The New Airship

Abstract

ON the day that this number is posted to subscribers it will be exactly five years and nine months since the tragic loss of R. 101. With her perished many irreplaceable scientists and technicians, together with the hopes of a British mercantile airship fleet. In spite of the, to some extent, unaccountable nature of the catastrophe, following on a series of similar accidents to rigid airships designed in England, there are still some who retain their belief in the safety and practicability of the type. This faith—if such it be—has survived the unfortunate experiences of the United States Navy in losing two of its most recently built ships, and the spark of hope has been kept alive by the performances of the L.Z. 127, Graf Zeppelin, in its remarkable programme of shuttle services backwards and forwards across the South Atlantic. How many times this apparently immortal airship has made the voyage to South America we should not dare to compute, but it is certainly a most impressive number.