Evening Star Newspaper, April 14, 1929, Page 77

T GIANT AIRSHIP HANGAR, BEING BUILT AT AKRON BY GOODYEAR-ZEPPELIN CORPORATION, TO BE USED IN PUTTING RIGID DIRIGIBLE TO FORE Structure, 1,200 Feet Long and Block Wide, to Be World’s Largest. GREAT ENGINEERING FEAT In Designing Revolutionary Building Difficult Problems Were Beaten. “The largest building the mind of man yet has conceived is being built in Ohio, | 8 bullding so huge that 14 foot bllH !leldx could be put within it and still | ieave room to spare, a building that lit- erally stretches itself out over the ground when the sun beats down upon | it and shrinks li ain when coolness comes, a building that rests upon giant moving rollers instead of being firmly anchored to its foundations, a building with such tremendous doors that the task of opening one of them is equal to swinging the side of an 18-story sky- scraper on hinges, a building so vast and hollow that a windstorm can attain cyclllnnic proportions within its four walls This building is the airship ucmryl and dock which is being constructed by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation at Akron. It and the ones which are to follow' it may help make America the greatest producer of Zeppelins in all the world, and may bring the rigid dirigible at last into the great place it is destined to take in the practical every-day avia- tion of the future. Dirigibles to Create New Era. ‘The dirigibles to be constructed in that | building will be so much larger than anything yet attempted that they will create almost & new field. They will be three times as big as that vast silver cruiser of the air, the Los Angeles, whose bulk has made half of America gasp as it floated over city after city. They will be nearly twice as big as the Graf Zeppelin, which made air history on its voyage from Germany to America and back last year. But more important than that is the fact that this new building has marked | such revolutionary changes in engineer- ing design that it points the way to larger and still larger dirigibles; and | therein lies the opportunity for this type of air vehicle to become as familiar, as practical and as useful as any part of the world's transportation system. All this depends upon dirigibles being built larger and larger, but even with the dirigibles which are eslready in service the matter of harboring and sheltering them has become so vast and complex a problem that it threatened to limit further enlargements. But with the development of the Akron building, & design of such revolutionary change has been evolved that it opens the way for larger and larger hangars and there- fore larger and larger ships. Dr. Arnstein Responsible. ‘The man who has been responsible for this change is Dr. Karl Arnstein, now vice president of the Goodyear- Zeppelin Corporation, who supervised the constrgction of more than 90 great dirigibles Germany before coming to | this country. In the Akron airship fac- tory and dock, the same broad prin- ciples of streamline construction which have marked the development of auto- mobile bodies, speed boats and airplane fuselages has been applied to buildings. This airship factory and dock was de- signed by the firm of Wilbur Watson and associates of Cleveland, Ohio, under | the direction of Dr. Arnstein and to do i | lighter-than-air craft began almost five this, it evolved a design unlike -ny;fim‘:&o Vi the Gooarea: o Soughs It has much the appearance of an | the American rigl e Zeppelin egg cut in two the lohg way nad laid | Patents and brought to this country the other bullding in the world. flat side against the earth. The ends are rounded off like the ends of an egg to reduce resistance to the wind, every | Tichshafen, element of roof and walls has been de- signed to lessen the effect of the wind, and the door are, so arranged that even | Navy gave to the Goodyear Co. the when opened they do not present one extra square foot of area to the wind. | This is totally different from the old | hangars. They almost always had blunt ends which, produced great pressures against the building. Moreover, when the- doors were opened they exfended’ out on both sides, making the building | roughly T-shaped and setting up eddies and aerial whirls around the doors that magnified the difficulties cf getting the | ships into the hangars. Models Are Tested. ‘To eliminate this, Dr. Arnstein devel- oped several building models, all radi- cally different in their engineering na- ture. Models of these buildings were constructed by the Goodyear Zeppelin organization, and all of them tested out under actual working conditions through the use of the wind tunnel at the Uni- versity of New York. In these tests the superiority of the egg-shaped design | was overwhelmingly demonstrated and, therefore, it was determined upon for the Akron building. The