THE TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT ENDED WITH A CRASH IN AN IRISH BOG
The projected airship of three million, five hundred thousand cubic feet capacity is capable of carrying a useful load of fifteen tons (passengers and mails) for a distance of forty-eight hundred miles in eighty hours, at the normal cruising speed. The total lifting power is one hundred and five tons, and the disposable lift (available for fuel, oil, stores, crew, passengers and freight) is sixty-eight tons. The maximum engine power is thirty-five hundred h. p., the maximum speed seventy-five miles an hour. The normal flying speed, using a cruising power of two thousand h. p., is sixty miles an hour. The overall length is eight hundred feet, the maximum diameter and width one hundred feet, and the overall height one hundred and five feet. These particulars and performances are based on present design, and on the results attained with ships of two million cubic feet capacity, now in service. The figures are conservative, and it is probable that a disposable lift greater than that of the specifications will be obtained as a result of improved structural efficiency.
The passenger accommodation will be such that the air journey can be made in comfort equal to that on a first-class liner of the sea. Apart from their comparatively small disposable lift, a main objection to vessels of the R-34 type for commercial purposes is that the living quarters are in cars slung from under the middle envelope. In this position they are necessarily rather cramped. In the proposed craft of three million, five hundred thousand cubic feet capacity the passengers' quarters are at the top of the vessel. There, they will be roomy and entirely free from the vibration of the engines. They are reached through an internal corridor across the length of the ship, or by elevator, from the bottom of it.
The main room is a large saloon lounge fitted with tables and chairs in the style of a Pullman car. Around it are windows, allowing for daylight and for an outlook in every direction. Part of it is fire-proofed, and serves as a smoking room.
Next to, and communicating with, the lounge is the dining saloon. This leads to a serving hatch and electrical cooking apparatus. Electrical power is provided by dynamos driven off the main engines. Current for electric lighting and heating of the saloons, cars and sleeping quarters is provided by the same method.
Sleeping accommodation is in four-berth and two-berth cabins on top of the airship and forward of the living saloons. The cabins are of the type and size fitted on ocean-going steamers. With them are the usual bathrooms and offices. Other conveniences are an open shelter deck at the vessel's aft end, to enable passengers to take the air, and an observation car, fitted below the hull and also at the aft end, so that they can observe the land or sea directly below them.
No danger from fire need be feared. The machinery installation is carefully insulated from the gas bags, and the quarters are to be rendered fire-proof and gas-proof. Moreover, the amount of weight involved by the passengers' section is so small, compared with the weight of the machinery, fuel, cargo and stores, carried in the lower part of the craft, that the stability of the ship for rolling is unaffected by the novel position of the living quarters.
The ship's officers will have on the hull, towards the forward end, a control and navigation compartment, containing the main controls, navigation instruments, charts, and a cabin for the wireless telegraphy installation. The windows of this car give a clear view in every direction.
Other general specifications are: