Aircraft : $b its development in war and peace and its commercial futureDavid, Evan John
History
Aircraft : $b its development in war and peace and its commercial future
David, Evan John
Aeronautics; Airplanes
Cooke is now on top of the airship taking observations of the sun,
using the cloud horizon with a sextant. The sun is visible to him but
not to us, the top of the ship being eighty-five feet above us down
here in the fore-central cabin.
Our position is reckoned to be latitude 55 degrees 10 minutes north
and longitude 14 degrees 40 minutes west, which is equivalent to 400
miles from our starting-point at East Fortune and 200 miles out in the
Atlantic from the northwest coast of Ireland.
* * * * *
We are in wireless touch with East Fortune, Clifden, on the west coast
of Ireland, and Ponta Delgada, Azores, and messages wishing us good
luck are received from Air Ministry, H. M. S. _Queen Elizabeth_, and
others.
11.45 A. M.—Lunch—Excellent beef stew and potatoes, chocolate, and
cold water.
The talk, as usual, was mainly “shop,” dealing with such problems as
the distribution of air-pressure on the western side of the Atlantic,
what winds were likely to be met with, what fog we should run into, the
advantages of directional wireless for navigational purposes, cloud
horizons, and the like.
Scott, Cooke, and Harris, in comparing their experiences and expounding
their theories, were most interesting and illuminating.
12 NOON.—Watch off duty turned in for their routine four hours’ sleep
before coming on for their next period of duty—only two hours in this
case, as it is the first of the two dog-watches.
The sleeping arrangements consist of a hammock for each of the men
off watch suspended from the main ridge girder of the triangular
internal keel which runs from end to end of the ship. In this keel are
situated the eighty-one petrol-tanks, each of seventy-one gallons’
capacity; also the living quarters for officers and men, and storing
arrangements for lubricating-oil for the engines, water ballast, food,
and drinking-water for the crew. The latter is quite a considerable
item, as will be seen from the following table of weights:
Gallons Pounds Tons
Petrol 4,900 35,300 15.8
Oil ... 2,070 .9
Water ... ... 3.0
Crew and baggage ... ... 4.0
Spares ... 550 .2
Drinking-water ... 800 .42
————
Total 24.32
Life in the keel of a large, rigid airship is by no means unpleasant.
There is very little noise or vibration except when one is directly
over the power units—a total absence of wind and, except in the early
hours of dawn, greater warmth than in the surrounding atmosphere.
Getting into one’s hammock is rather an acrobatic feat, especially
if it is slung high, but this becomes easy with practice; preventing
oneself from falling out is a thing one must be careful about in a
service airship like the R-34.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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