Evening Star Newspaper, November 30, 1930, Page 101

ON, D. C, NOVEMBER 30,] o3 ” AIRSHIP OF WORLD'S LARGEST COMPARISON OF THE AKRON, LOS ANGELES, GRAF ZEPPELIN AND R-100 AKRON. LOS ANGELES. GRAF ZEPPELIN. R-100. ar 6.500.000 cu. fr. 2,470,000 cu. ft. 3,700,000 cu. ft. 5.000,000 cu. fe. . Length over all . 785 ft. 658 ft. 776 ft. 709 fr. Maximum diameter .......... 132.9 fs. 90.7 ft. 100 fe. 130 fe. Oversall height ......... 1465 fr. 101.4 fi. 113 . 145 fe. Gross life ........ 201.5 tons 76.5 tons 129 tons . 156 tons Useful lift ... 3 91 tons 30 tons 45 tons 73 tons Number of engines . .......... 8 5 5 6 Total engine power 4,480 h. p. 2,500 h.p. 2,750 . p. 4,200 h. p. Maximum speed 828 m. p. h. 73 m.p.h 805 m.p. h Range without refueling at 57 - mi, 80.5 m. p. h. miles an hour cruising speed 11,000 miles 4,000 miles 6,100 5,000 miles biwork is well illustrated by this picture of the main frames of the Akron. Hanging from one of the forward bays of the ship is the compact, streamlined control room with its bulbous “bumper bag” underneath to take up the jar if the ship happens to touch the ground in landing, its quarters for the captain and executive officer, its radio room, meteoro- Jogical room and office directly above. Here will be the latest and most encompassing equip- ment available for the operation and control of the ship. - ARTICULARLY interesting, but kept almost entirely secret, will be the radio equipment. It will include two powerful transmitters cov- ering both intermediate and high frequencies, with a high frequency range of at least 6,000 nautical miles. Receiving sets will cover the entire used frequency range. Two trailing wire antennae, one for each frequeney range, will be employed while the Akron is under way. A fixed antenna alongside the ship will be used for all communication while the ship is at the mast. A radio compass ,and, latest novelty in the _$cience of warfare, a radio facsimile trans- mitter and receiver for the radio transmission of sketches, maps and other similar information, will round out this equipment. Distributed at strategic points about the big airship will be emplacements for 16 50-caliber, high-pressure, rapid-fire guns if we take the word of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics David 8. Ingalls., Firing bullets at the rate of 500 a minute, each gun will have a useful horizontal range of about 4,500 yards, or almost three miles. Further details of this and other means of armament are kept as strictly secret as are those of the airplane hangar and radio equipment, but it is under- stood that beside these guns there will be pro- vision for other war gear, particularly bombs. To the rear of the control room is a hangar built within the ship’s hull, large enough to accommodate five airplanes of the pursuit or observation class, one at each corner and the -fifth in the center. The center plane would b~ banging from a special trapeze arrangement ready to be dropped down through a hatchway and released. DETAIIS of the airplane facilities within the Akron, the means of hoisting them up into the ship and other arrangements are secret, but it has been known that for a few vears experi- ments with a special hooking and trapeze ap- paratus have been made on the Los Angeles, and that this may be the form in which the airplanes will be handled on the Akron. Going beyond even this development it is possible that ultimately airplanes designed especially for airship work will be built without landing gear or pontoons, the hooking apparatus at the top taking the place of both. In the same bay with the hangar will be the galley, mess rooms and quarters for officers and men, officers on the starboard side and crew on the port side, in accordance with sea- going tradition. Accessibility to tese quarters, as to all other parts of the ship, will be avail- able through two gangways extending from bow to stern of the ship, while a third gangway along the top center will make even the tops of the gas cells of easy access. At four points, each within one of the four midship frames along either side of the airship, will be the engine rooms, housed entirely within the ship except for the extending shafts, pro- pellers and their supporting struts. Thus, easily accessible from either of the two lower gangways, these important elements will avoid the ‘““drag,” or loss of air speed, which the suspended engine cars on other airships cause, A Maybach engine in each of these eight compartments, each engine of 12 cylinders in a 60-degree V form, will contribute 560 of the total 4480 horsepower on the craft, turning over 1,600 times a minute. The Maybach is the only airship engine in existence, says Lieut. T. G. W. Settle, inspector of naval aircraft, who is observing the con- struction of the Akron for the U. S. Navy. It is wholly internally reversible by means of a separate set of cams for that process. It is built on roller and ball bearings throughout, re- ducing internal friction to a minimum, is equipped with overhead valves, one intake and two exhaust, has a seven-bearing crankshaft and four Maybach carburetors of extremely low fuel consumption characteristics. AT full power, when the propeller is running about 925 revolutions a minute and the engine at 1,600, this power plant will consume about 45 gallons of gasoline an hour—a very low figure for such power. Its great economy of operation, its reversible feature, its immediate response and maneuverability, its freedom from fire hazard and particularly its long life of thousands of hours before overhaul, are the reasons this is the only practical engine for airships. Each engine weighs more than 2,500 pounds, or about five pounds to the horsepower, but weight is less essential than economy of operation and long life in an airship, quite the opposite of airplanes. One of the most important features of the Akron in this connection is the water-recovery system by whick the water vapor in the engine s exhaust is cooled and condensed. The result is that the weight of the ship remains practically unchanged, for as the engines use up fuel they manufacture water to take its place as so much ballast. For every 100 pounds of fuel used as much as 140 pounds of water can be recovered. In actual practice the amount of water recov- ered is only slightly more than the gasoline consumed. » Ahead of one of the forward engine rooms are two eight-kilowatt generators which furnish the electric power for the ship's lighting and radio. Jutting out from each engine room is a strong steel shaft, at the end of which is the 16-foot propeller—one that can be tilted so that it will push the ship ahead or astern when vertical, and up or down when placed horizontal. The Akron is the first ship on which such arrange- ment has been feasible, because the engine rooms are inside and out of the way. This How the promenade deck would look tilting action of the propellers will affeord greater maneuverability of the ship in landing, taking off and climbing to a great height. TKE shape of the ship takes a decided conical turn immediately astern of the aft two engine rooms, and out of the stern reach four huge fins, each about 3,500 square feet in area, two upright and two horizontal, all four means of steadying the great Zeppelin. In the for- ward end of the lower fin is a small secondary control room, with rudder and elevator wheels for direct opcration of these controls in case of emergency. All major controls and instruments in the main control room are duplicated here. At the after edges of the horizontal fins are the elevators to raise or lower the ship, and similarly placed on the vertical fins are the Tudders or horizontal steering surfaces. So Continued on Twenty-first Page if @ ship like the Akron were built for . commercial purposes. Broad windows would give an unimpeded view of the earth far below. 4