Flying the Atlantic in Sixteen Hours: With a Discussion of Aircraft in Commerce and TransportationBrown, Arthur Whitten, Sir
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Flying the Atlantic in Sixteen Hours: With a Discussion of Aircraft in Commerce and Transportation
Brown, Arthur Whitten, Sir
Aeronautics, Commercial; Transatlantic flights
The passenger accommodation will be such that the air journey can
be made in comfort equal to that on a first-class liner of the sea.
Apart from their comparatively small disposable lift, a main objection
to vessels of the _R-34_ type for commercial purposes is that the
living quarters are in cars slung from under the middle envelope. In
this position they are necessarily rather cramped. In the proposed
craft of three million, five hundred thousand cubic feet capacity the
passengers' quarters are at the top of the vessel. There, they will be
roomy and entirely free from the vibration of the engines. They are
reached through an internal corridor across the length of the ship, or
by elevator, from the bottom of it.
The main room is a large saloon lounge fitted with tables and chairs
in the style of a Pullman car. Around it are windows, allowing
for daylight and for an outlook in every direction. Part of it is
fire-proofed, and serves as a smoking room.
Next to, and communicating with, the lounge is the dining saloon. This
leads to a serving hatch and electrical cooking apparatus. Electrical
power is provided by dynamos driven off the main engines. Current
for electric lighting and heating of the saloons, cars and sleeping
quarters is provided by the same method.
Sleeping accommodation is in four-berth and two-berth cabins on top of
the airship and forward of the living saloons. The cabins are of the
type and size fitted on ocean-going steamers. With them are the usual
bathrooms and offices. Other conveniences are an open shelter deck at
the vessel's aft end, to enable passengers to take the air, and an
observation car, fitted below the hull and also at the aft end, so that
they can observe the land or sea directly below them.
No danger from fire need be feared. The machinery installation is
carefully insulated from the gas bags, and the quarters are to be
rendered fire-proof and gas-proof. Moreover, the amount of weight
involved by the passengers' section is so small, compared with the
weight of the machinery, fuel, cargo and stores, carried in the lower
part of the craft, that the stability of the ship for rolling is
unaffected by the novel position of the living quarters.
The ship's officers will have on the hull, towards the forward end,
a control and navigation compartment, containing the main controls,
navigation instruments, charts, and a cabin for the wireless telegraphy
installation. The windows of this car give a clear view in every
direction.
Other general specifications are:
_Hull Structure._--The shape of the hull is of the most perfect
stream-line form within the limitations of constructional requirements.
An internal keel corridor, running along the bottom of the hull,
contains all petrol and oil tanks and the water ballast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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