Aeronautics: Dirigible Scene

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"When I see girders snap off like pretzels, I know something is wrong," carped Congressman Boland shortly after witnessing the mishap which befell the U. S. S. Akron last February and laid her up for nearly two months for repairs. But nothing was wrong. Last week Lakehurst mechanics were stitching the last bit of fabric to the Akron's torn skin, finished tinkering her broken fin. When Lieut Commander Rosendahl barks "Up ship!" as he sails to join the Fleet in the Pacific next week, his ship will rise as sound and airworthy as ever.*

New, steeper-pitched propellers have been mounted, air screws which will take a bigger bite of air, increase the Akron's speed to world's fastest. But more notable is the installation of apparatus in the ship's belly to permit the nesting of five tiny fighting planes in a marsupial hangar, located amidships within the outer envelope. Through a T-shaped trapdoor the planes, hooked to a trapeze, can be discharged or hoisted in. For the past year the Navy has been training special crack pilots to negotiate the ticklish landing, which consists of threading a large hook atop the plane to the trapeze bar on the mother ship.

Because landing gear cuts down speed and range, the Navy plans to fly the Akron's brood without gear in time of war. When operating on the high seas, both wheels and pontoons would be equally useless in a forced water landing. Unless they can reach a friendly shore and make a fishtail landing, pilots unable to return to Mother Akron will be counted as lost.

The gargantuan hangar of Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. at Akron, Ohio continues to reverberate with pounding and riveting as the U. S. S. Macon, second of the Navy's modern dirigibles, slowly takes shape. If present specifications are followed she will be practically identical with her great sister. Like the Akron she will pouch a brood of planes. But, ship-like, she will have a sleeping bag for enlisted men. instead of the Akron's four-man staterooms. Experience has enabled the builders to cut down weight by 8,000 lb., increase speed. That the Macon may be pounded and riveted to completion next January, the House Appropriations Committee last week approved a final payment of $1,450.000 on the Navy's contract.

Unless the Macon is enlarged it will yield to the LZ-129 now abuilding in Friedrichshafen, Germany, as "world's biggest." To house this huge ship, specifically designed for the commercial purposes of Dr. Hugo Eckener, two hangars were thrown together. Replete with comforts for 52 passengers, the LZ-129 will next year go into regular service on the South American run. Unlike the Graf Zeppelin she will be inflated with non-inflammable helium. But because helium is much more expensive than hydrogen, Dr. Eckener plans to install fireproof hydrogen ballonets inside the helium cells for use in regulating altitude. Like the Akron and the Macon, the LZ-129 (which Dr. Eckener wants to name Hindenburg) is designed and equipped throughout so that hydrogen can be used in a pinch, should helium, a U. S. monopoly, become unobtainable.