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Show Airships for Commercial Use British Experts Agree That it Is to the Craft of Rigid Construction Construc-tion We Must Look for Usefulness in Business British experts, seeking to forecast the future potentialities of aircraft, air-craft, seem to agree that it is to the airship of rigid eonstruetion, not io the airplane, that one must look for the maximum of commercial usefulness, useful-ness, writes a foreign correspondent of the Ohio State Journal. The limitations of airplanes designed on present principles are definitely defi-nitely known. Technically it is an accepted fact that an airplane cannot be produced which is capable of transporting a commercially adequate lead for a longer nonstop flight than 1,000 miles. For practical purposes 500 to 800 miles are regarded as the workable limits. But the prospects of airships are much less easy to diagnose. It is recognized that rigid airships can fly for distances of 2,500 miles carrying a commercial load of approximately fifteen tons, and that they are enabled to undertake long flights now believed to be impossible of attainment by airplanes. Every increase in the size of airships is accompanied by greater relative rela-tive efficiency, but the medium-sized airships have greater advantages, it is .said, than is generally supposed. For example the "North Sea" class of 500-horse power is capable of transporting a load of more than three tons, whereas the four-engined giant airplane of 1,100-horse power is able to lift less than four tons and burns twice as much gasoline. |