To Kiel in the 'Hercules'Freeman, Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome)
History
To Kiel in the 'Hercules'
Freeman, Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome)
Allied Naval Armistice Commission; Hercules (Battleship); World War, 1914-1918 -- Air-fleet bases, Naval -- Germany
the seaplane, and, under the circumstances, it has to be admitted that
she made very creditable use of the latter.
The one new type of machine at Norderney (although the existence of it
had been known to the Allies for some time) was the "giant" monoplane
seaboat, quite the most remarkable machine of the kind in the world at
the present time. Though its span of something like 120 feet is less
than that of a number of great aeroplanes already in use, its huge
breadth of wing gave it a plane area of enormous size. The boat itself
was as large--and apparently as seaworthy--as a good-sized steam launch,
and so roomy that one could almost stand erect inside of it. It quite
dwarfed anything of the kind I had ever seen before. Nor was the boat,
spacious as it was, the only closed-in space. Twenty feet or more above
the deck of it, between the wings, was a large "box" containing, among
other things, a very elaborately equipped _sound-proof_ wireless room.
The technical instruments of control and navigation--especially the very
compact "Gyro" compasses--stirred the Allied experts to an admiration
they found difficult to restrain.
One of the German officers who had accompanied us from Wilhelmshaven
told me something of the history of this greatest of monoplanes.
"This flying boat," he said, while we waited for the somewhat lengthy
inspection to be completed, "was the last great gift that Count
Zeppelin" (he spoke the name with an awe that was almost adoration)
"gave to his country before he died. He was terribly disappointed by
the failure of the Zeppelin airship as an instrument for bombing,
and the last months of his life were spent in designing something to
take its place. He realized that the size of the mark the airship
offered to the constantly improving anti-aircraft artillery, together
with the invention of the explosive bullet and the increasing speed
and climbing power of aeroplanes, put an end for ever to the use of
Zeppelins where they would be exposed to attack. He set about to design
a heavier-than-air machine that would be powerful enough to carry a
really great weight of bombs, and the 'Giant' you see here is the result.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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