Major F. Baden-Powell informs the Times that he has just
inspected the aerial steamship now building in Ger- many, which will, he expects, in a few weeks commence its voyages. It is in appearance " a huge bird-cage " of aluminium, a skin being stretched over the "wires," while within are several balloons. The gallery and the coaches, all of aluminium, are fixed below, as is the engine, which is to drive the entire machine at twenty-two miles an hour. The lifting power of the aerial steamer is about ten tons, and the cost has already amounted to £70,000. The experiment excites intense interest among all aeronauts, and the idea among them is that it may be successful. We do not see why it should not, on a calm day. If a condor can carry itself and a lamb at high speed across a valley, there seems no reason why a machine with wings as powerful, and equal power of rising, should not, allowing strength for strength, do as much as the bird. But what is to happen in a high wind P A ship or a bird folds its wings out of the way of the blast, but the aerial steamer cannot do that. The cost, too, is rather tremendous,—say 210,000 per ton of lifting power.
Previous page
