| Show WORLDS LARGEST AIRSHIP it la Is not generally known that the flight or of the british airship R 34 la Is an event of 0 the greatest importance in establishing the possibilities of aviation for practical commercial and passenger carrying purposes it is ia tile the first trans atlantie crossing by air from east to west the other two one by commander road read in the amerian NC 4 by way of the azores in three hops and the nonstop non stop eglit from newfoundland to ireland eglit by jy captain alcock were from west to east the lead dead weight of the airship is 30 10 tons toils and when fully equipped tor for flight except tor for gasoline water and oil is sixty tons its length over all is feet height over all 92 feet girth SO 80 feet it has 19 gas bags not balloon ettes with a capacity of cubic feet of gas it is longer than the singer building is high 5 sunbeam motors of 0 12 cylinders each supply the motive power magneto ignition is ot of course exclusively clu used because ot of its intense hot spark and absolute reliability for this purpose two magnetos are used on each twelve cylinder engine that is one magneto for each six cylinders or ten magnetos for the sixty cylinders which form the total power plant the normal speed of the engines is 2100 revolutions per minute each engine develops horse power or 1375 horse power in all this power was transmitted to the 5 propellers through clutch and gear mechanism not by direct drive as is the case with airplanes it carried 30 officers and crew and one sto stowaway wavay the officers are arc major G II 11 scott commander major G G II 11 cooke navigating officer capt Green hard first officer engineering officer durrant wireless officer C capt apt harris harr I 1 s meteorological officer lieutenant commander zachary lansdowne ot of tile the united states navy was on board representing tile the united states stales navy department by special invitation of 0 the royal air fore force e of great britain the royal air force of england Is a separate governmental department compose of a combination of the army and navy aviators and many of them wear the naval uniforms by preference the 2050 sea miles from ireland to nova scotia was traveled in 59 hours at an all average speed of 35 miles per hour continuing 1080 miles further to new york made the total nonstop non stop distance miles the average speed for the full trip was 28 sea miles per hour she arrived safely at roosevelt field N Y july ath where site she was anchored to large concrete blocks set in the ground by the united states government in preparation tor for her arrival this work including the services of expert eipert mechanics cost in all the royal air force requested that no airplanes be allowed in the air to escort it upon its arrival in this country the reason tor for this request was that the flame of exhaust front from the airplane might ignite some of the escaping gas from the airship and thereby cause fire or explosion |