mere matter | of creating doors for this building pre- | sented more tremendous and difficult| problems than might be found in the | erection of a skyscraper. The dirigible | hangars of the past have had doors which were based on principles almost as old as civilization itself; they either | swung open and shut or they slid open. But as the size of the doors grew great- er and greater, these doors became more and morefunsatisfactory. ‘When winds were blowing, it some- times took several days to open the type of doors that slide or swing. Men, ma- chinery and electric power were incapa- ble of them against the wind pressure.” The sliding doors would open more easily, ‘but when they were open they presented such a vast and poorly supported target for the wind that it seemed they might be ripped bodily from the hangar. “Orange Peel” Type. Neither ‘of these types of door would serve in America’s great new airship factory.. The situation called for some- thing entirély. new, and it has been pro- duced. The new type of dor has been called the “orange peel” type. Each sec- tion actually looks like a quarter section of’an ori peel. It has no hinges nor rollers. sections of doors are hung upon enormous gn ” up on the roof (each pin 4 feet long tnd 17 inches in diameter) and they curve out to the bottom, where they are mounted upon series after series of the same kinds of trucks that electric street cars run upon. The doors are opened with electric power, and when they open they slide ded | tional am | school students throughout the country this giant structure has !o‘be m‘r;,t:d u[:i)rl: that practically en muenblnc':- ‘buliding can move "c”fl But feet long, one city L7 to 18 stories.in peel” doors are pivoted at the top and sw! The drawing is the artist’s conception of the appearance of the completed dirigible hangar now under construction at Akron, Ohi The huge “orange ing on circular tracks below. The aerial pnmogupn shows.construction now in progress, including the circular concrete foundation for the doors, shown in the foreground. The little bloiches in the foreground are automobiles;’ trucks and tractors. cannot be shipped to the site if com- pletely fabricated and assembled at the steel mills. It will be necessary, there- fore, to set up what will amount to a complete steel fabricating plant on the site of the building and finish the mem- bers there as needed. Huge locomotive cranes will be usi(.i to hoist part of the steel work into place, and six complete lines of railroad tracks will have to be built over the site to bring the mate- rials and cranes into exact position for erection. ‘This whole project will be a tribute to the combination of Old World ex-. perience with New World resources. It unites the Zeppelin Co., which since the days when Count Zeppélin built his first crude Zeppelin at Friedrichshafen has been the foremost authority in the world on the construction of rigid ah | ships, and the Gopdyear Co. in America, | which has been’ the world’s greatest | consumer of rubber and which has been probably one of the world’s foremost developers of balloons and non-rigid and semi-rigid airships. Movement Began 5 Years Ago. The movement which probably wfll make America - the world capital. in most skiliful of the great staff of air engineers and navigdtors from Fried- headed by Dr. Arnstein, chief engineer of the Zeppelin Co. Soon afterward. the United States centract for the two greatest dirigibles any one yet has attempted. They will be '6,500,000-cublc-foot ships, as against the Los Angeles’ 2,470,000 cubic feet. ‘They will have a cruising range of 9,180 | nautical miles, as against the Los | Angeles’ 3,500 miles. They will have tremendously more lifting power. They will be “fatter” than the Los Angeles and much more so than the ill-fated Shenandoah. They will have quarters for their crews inside the ship, and even the motors will be concealed within the h."fhey will carry ‘within themselves complete airplane hangars where from four to six planes will be carried. These planes can be launched in flight and picked up again in flight. The dirigibles probably wiil be the greatest fighting ships of all time. They will be able to raid and fight over vast distances. Carry Light Artillery. They carry light artillery as u:t.nsl the plane’s machine guns. They launch their own airplanes to nlm ofl the attackers. They have helium gas, which is not inflammable. Even if every one of their gas bags were riddled with bulleu their gas leakages would not 25 per cent over five hours, and -u the time the crew could be repairing the damage. Increased knowledge has made them safe even from the elements. In light- ning storms their great metal frame- work acts as a “Faraday Cage,” which collects and distriButes the lightning so that it can be discharged through the engine exhaust. As