Lt. Com. Rosendahl Predicts Giant Airships For Travelers
INVULNERABLE IN WARS
Present Experiments But Leading Up To This, He Says—European Trip in Three Days, Is One of His Predictions.
Lakehurst, N. J., Aug. 24 (AP)—The navy dirigible Los Angeles is, in effect, a 700 foot test tube with which aviators-scientists are conducting experiments looking toward eventual complete conquest of the air by man.
Luxurious ocean air lines for tourist service twice as fast as steam boats, giant airships several thousand feet long able to carry airplanes for war, improvements in radio and weather forecasting and reduction in cost and maintenance these are but a few of the results being sought by experimenters at the air station.
These men are working ceaselessly under direction of Captain E. S. Jackson, commandant of the station, and Lieutenant-Commander C. E. Rosendahl, commander of the Los Angeles, and survivor of the Shenandoah disaster.
Experimenting Constantly
“We are experimenting all the time,” Commander Rosendahl told the Associated Press. “We have to work largely by trial and error. We know what we want and we keep trying until we get a method that works, and then we go on to something else.
“We have our regular work to do, such as the calibration of coastal radio compass stations on which we have been engaged in good flying weather all summer. This is important in increasing the flying safety of airplanes.
Asked if the Los Angeles was the ideal size for a rigid airship. Commander Rosendahl’s eye lighted with a vision evidently dear to his heart.
Bigger Ones Planned
“Airships this size are just the beginning,” he said. “The English are now building two ships of 5,000,000 cubic feet each, more than twice as large as the Los Angeles, and we ourselves have been “authorized to construct two of 6,000,000.
“Designers know that as the size of airships increase, the comparative strength is greater, but of course there must be some limit to the practical application of this safety factor.
“Science has not yet been called on to determine actually what this limit is, but ships of 10,000,000 foot capacity are now in prospect.”
Speaking of the commercial future of airships, Commander Rosendahl said:
Commercial Future
“Airships can beat the trains. The speed and potential comfort are about the same, but the train can carry more passengers and cut individual expense in that way. But when it comes to crossing the water, the traveller can get luxurious conditions either on the surface or in the air, but in the air he can double his speed and get to Europe In three days instead of six. And in the air, storms can be dodged and discomfort from the motion of the sea is done away with.
“Of course the choice doesn’t exist for the ocean traveller of today but we are talking of tomorrow and that’s written on the pages of tomorrow in indelible ink.”
Weather, Commander Rosendahl acknowledged, has been a hindrance to advancement of flying, but he believed increased knowledge of atmospheric conditions would overcome the difficulty.
Weather Data Essential
“The reason ships have been broken up by storms,” he said, “is that they didn’t have complete weather reports. Under the old system the predictions were made up from surface conditions and not from flying level conditions.
Commander Rosendahl admitted that cost of construction and maintenance had been large in the past and had retarded advancement of airship work, but he told of various ways in which such cost was to be enormously reduced.
The Shenandoah, the only rigid airship ever built in America, had 2,150,000 cubic feet in the hull and its cost approximately a dollar a foot to build. But for the next ships, using men trained on construction of the Shenandoah and materials since invented, he was confident the cost would be enormously lessened. By mechanical means of handling the landing the ship he hoped to replace the present ground crew of 300.
Costs Will Be Cut Down
“If our present experiments along these lines pan out, as they will,” he asserted, “all costs will be cut down to a point where they will be small in comparison to the value of our practical work. And then the airship will have come into its own.”
Commander Rosendall believes that in the event of another World War, after airships have proved themselves commercially, peacetime vessels would be quietly convertible to war purposes as scouts but would have little value as bombers.
“And if opposing fleets had such fast scouts?”
The fleets would probably never meet. If either was outnumbered it could have plenty of time to withdraw for reinforcements.”
“But wouldn’t these airship scouts be vulnerable to airplanes launched say from the decks of enemy ships?”
Can Fight Off Attacks
“No, a dirigible can carry many times the artillery possible to an airplane. And much larger, up to three inch guns. Also it can see, and shoot, in all directions.
“Even if airplanes did get near enough to fire on the dirigible the damage would probably not be considerable. It would be simple to armor the control cabin and engine cars and bullets sent directly through the bag would not be serious. There are fourteen gas bags in the Los Angeles, and war experience showed the German ships returned safely with one-third of their cells deflated.
“And then, airships are being planned now that will carry their own scouting and defensive airplanes that can be launched in the air and picked up out of the air again. These scouts would be amply able to protect their mother ship from enemy attack even if she weren’t a flying arsenal herself. The rigid airship would be a formidable war machine all right.”
New Britain Herald, New Britain, CT, August 24, 1926
