UPPtR. NAVI6ATIN6 



AND GUN PLATFOR.M 



FR.ONT LANDING 

 BUFFEQ, 



FR.ONT HAND RAIL 



WinE-LtSS 

 'ANTE.NNA 



E.NGINE ROOM 

 VENTILATORS 



trebled in size the weight could not be 

 disproportionately increased. 



"A Gigantic Piece of Lacework," 

 said the French 



The framework of the huge hull in 

 which the gas bags are confined has been 

 multiplied in parts and reduced in ma- 

 terial to a veritable cloud of riveted 

 lattice-work made of channeled strips of 

 the thinnest 

 aluminum 

 sheeting. In- 

 deed, the frame 

 of the L-49 has 

 been described 

 by the French 

 as a "gigantic 

 piece of lace- 

 work." 



This frame 

 serves exactly 

 the same pur- 

 pose as the 

 pole in your 

 wardrobe, from 



which you suspend coats on hangers. As 

 a whole, the frame could resist the fiercest 

 gale, and yet it could not support a single 

 man's weight on one of its coirponent 

 parts! If ever there was a scientifically 

 designed structure, it is this framework of 

 the L-49. It is applied science with a 



Rear view of car containin 

 related mechanism. Note 



vengeance ! From a long row of correctly 

 placed hooks, hang all the aluminum fuel 

 tanks, the water ballast tanks and lastly, 

 all the bombs — just as the clothes in your 

 closet are suspended from the pole on their 

 hangers. The fuel tanks are dropped 

 through trap doors on guides like ballast. 

 The bombs fall similarly; but they are 

 electrically released, since the one-hun- 

 dredth part of a second is vital in hitting a 



target and hu- 

 man agency is 

 too slow. 



The Gloomy 

 Boardwalk 



Within the 

 framework is 

 a long passage- 

 way for the 

 crew — a mere 

 boardwalk, 

 nine inches 

 wide, com- 

 posed of 

 wooden slats 

 separated one from the other by several 

 inches. Along this passageway hangs a 

 series of hammocks or cots. The crew 

 almost "sleeps on a clothes line." Real 

 comfort was merely a subject for pleas- 

 ant dreams, for life in that passageway 

 must have resembled that of a tight- 



© Kadei and Herbert 



g the Zeppelin engines and 

 streamline form of the body 



377 