science has learned more about weather conditions, it has become apparent that storms can even be of service to the ships and ex- pert pilots now seek out storms and rfie with them. Almost all storms run in tremendous circles and pilot- - ~before ing the ship into the side of the storm |- which is traveling in the direction. the navigator wants to go he uses the winds to help him. Proponents of dirigibles declare that their service in war is proved beyond the dreams of the general public. The raids by Zeppelins in the last .war did not constitute one-tenth of the work they did-in that conflict, it is said. Zeppelins saved the German coast from invasion, prevented the cutting off of the German fleet on the second day of the great naval battle at Jutland, pro- tected mine-sweepers from attack by fast enemy ships, convoyed submarines out into the seas, located mine fields, and are said to have been the only thing that prevented the complete bot- tling up of the German fleets. It is c!l.lm? that 10-.such ships as those which dre to be built at Akron could effectually patrol the Atlantic Ocean and absolutely prevent any con- centrated movement against the Ameri- can coast. 3 OFFICERS ‘FROM. HERE ORDERED TO TRAINING | Class Designated for Course at Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field. ‘Three Army Air Corps officers now on duty in this city are among a group ordered to report not later than August 25 for training at the Air Corps Tactical School, Langley Field, Va. ‘The new class is composed of Maj. George E. Stratemeyer, United States Military Academy, West Point; Maj. Benjamin G. Weir, procurement plan- | my; ning representative at New York; Maj. Barton K. Yount, assistant military at- tache at Paris; Capt. Frederick I. Eglin, Duncan Field, Tex.; Capt. Harrison W. Flickonger, Air Corps representative in charge of inspection and procurement activities at Buffalo, N. Y.; Capt. John I. Moore, Kelly Field, Tex.; Maj. Henry J. F. Miller, Langley Field, Ross G. Hoyt, office of the chie Corps, this city; Lieut. Arthur K. Ladd, office of the chief of Air Corps; Lieut. John D. Barker, office of the chief of the Air Corps; Lieut. Robert J. Brown, | jr, Langley Field; Lieut. Orville L. Stephens, Mitchel Field, N. Y, and Lieut. Charles McK. Robinson, Fort Eenning, Ga. HIGH SCHOOVI.. AVIATION ESSAY CONTEST OPEN Prizes Totaling $500 Offered by| Father of Youth Who Flew Across Continent. The American Soclety for the Pro- motfon of Aviation is holding & na- prize essay contest for high on the subject “How May America Most Quickly and Efficiently Promote Aviation in Every Community?” Prizes totaling $500 have been of- !ered by Forrest E. James, father of hard E. James, 17-year-old Flush- ing, Long Island, high school boy who recently flew alone from San Francisco to New York. The essays must not ex- 200 'm‘d.! in 1 and ml“;:lbe" HEGENBERGER ORDERED TO ENGINEERING SCHOOL | Eleven Other Army Air Corps Offi- cers Are Assigned as Students. Lieut. Albert F. Hegenberger, naviga- tor of the tri-motored Army transport piloted by Lieut. Lester J. Maitland, which flew from the United States to Hawali last year, is among 12 Army | Air Corps officers who have been or- dered to report as students to the Air Corps _ Engineering Sehool, ‘Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, July 1 The other officers are Clpt v O ‘Tillinghast and Lieuts. Albert C. Foulk, Charles D. McAllister, Dudley W. Wat- kins, William N. Anis and Eugene L. Eubank of Wright Held Lieuts. Oryal R. Cook and Arthur W. Vanaman of Brooks Field, Tex.; Lieut. Alden R. Crawford, Selfridge Field, Mich.; Lieut. Harlan T. McCormick, March Field, Calif., and Lieut. Paul H. Kemmer, . | Mitchel Field, N. Y. ENGINES TO BE SHI.EiLDED Development of Radio Calls for Change in Construction. Manufacturers of airplane engines have been requested by the aircraft power plants committee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to shield their engines against electrical disturbances which wlll I.nterfm with radio installations in planes in which they may be used. - m"'l.hgmlmmhugn of ndln telegraphy, lephony an beacons for aircraft makes shielding of motors generally a matter of necessity, the committee pointed out. The com- mittee adopted a resolution e: ing its belief that the responsibility for such shielding rests with the engine mmulutnren NEW 2 AIRWAY SURVEY Plans for Mail Route Qetween ‘Washington and rhtflmr‘h. Plans for a survey between Washing- ton and Pittsburgh are under way in the {anticipation of an early designation of principal o! the school. - ‘The contest opened Aprfl 5 m:‘d will clue my 15. & aochty, 522 Fifh nv-uu. l(n Yark City, N. ¥. $40,000 Voted for Airport. Greenfield, Mass,, has authorized the expenditure of $40,000 for m nk- purposes. 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