Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of WarTalbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose
History
Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War
Talbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose
Aeronautics, Military; Airplanes, Military -- History; Airships -- History; World War, 1914-1918 -- Aerial operations
Aerial vessels, like their consorts upon the water, have been divided
into distinctive classes. Thus there are the aerial cruisers comprising
vessels exceeding 282,000 cubic feet in capacity; scouts which include
those varying between 176,600 and 282,000 cubic feet capacity; and
vedettes, which take in all the small or mosquito craft. At the end
of 1913, France possessed only four of the first-named craft in actual
commission and thus immediately available for war, these being the
Adjutant Vincenot, Adjutant Reau, Dupuy de Lome, and the Transaerien.
The first three are of 197,800 cubic feet. All, however, were privately
owned.
On the other hand, Germany had no fewer than ten huge vessels, ranging
from 353,000 to 776,900 cubic feet capacity, three of which, the
Victoria Luise, Suchard, and Hansa, though owned privately, were
immediately available for war. Of these the largest was the Zeppelin
naval vessel "L-1" 525 feet in length, by 50 feet diameter, of 776,900
cubic feet capacity, equipped with engines developing 510 horse-power,
and with a speed of 51.8 miles per hour.
At the end of 1913 the effective aerial fleet of Germany comprised
twenty large craft, so far in advance of the French aerial cruisers as
to be worthy of the name bestowed upon them--"Aerial Dreadnoughts." This
merely represented the fleet available for immediate use and did not
include the four gigantic Suchard-Schutte craft, each of 847,500 cubic
feet, which were under construction, and which were being hurried
forward to come into commission early in 1914.
But the most interesting factor, apart from the possession of such a
huge fleet of dirigible air-craft, was their distribution at strategical
points throughout the Empire as if in readiness for the coming combat.
They were literally dotted about the country. Adequate harbouring
facilities had been provided at Konigsberg, Berlin, Posen, Breslau,
Kiel, Hamburg, Wilhelmshaven, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfort, Metz,
Mannheim, Strasburg, and other places, with elaborate headquarters, of
course, at Friedrichshafen upon Lake Constance. The Zeppelin workshops,
harbouring facilities, and testing grounds at the latter point had
undergone complete remodelling, while tools of the latest type had
been provided to facilitate the rapid construction and overhaul of the
monster Zeppelin dirigibles. Nothing had been left to chance; not an
item was perfunctorily completed. The whole organisation was perfect,
both in equipment and operation. Each of the above stations possessed
provision for an aerial Dreadnought as well as one or more aerial
cruisers, in addition to scouts or vedettes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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