Applied Science 861 



on routes up to about 1,000 miles in length, which routes will l>e 

 covered in stages of about 250 miles each. Airships will make 

 flights such as that from England to Australia in stages of at 

 least 1,000 miles at a time. Similarly, we shall probably organise 

 an airship service to South Africa and another across the Atlantic 

 to Canada, whilst possibly the Canadian route may be continued 

 across the Pacific to Australia, thus giving us a British airship 

 service encircling the globe. 



Perhaps the most famous airship flight in the world was the 

 trip of R. 34 across the Atlantic and back. The outward jour- 

 ney of about 3,000 miles was made in 108 hours 12 minutes, a 

 crew of 8 officers and 22 men being carried, Major Scott being 

 in command. There was plenty of excitement on the outward 

 journey, particularly when the ship got into a thunderstorm off 

 Newfoundland. The return journey was made in better time, 

 only 75 hours 3 minutes being taken over the trip. 



How an Airship is Built 



The structure of airships necessarily varies considerably, 

 as there are three main types non-rigid, semi-rigid, and rigid; 

 the first consisting of an envelope to which is attached a car, the 

 second having the envelope strengthened with girders, and the 

 third consisting of a girder framework, inside which are several 

 gas-bags, the whole being attached to a rigid keel which carries 

 the cabins and engine gondolas. 



The rigid type is the most important and is capable of the 

 greatest development. To this class belong the Zeppelins and 

 the British R. types, which are copies of Zeppelins. The R. 33 

 type has a streamline hull built up of duralumin girders, her 

 overall length being 639 feet and her diameter 79 feet. The hull 

 is fitted with an internal triangular keel which forms the main 

 corridor of the ship. It contains water, ballast and petrol tanks, 

 bomb stowage, quarters for the crew, etc. Inside the hull are 

 19 gas-bags which are charged with approximately 2,000,000 



