COMMERCIAL AVIATION.
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Some Topical Notes and Comments.
. The Voyage of R.34.
THE AIRSHIP R.34 has safely completed her journey to New York and back, and in doing so has no doubt contributed a, great many more valuable additions to our scanty knowledge of weather conditions over the Atlantic. In this connection it occurs to one to inquire how far data collected by airships will assist us in bringing into existence a transatlantic aeroplane service. The airship does not take the same route as the aeroplane, and does not as a rule fly at the same height.
The R.34 left East Fortune at 2.42 a.m. on July and. The outward journey occupied 108 hours, and during it the airship encountered a number of very heavy electrical storms. The return journey commenced in the early morning ..of July 10th, and the vessel landed at Pulliam at 7.56 a.m. on July 13th. The return journey took only 75 hours, despite the breakdown of one of the engines on the afternoon of the 11th. The performance was undoubtedly a fine and valuable one, and represents a step towards a truly commercial service. For such a service we shall need much larger airships. The R.34 has a disposable lift of 29 tons. Her gas capacity is a little under two million cubic feet. A ship of a corresponding type with gas capacity of five million cubic feet would have a disposable lift of about 100 tons. her length would be 870 ft. as against the 639 ft. of R.34. A "Ten million" ship would measure about 1,100 ft. in length, and would have a disposal lift of about 200 tons.
It is upon these large ships that the future of the commercial service is dependent. When they become available, both the prime cost and the operating cost per ton of useful load carried will be immensely reduced. During the war we have made great progress. We started with small non-rigid ships having a disposal lift of not so much as a ton, and in less than five years we have developed to the rigid ship with a lift more than 30 times as great and capable of navigating the Atlantic in both directions. There seem to be no serious engineering difficulties in the way of going further.
-A Note on Operating Costs.
So far as one can see,. the greatest drawback of the lighter-than-air craft will continue to be the difficulties connected with housing, getting away and landing. It took 400 men in each case to see the R.34 off and to get her safely into her shed again. Presumably, the larger ships will need the assistance of an even more numerous staff at the terminal points. This fact may have an important bearing on operafe ing costs. It seems to show that all our big airship services should be arranged to start from a very few selected points eso that the staff at these points may be kept fully occupied and the wages cost divided up, and not excessive in respect of any one ship.
Aerial Services and the Press.
The journey of R.34 has served to draw public attention to the certain utility of aerial services to the Press of the world. The 11.34 brought with her complete copies of certain American papers and a number of photographs which, on the ship's arrival at Norfolk, were promptly conveyed to London by aeroplane and reproduced in a daily illustrated paper. Doubtless, one of the consequences of the establishment of a large number of aerial services will be that daily papers will be encouraged to publish illustrations of important events taking place in all parts of the world. Such pnlodicatioa will be possible before the subjects of the phOtograpba have -become stale. C40
In my opinion, the influence of aerial travel will be even more important in 'respect of weekly papers, reviews and so on. Suppose, for example, that a great authority in one country produces an important work containing close reasoning which does not admit of being -boiled down into a cablegram, we now have a prospect of that work being made available in distant lands while there is still time for readers to benefit from it, assuming that it bears on some matter. of urgent topical importance. The Press will be compelled to make extensive use of aerial services—sometimes, perhaps, against its will in view of the comparatively high cost of this method of transport.
Experiments with Flying Boats.
Naturally enough, the eyes of the public in aerial matters have of late been turned, so to speak, towards the Atlantic. Meanwhile there are other directions in 'which the early establishment of really useful services is far more probable.. Great interest attaches; for instance, to an experimental journey undertaken by flying boats between this country and Scandinavia. At thetime of writing the main journey has not begun, the vessels having merely proceeded north along the -boast of England and Scotland. The -proposal is to visit Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and to-return -by the more southerly route.. The configuration of the Norwegian coast is Such as to offer peculiarly goad possibilities to coastwise aerial traffic, which can ply 'direct instead of being forced eto tako circuitous routes, -as sea-borne traffic is'obliged to do.
BE:MBRIDGE.