type for civilpurposes. The disasters to the Dixmude and the Shenandoah have demonstrated that fact. The lift of an airship increasesas the cube of its linear dimensions, while the weight increases only as the square of those dimensions, so it was only inlarge sizes that radically new methods could be adopted. For instance, it was not possible to use steel in a small airship ;but in a ship of 155 tons displacement steel is lighter than duralumin for a given strength. We are now undertaking anexperimental development which, perhaps, ought to have been undertaken some years ago ; but each year has meant 741 [" FLIGHT " Photograph EMPIRE AIRSHIP R.101 : A general view of the half-completed air-ship being constructed at Cardington, showing one of the gas bags in position. R.101 is 724 ft. in length, and has a capacity of 5,000,000 cub. ft. that more resources of science have been at the disposal ofthe designers. It is also a matter on which we may congratu- late ourselves (and also the regime of Lord Thomson) thattwo ships of totally different design but similar specifications are being produced at the same time. A comparison of thetwo is certain to teach invaluable lessons. One object has been steadily, one might almost say ruth-lessly, pursued in the production of these two airships, and that is safety. Nothing has been sacrificed which can makefor safety. In particular, considerations of safety have always tr.ken precedence of speed of construction. Researchhas preceded every step. The public has at times manifested impatience, asking why so much money should have been spent with nothingas yet to show for it. The same questioncould be asked about every piece oflengthy and expen- sive research andexperiment. If it shows a prospect ofpaying for itself in benefit to mankind,it ought to be under- taken, and even ifthe ultimate results are nil, still it wouldhave been most re- prehensible not tohave made the attempt. In thecase of these two airships, no know-I e d g a b 1 e person expects that eitherof them will prove to be a craft to revo-lutionise, by itself, the communicationsof the Empire and the world. Theirtask is to prove the case of airships ingeneral, to show that they can operateover oceans with safety and reliability.Once that point has been made good,the next step will be refinements toincrease the paying load and the comfortof passengers, as well as to increasethe speed. All this will doubtless meanlarger ships, but once the mam pointhas been proved, there is no doubtthat, " as Sir Alan Anderson of the Orient Steamship Line remarked, at an airconference at the Guildhall some years ago, plenty of people will want to run them. It is from this point of view that one ought to examineR.101. One ought not to expect that she wrill be the grand drama, but we hope that she will be the curtain-raiser to thatdrama. One can see plenty of points in her which need improvement, but not one of them decreases her factors ofsafety. Progress has been made in producing a substitute for goldbeater's-skin as a gas container. It is a very desirableinnovation, but it was not worth while waiting for its develop- ment. Goldbeater's skin is expensive ; but the most economicthing to do was to use it for R.101, rather than delay the great point of proving the principle of airships. The Beard-more heavy-oil engines are heavy—7 to 8 lbs. per horse-power. But that does not endanger R.101, it merely reduces herpaying load. So she will fly with those heavy engines instead
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