The wreck of the American airship Macon, one of the largest in the world, adds another negative to the Usefulness to this type of craft which costa a large amount of money but hag failed to demonstrate its military efficiency, 'The Macon cost U.S$2- 500,000 and carried a number of aeroplanes among its many novel features, Fortunately, when it fell the Pacific Ocean' its crew of 80 were rescued but the vessel itself is considered a total loss. The result fof the disaster numerically reduce the number of airships, of the typ"
a mere handful, but 1 must leave!
much larger doubt in the minds of aeronautical experts on the wisdom of maintaining such craft which, up to now with one exception, have Proved to be costly blunders. Germany's great Zeppelin fleet during the war was accounted for by Allied aeroplanes and defences, aided in many eases by weather conditions. Since the war most of these vessels have been lost in accidents, and admitting the particular German genius for their construction, complete success has not attended their development. When squadrons of aeroplanes of much greater efficiency and usefulness can be built for the price of one airship it is futile to embark fon any policy which considers such vessels an important part of any @etence system. Commercially, of course, the situation is different and Dr. Eekener, with his famous Graf Zeppelin, has demonstrated its possibilities, but while the margin of error and accident has been shown to be so vast a government encoutaging the, construction and use of these vessels is ignoring the lessons of years.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.